The run up to the end of the week was quite intense, we were only able to test in the Thursday afternoon because we where waiting on parts from Porsche after the incident the weekend prior. Because of all the new adjustments Thursday afternoon was spent shaking down the car and ensuring that it was running OK. Friday test was only originally meant for road cars, but my partner for the weekend, Ian Flux, had managed to squeeze us in on a few conditions, one that we didn't harass the other track users; two that we only overtook on the left and three that we didn't use full throttle down the pit straight because of the noise restrictions in place. It allowed us to get a setup that we felt would allow a consistent pace throughout the race, but we weren't really able to put in any qualifying laps because of the traffic and restrictions.
The GTO's had the first ten minutes of the morning qualifying session so Ian was first out to put a quick lap in, but after 8 or 9 minutes a car had dropped oil over most of the circuit. This meant that my drive for the rest of the session was spent not being able to push as hard as a really would have liked. None the less, we were qualified 5th in class with only 0.5 of a second separating the top six cars. For the afternoon session the GT's had the first ten minutes and it soon became clear that the track was around 0.5 to 0.75 of a second slower, subsequently none of the GTO's went any quicker in the last 20 minutes and we remained 5th in class
Once again we had wonderful weather, but looking back it probably would have been better if it had poured down with rain. Our setup suffered in the heat and although there was plenty of action in the first lap and I emerged 3rd in class at the end of the first lap after lap 3 the car became almost impossible to drive. It suffered from tremendous understeer and to make matters worse the brake in-balance had reappeared and caused me to spin twice in two laps. I pitted after 10 minutes because I was convinced that I had a puncture or at least a defect on the rear, but it all checked out OK - so back out I went. Before I pitted I had wound more brakes onto the front to take the strain off the rear which helped a little but because of the spin and the unscheduled stop we were a lap down and in ninth when Ian took over. It was only by staying out there and flogging the car around lap after lap that the reliability of the Porsche started to pay of, other cars in our class began to struggle and have their own incidents. At the end of the race Ian had clawed the car back up to 5th, but by the look on his face when he got out of the car it had not been an easy one to drive and I'm sure it was an experience he did not wish to repeat.
The Tuesday after the race the team where back at Donington with a revised damper setting, spring ratings and a they left with much better setup than they had on the Sunday.
CYA at Silverstone!