A team of turbodiesel Volkswagen Golf-driving privateers is celebrating an impressive 15th place finish in the UK’s major endurance race, the Britcar Silverstone 24 Hours.
The Golf TDI crossed the line yesterday third in its class - and the only diesel-powered finisher - just 62 laps behind the winning BMW sports racer.
Lead driver Ken Lark, from Peters Green in Hertfordshire, is delighted by the team’s performance: ‘It was an excellent race, very hard work but really enjoyable. I think it has to go down as the best racing weekend of my life.
We had only one real drama, when the battery exploded at 3am out on the circuit. That lost us around six laps and without it we might have made the top 10.
Nonetheless the amateur squad - comprising Lark, John Quartermaine and his son Adam, Michael Neuhoff and Nick Starkey - claimed some notable scalps, including all three Mazda RX8s entered by the British importer.
The Golf TDI was able to stay out on track for the maximum permitted three hours at a time before pitting for a driver change, while its much more powerful rivals had to stop every hour to take on petrol. ‘It was great to pass all the big sports cars while they were stationary in the pits,’ added Lark. ‘We stopped a total of only seven times… I think the winner made 20-plus pit visits.’
The TH Motorsport-prepared Golf was powered by a standard 1.9 TDI engine from a written-off road car. Lark and his comrades are now planning an assault on the 2007 Nürburgring 24 Hours.
Also in action at Silverstone was a Beetle RSi piloted by Dave Turner, Terry Flatt Nick Beaumont, Alex Frick and Mike Gorton, which was classified 28th despite losing around three hours in the pits with a broken driveshaft. Fifty-two cars started the race and there were 35 classified finishers.
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