2nd Quarter of the Barcelona 24 of 2013
Deep into the 8th hour Richard Abra raised the early leader, the No. 1 Aston Martin, back through the field to sit on the timing screens with the top bunch overall. He is now up with quickest bunch, 13 laps behind the overall leading Porsche and further climbing will be difficult now that he’s among the fast ones. Frederic Amstutz climbed aboard the leading Porsche for his first stint in the car.
As darkness descended, and the rain stopped apparently for good, the first official retirement has been recorded. The engine on the No. 8 Porsche expired, spreading oil onto the exhaust and nearly catching fire. Things went a little further with Jesus Diez Villaroeal. He nearly met Jesus when the engine did catch fire and the No. 15 Porsche was no longer in love with speed—they also retired, although it did not immediately show on the timing screen. The Küpper BMW had also given up, the search for more fuel pressure being futile. Definitely not giving up is the enthusiastic group at Cor Euser Racing. They installed a new motor in the No. 62 BMW and expected to be back out soon.
The VDS Racing Honda was going well after losing time because of an adventure when it was damaged by gravel from a car spinning in front of Joel Vanloocke. The No. 26 Ginetta (rear) of Tiziano Frazza and the No. 40 Seat of Jurgen Smet had a love touch at Turn 10 and the two cars were being frantically repaired while the drivers were glowering at each other through the mesh strung aross their adjacent pits. It was a particularly unfortunate situation as both had been very high in the overall standings until then.
The no. 29 Tischner BMW suffered a collapse of the left front suspension and spent considerable time in the pits. The No. 17 GC was pushed into the pit lane with a dead engine—electrics are suspected. The No. 21 Bonk BMW spent time in the box with long, but scheduled service. The No. 38 Astra Seat lost about 40 minutes diagnosing and repairing an electrical problem. This is an interesting international team. The all-Mexican driver lineup is all very active in that country’s endurance series. They have leased a similar Seat from the Spanish based and Italian owned Astra team, which runs a business out of the UK.
At just past 22:00 came the 10th Code 60 of the race. This one is proving a bit longer than the others. So far only about 65 minutes of the race has been neutralized, the rescue and cleanup crews proving to be very efficient. Little has changed at the front of the field with the Stadler Porsche (Siedler driving) pulled 8 laps clear of the No. 2 CC Mercedes (Schmidt driving).
The No. 12 Clickvers/Destree Porsche (Norbert Pauels driving), which had troubles at the start, was doing swimmingly well into the night hours. It was the only healthy SP2 car left and stood 4th overall. The 997 contest heated up with the Lafargue family driven Ruffier entry in 5th overall and a mere lap ahead of the similarly recovering De Lorenzi Porsche (Gerald Tan driving).
Despite is semi-long stop, the No. 21 Bonk BMW (Peter Bonk aboard) continued to head SP3, but the class is very competitive with the No. 27 Aston Martin (Erik Behrens) and Luca Magnoni in the No. 25 Ginetta chasing hard.
The A2 class leading Mini (No. 46 Besaplast—Thomas Tekaat driving) was the next highest placed Touring car after Bonk and 9th overall with the A5 class leading Intersport Racing BMW (Kevin Clarke) several spots further back. The MDM BMW continued to lead D2 (Mark Bus driving) but they dropped down a bit and came under a distant threat from the other car in the class, the No. 56 BMW 135d with Nick Barrow driving.
The No. 1 Aston Martin, that early darling, spent the better part of another lost hour in the pits. This time they were patching a hole in the radiator. Mark Poole took the car back out—it was his first stint in the car.
Just before 23:00 there was a change in second position overall. The No. 2 CC Mercedes made a routing stop and it was enough for the Hofor entry (No. 4) to take the spot. Clearly, the race of the race was fast becoming the battle for second overall. The two gullwings had been on the same lap for sometime. The spots reversed again on the next call for Roland Eggimann in No. 4, but this close running is definitely attracting attention.
After a quick 10 hour repair, the Cor Euser BMW has risen from the automotive beyond. This means that as the race reached halfway, there were but three retirements—amazing.
Janos Wimpffen
