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The Spirit Racing team came
close to pulling of a perfect finish in the latest round of the VdeV European
Endurance Championship at the French circuit of Ledenon at the
weekend.
The Spirit Motor Group backed
squad dominated the three hour race, with brothers Jamie and Adam Derbyshire
leading the event for more than 90% of the race distance, before a fuel leak and
a very late ‘splash and dash’ pit-stop dropped them to fourth place. However,
the team still had cause for celebration, as it meant the sister car of Rob
Garofall and Simon Phillips was able to take the win from second
place.
Despite being unable to claim
pole position for the first time this season, the team was happy with the set-up
and drivability of the cars after qualifying fifth and seventh, on what was a
very busy circuit.
At the start of the race,
Jamie Derbyshire picked off the cars ahead of him and by the end of lap five was
into second place and challenging for the lead. Behind him, an unwell Phillips
struggling to make it through the traffic, but handed an unmarked car over to
Garofall just before the first hour mark.
After a handful of safety car
periods, Jamie handed over to Adam Derbyshire, who blasted back out of the
pit-lane with their lead still intact, a massive 32 second gap back to the now
second placed Garofall.
However, after the Derbyshire
Norma had taken its fuel stop, team engineer, Alan Mugglestone, noted that there
as an issue with the amount of fuel taken on board, which turned out to be a
small fuel leak. The loss of much needed petrol meant that with just ten minutes
of the race left to run and with a lead of 28 second, Adam had to dive for the
pits.
The Derbyshire pair were
obviously disappointed not to have taken what seemed to be a certain and
commanding victory, but were happy with the progress in the pace of the 2007
Norma after hard work between events.
“Obviously, it would have been
great to have won,” said Adam. “But, from a team point of view it’s been a
fantastic weekend. We’ve had the pace to run at the front and had no mechanical
issues from start to finish. We’ve traced the fuel loss to a faulty vent pipe,
which we can fix easily. It certainly puts us in the right place for the biggest
race of the series, the 12 hour race at Magny Cours later this month,” he
added.
Garofall was pleased to take
maximum points for the win, but was keen to point out that he would have been
just as happy for the team to have scored its first one-two
result.
“We should have finished
behind Adam and Jamie really,” he said. “The team was good all weekend though.
It was a great way to come back after the Spa event and be so dominant. I was
disappointed not to be able to challenge for pole, but the car was better in
race trim around here. We had a great strategy and it all worked out for us.
Just a shame it couldn’t have been both cars up on the podium,” he
added.
The team now has a three week
break, before the once around the clock challenge of the 12-hour race, at Magny
Cours.
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