Silverstone 24 Hours – 2018

Red Camel – Jordans.NL claim their first Silverstone 24 hours overall win at the same circuit they last tasted success with the Seat.

The TCE 24 hour event which took the green flag at the same time the #303 Red-Camel Seat Leon is leading the way with nearly 3 hours complete and has a 50 second gap over 2nd place #175 NKPP Cupra TCR and 3rd place is held last years winners, Team Bleekemolen’s #100 Seat Leon. 5 hours into the race and #303 loses control twice in 3 laps in the maggots becketts complex but the second time beaching the car in an absolute mud bath, this mistake by Ivo Breukers cost him the lead and put him further down the order back into 4th position overall.

Exceler8 Mini completed a 5 hour engine change and the car returns to the circuit, small problems bring them back in not much later to be towed from the sodden grass by the side of the wellington straight. Whilst the Hyundai racing TCR car has worse luck and destroys a driveshaft and with no spares to replace the part, unfortunately the race loses a strong contender.
#100 leads the way into the night time with a 2 lap lead still over the #303 Red-Camel Seat but with Ivo and Rik Breukers chipping away the lead is dwindling down for the squad.
The other nearest contender for the race as the clock approaches the mid point of the race is the #129 LMS racing Seat TCR which is only 3 laps off the lead and as we’ve seen with this race before a few laps back is not a big gap, 2 years ago we saw the Rollcentre car come from the back of the grid and 3 laps down, chipping away and adding pressure pushed the #100 car to blow a turbo in the morning hours so 3 laps for the LMS Racing car is a perfect little gap heading into the 2nd half of the race.

11 hours to go and the Synchro Motorsport car crawls into the pits billowing smoke and smelling like a very hot engine, the fears they expressed of overheating earlier in the race have come true and the car disappears into its garage for a full engine change, this is a team that knows this car back to front and did this same change in the night during last years race, a tough old night for those boys. The lead continued to alternate between the #303 Red-Camel Seat and Last years winners the #100 Bleekemolen Seat but every time the gap was shortening at pitstops and the lead was more in favour of the #303 as the gap surpassed swapping and became a true lead for the #303 Red-Camel squad.
With 8 hours and 15 minutes remaining the ever so dangerous fog that had been creeping in had well and truly arrived and a code 60 was called shortly before track action was halted once again at a Silverstone 24 hour race, cars instructed to park up on the start finish line and covered up in parc ferme conditions with no work allowed on the vehicles. The long wait began for the conditions to clear possibly til the sun began to rise.
With Action Halted its 332 laps completed and the #303 Red Camel Seat leading by 2 laps from the #100 Team Bleekemolen car and the #129 LMS Racing Seat in 3rd position another 2 laps back completing 328 laps.

Cars were waved off again just minutes before 7am Sunday morning leaving 3.5 hours remaining for Team Bleekemolen to pull back the 2 laps they sit behind the #303 Red Camel Seat Leon. Under heavy fog the cars got moving once again, building tire pressures in these bitterly cold morning conditions, true green flag racing wasn’t started until nearly 8am meaning nearly an hour of code 60 running in the morning.

This Far into the race the cars are really spread with less than 30 minutes into the race, holding station the cars are jut being brought home to the chequered flag to achieve the finish of the 24 hours. Safely bringing them home is the target and finally the #303 claimed the 24 hours of Silverstone after being a contender for the previous 2 years missing out due to problems but this year was there year. It’s also a father son win for the Breukers family, Father Ivo taking a great win with his ever improving son continuing his string of performances after winning the Daytona 24 hours in his class he now has another 24 hour win under his belt.
Coming home in second place was the #100 Team Bleekemolen Seat Leon, they blew a turbo in 2016, won last years race but this years they were just out paced by the #303 but another podium for the small team from the Netherlands. Third position was the #129 LMS Racing by Bas Koeton, last years 12 hours of spa winners fought hard but couldn’t keep the pace of the top two but good to bring home another podium in a true 24 hour race.

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