COVER STORY
“ They all get fully involved,” he says.“ I do the scheduling and work out logistics in advance and we organise someone to cater for us, so we do not have to worry about food. We always take a tyre machine, because we get through quite a lot of tyres. You do not need that big a group of people, but the more hands you have, the better.”
Bucket list adventure
This year’ s race involved 171 drivers with 11 three-driver teams, 20 four-driver teams, eight five-driver teams and three six-driver teams. It was won by the Alpha-Trojon team of Chris Freeman, Charlie Bingham, John Munday and Adam Willis, who also won this year’ s Championship opener and the 2023 24- Hour race with Austin Munday as an extra driver.
The race was won from pole, but it was far from an easy run for the winners – or for anyone.“ There was lots going on this year,” recounts Drinkwater.“ The winners actually had a cracked rear beam during their second or third stint and had to come in and get it welded. They lost two or three laps, but they got back out there and won the race.
“ Some years, none of the leaders have a single problem – you just never know – but there is also more time to come back with the longer races. Our radiator cap come loose on the first lap this time and it spat water everywhere in the engine, which made it very slippery! I came in and filled up with water, but we were two laps down from the first lap of the race!
“ Luckily, everybody had problems, but then one of our drivers got the wrong gear at one point and we had to do an engine change. That took us about an hour and 15 minutes, but we still carried on and ended up finishing 24th. You need the luck – and this time, missed out.”
The winners ended up completing 447 laps and finishing four laps ahead of the rest, but fastest lap actually went to team # blessed, who finished in 36th place. Baycon Racing with Liqui Moly and Project Sixty Three completed the podium, both on 443 laps, while Welsh joined the Silverlake Racing Team and ended up just off the podium in fourth place.
“ I can thoroughly recommend entering a 24-Hour event. Our guest drivers fitted into our team very well and they were lapping within one second of each other during the race. Most importantly, everyone had fun. The drivers and pit crew enjoyed it immensely and we are keen to come back again next year!”
Completing a race like this is all about consistency. There is no slacking – because even if you end up a few laps behind, other people might have a problem and safety cars can also change the course of a race. Everyone wants to win or do as well as they can, but ultimately most people just want to enjoy the racing and reach the chequered flag.
“ Just finishing a 24-hour race when you do it for the first time is a big achievement,” says Drinkwater.“ After that, the next thing is about learning from the event – did you stop at the right time? Did you miss out on a safety car? Did you go too long on a tyre and get a puncture …? There are lots of things to think about.”
For many racers, aspiring to do one of these 24-Hour races in the UK is like runners who want to take part in the London Marathon. Some teams also race for charity and Bull says:“ Ultimately, the 24-Hours is 2CV’ s jewel in the crown and we work very, hard to keep it running.”
The same is true for the C1 series and Welsh concludes:“ It is here for the long-haul. A lot of people do it with groups of friends, and that is why we did it originally. All of my friends were racing in different series, and we were all pretty good in our own right, so we thought we can go and do this as a team and actually do well.
“ We have a car show on Saturday and this year we had a lot car Clubs join on Sunday. We are doing our best to make it a big event. It’ s not anything like Le Mans – but it is an amazing experience, a lot of fun and a great event to tick off your bucket list.”
Langley’ s team, meanwhile, exceeded expectations by taking an impressive 12th place finish. That comfortably bettered their best Championship round finish of 24th, despite being t-boned during the race, picking up a three-minute stop-go penalty and running out of fuel at one stage of the race and having to limp back to the pits.
“ We just wanted to get as far as we could, looking after the car,” he says.“ We never saw ourselves in the top 10, but with a lot of organisation, and an excellent pit crew, we came very close. Luckily the damage from the incident was not bad enough to force us to stop and without the penalty and refuelling issue, we would have finished eighth!
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The C1 races are well supported with large grids
Revolution- June 2025