360 Motor Racing Club Donington Six Hour Race Report

The 360. Now one of the best endurance events in the UK. It all started as a conversation on the Ten Tenths Motorsport Forum in June of 2009…

Since then 360MRC has flourished, with coverage from Radio Le Mans and good, eclectic grids… I mean, how often do you see a Daihatsu Charade sharing the race circuit with an Aston Martin V8 Vantage? This year the venue for the Six Hour was the Donington Park National Circuit, which is undoubtedly one of the finer tracks in the country. Notable entries included a pair of entries from Britcar stalwarts Intersport Racing. Kevin Clarke would be doing double duty, racing both the Mini Cooper and the BMW M3 GTR. The team certainly looked like potential frontrunners in the build-up to the race, but they would not have it all their own way. There were also entries from Tracktorque(Seat Leon Supercopa) and Rikki Cann (Aston Martin V8 Vantage) to look out for.

For the first time in 360 history, a relay entry was included. Team MEV would be a collection of four Mazda MX5 based MX150R sportscars.

The most talked about entry was undoubtedly the one from Radio Le Mans. The team of John Hindhaugh, Paul Dunk and David Smith would be joined by Sportscar ace Andy Meyrick in a Porsche 924 lent to them by Mike Bell. The entry was definitely a very intriguing one, particularly because it was all in aid of The Stroke Association. The car would also be running with the number 67 on it’s doors in honour of Christian Devereux, who raced with that number. Christian lost his life during the Donington Historic Festival in May and will be sorely missed by many from 360. RIP Christian.

Before any racing occurred the qualification sessions took place. And very early on it was clear that the Intersport BMW would be a frontrunner. For the majority of the session, the BMW was over five seconds faster than the chasing pack. But, in the second qualifying session, the Tracktorque Seat posted a laptime of 1:19.5, which reduced the gap to 2.4 seconds. The Rikki Cann Aston Martin also looked to have strong pace leading into the race. During qualifying there was an incident between a BMW and the #174 Mitsubishi Starion. This was the end of the weekend for the impressive looking Japanese car.

Race:

As the race began it was the Intersport BMW in the lead, and the #199 Aston Martin took second from the Tracktorque Seat during the run to the first corner. It wasn’t long before the superior aerodynamics of the Seat led to an overtake, but the BMW already had a ten second lead that was growing each lap. Further down the field there were many exciting battles, but these were soon interrupted by a sudden downpour. Many cars came in for tyres, while the BMW was now beginning to lose time to the #37 Seat. The other Intersport car, the Mini Cooper, was up to third during this chaotic part of the race, and was soon elevated to second after the #37 had an off-track excursion at Old Hairpin and pitted afterwards. The Intersport Mini then suffered an almost identical accident, but managed to get away and continue.

The Safety Car was deployed just as the rain stopped falling. In all the chaos, the Porsche 924 of the Radio Le Mans crew had made it up to seventh overall… Could they pull off an act of giant killing in these mixed conditions? We were about to find out, as the green flag waved once more. The #16 Mazda MX5 (Shimmy Racing) was up to third overall behind the two Intersport entries as we got going once more, but soon the order was back to how it was before the rain came.

Unfortunately, the #37 was about to have the first of many issues during the race. The car came along the front straight making odd noises, and stopped just after Redgate. The car got going again, but stopped once more at Old Hairpin, and eventually stopped once more between McLeans and Coppice.

Once again, the Safety Car was out, this time to allow the safe collection of the Seat. By the time the car was returned to the pits, it had slipped to thirteenth in the overall standings. Unfortunately this would be the first of many unscheduled visits to the pit-lane for this team.

The #27 Mazda MX5 of Clive Bailey and Paul Black came into the pits from fifth for an ordinary pitstop, but soon things got out of hand. Whilst refulling the car caught fire, resulting in plumes of smoke filling the air around the pitlane. Luckily, none of the drivers or team personnel were harmed during this incident and the car was fine as well. Therefore, they continued on in the race without losing much time.

The green flag waved and during the accidents, fires and changing weather, the Radio Le Mans Porsche had moved up to second position overall! After a pitstop the bright orange ‘Tango’ machine had slipped down the order a little, and it was now an Intersport Racing 1-2 with the #91 Mini Cooper moving up to second spot. Meanwhile in the Tracktorque Seat camp, the team had made a couple of attempts at re-joining the race, but on both occasions they didn’t make it out of the pits.

The Team MEV were now fourth overall as the race approached half-distance, and the Radio Le Mans entry were also still doing well. Paul Dunk had just finished his stint, and it was now the turn of John Hindhaugh. Unfortunately, his stint was short-lived as the car returned to the pit-lane within five laps. This would effectively be the end of the day for the Porsche squad. The Intersport Mini appeared to be losing over three seconds a lap to the #7 BMW, and it was not long before the Intersport 1-2 formation looked to be under threat. The Track Driver Magazine entry had soon vclosed up on the Mini, and took second position. The #37 Seat was now out on track, but by this time they had lost 55 laps to the Intersport BMW.

Things appeared to be settling down at Donington, with a large lead for the BMW M3 GTR. But mother nature intervened with more rain, and the race officials intervened with another Safety Car period. Both the shower and the caution period were brief fortunately. The #74 Mitsubishi Starion had been in the pits for a very long time but after repairs from the team they got going once more. The car was not running perfectly though… The noise from the engine was certainly not the one it was supposed to make. But, to the credit of the team, they soldiered on. Shimmy Racing were also having issues with the #27 Mazda MX5; for every three laps they completed there were another three minutes of open bonnet time in the pits, but they also carried on determined to finish.

Apparently the #67 car would remain in the garage until the last minutes of the race, as the team wanted the car to reach the flag at the end no matter what. The Rikki Cann Aston Martin was still going strong in sixth overall with under a quarter of the race remaining.

The drama was not over though. With only 30 minutes left, the #7 BMW slowed and ground to a halt. There was a brief Safety Car period with a just a few minutes remaining but it didn’t last very long. Both the Track Driver BMW and the Radio Le Mans Porsche had returned to action and would see the chequered flag.

With under ten minutes to go the #9 BMW of Intersport gave one last display of pace, with the events fastest lap of 1:17.846. The Little Giant Daihatsu Charade had certainly been a giant killer. Consistent driving from Yaser Almaghrbi, Andy McLennan and Ian LcLaughlin meant a fifth place finish for the team. So at the end of the race it was indeed an Intersport 1-2, with the BMW taking a dominant victory fourteen laps ahead of the Mini. The Team MEV relay squad came third with their quartet of MX150R sportscars. After the problems towards the end, the Track Driver BMW came home sixth.

So after another successful 360 Six Hour there were some tired cars and drivers, but everyone was in high spirits, and not just because they were going to be on Mobil 1 The Grid! The trophies were handed out and everyone left Donington Park. Now, time to prepare for next years race, which should be equal or better than this years edition thanks to the work of 360MRC, the teams and of course the marshals. This years race was another showing of endurance racing as it should be!

For the full race results click: 360 Motor Racing Club Race Results if you fancy a go in 2014 then click: 360 MotorRacing Club 6 Hour 2014

Many thanks to 360 Motor Racing Club and Adam Weller for the race report.

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