ENDURANCE RACING
Strength in numbers
They say behind every good driver is a great team, and that is certainly true in 24-Hour racing. Every entrant has a cluster of bodies in their garage logging lap times, preparing equipment and ready to pounce with fuel and tyres every time the car comes into the pits. And with a minimum of eight stints through the race, there is plenty for them to do.
“ The race is as much about the team as it is the drivers,” says Welsh.“ If the pit team messes up a pit stop, you can easily lose a minute and if you think how much you must try to gain one minute on the circuit, or even just a second a lap, that is absolutely crucial, so they really must be on their game.
“ In a 24-hour race, on average every two-and-a-half hours you will come in for fuel and front tyres and swap out the driver, and you also usually change the rear tyres once during the race. The people in the garage must be ready at all times, so they are normally the ones who get most tired because the drivers generally get their sleep when they rotate.”
The level of the support teams can vary. The more competitive entrants, some of which have sponsors, will turn up in large transporters with tyre changing gear and a truck-load of spares, while teams like Langley’ s arrive with everything in their car and get their tyres and other equipment delivered directly to the event.
“ There is lots of organisation because you have to take so much kit, spares and tools to cope with every eventuality,” says Langley.“ I started planning in January and spoke to my friend John Moon, who had done many 24-Hour C1 events, and we put together a long list. I spent a couple of hours a week on it at first, then later on it was a couple of hours most days.”
“ In the shorter races, we normally do everything ourselves but for this event we felt a race mechanic would be essential and we struck lucky with Martyn Jefferies. He was absolutely brilliant, not just on the tools but also sitting on the pit wall for pretty much the full length of the race!
“ We also needed a large support crew, and I managed to find plenty of people, many of whom we had never met before the event. Will Harvey did most of the two-hourly refuelling and, like me, did not sleep at all. We went from a team of four to a group of 16, and John was especially helpful in coaching our drivers and training our new support crew.
“ We had rotas for everything, so that everyone knew what they needed to do. Some people stayed for the whole event and others with less time gave what they could. My youngest son Tom drove through the night to arrive at dawn to change camera data cards, help with the pit wall signalling and many other jobs.
“ The roles changed through the race as different drivers went in the car, and some tried to get a little sleep, so there were different people for every stint. Starting from 36th on the grid, we needed clean competitive driving and efficient pit stops to maximise our chances of success, which for us meant targeting a finish somewhere in the teens.”
In Drinkwater’ s crew, there is a mix of friends and family, most of whom have been involved since the start – including his younger sister as his car’ s team manager, and his brotherin-law on his front-left tyre. Each car has a team manager, car controller, tyre changers for front-left and front-right, a refueler, fire extinguisher, seatbelt and even a designated SD card changer.
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The drama of night stops and driver changes are when the teams come alive
Revolution- June 2025
17
James Roberts