Birkett 6 hour relay

[Keith Scarfe]

Hi All.

Who's heard of the 'Birkett 6 hour relay' then? I am doing it this year with a team of 3 other Westfield Drivers. Anyone else doing it or going? I've never done anything like this before - endurance racing. I have read the rules and have got the gist of what to do. There is a team (4 in our case but can be up to 6) and as one car comes into the pits (stints will be determined by fuel tank size) another leaves straight away so there are no pit stops as such, hence relay. We hope to do about 300 laps in 6 hours. There is a race per class and also a handicap race based on average (pre quoted) lap times. I was just wondering if there is anyone out there who maybe has done this before or knows about it who can give any friendly advice/comments.

One we have learnt is to have someone ready on a push/motor bike so that if a car breaks down they can get to it and get the transponder back in time.

What else?

The race is this Saturday 26th October at Silverstone (national cct). Anyone want to come along? It should be a laugh. Non championship race and we are doing it for charity if any one wants to help in that way. It is in aid of Macmillan cancer relief. So a good cause.

Cheers.

Keith Scarfe.

[Al Yupright]

Hi Keith,

Theres a bunch of 4 or so of us doing a trackday at Rockingham on friday. We're staying in the silverstone travel-lodge on friday night and will be coming to Silverstone to spectate the Birkett.

So, will say hello if you dont look too busy.

Cheers,

Al

[windy]

Keith,

There is a team of c******ms too so it will be interesting to see if you can beat some K series cars. Lets hope its a good scrap.

Points to note from an observer who's been before:

1) Make sure you have someone ready to go out when one of your other team members is out on track. I.e. Strapped in car with helmet on and lap transducer attached to car.

2) Have a chase person ready on a push bike to collect transducer in case of broken down car.

3) Make sure the driver of each car has a mobile phone to contact the chaser.

4) Make sure someone is keeping a close eye on the car that is out and is ready to beckon the next when they come in or are stuck out on the track.

All the above may make up some valuable time in the race.

Good luck

Windy

[windy]

Keith,

How did you get on?

Graham

[Keith Scarfe]

Oh yes forgot to post the result. Thanks Graham. For those interested. Here is how we got on:

We didn't win, in fact we didn't come very high up in the results at all which was a little disappointing (I am getting far to used to winning), but since it was our first attempt at this event I suppose it wasn't too bad.

We started off in 11th place over all (out of 41) with a handicap of 28 laps credited to us. After the 6 hours, we finished in 13th place overall, 5th in class and 25th in the handicap class. We completed 281 laps which was 31 down on the leader.

Overall it was a very enjoyable day. Everyone had a great time. The racing was very friendly. We only had one problem in the 6 hours which was a mechanical breakdown (fuel pump died) on my car. This didn't cost us much time (possibly 1 lap) because it went as I was going past the pits so the team could immediately see the problem and they sent out another car straight away.

We think one of the reasons we didn't do too well was because our cars are designed for sprint races (10 lappers) we have small fuel tanks and had to make too many stops compared to the other teams. Some of the other team members had been doing this event for 20 odd years so knew all of the tricks. Some fit long range fuel tanks and only stop the minimum number of times (4). We could only do 20 minute stints so had something like 12 changes. Each change was thought to loose 30 seconds or 1/2 a lap. An extra 4 or 5 laps would have put us in about 10th place in the handicap class.

We raised just over £1000 for the ' Macmillan cancer relief' charity which was very good. Exact value isn't known yet.