The Britcar 24Hr race held at Silverstone lived up to its gruelling and exciting reputation with Essex racing driver, Ryan Hooker taking part as part of the Moore International Team.
For the event Ryan joined Peter Seldon and Paul White in a three man team to take on the 24Hr challenge in a Class 2 BMW M3 E36gtr.
This was Ryan's first time in the BMW which he found very stable and well prepared so hopes were high for the event which remained, unusually, rain free!
Ryan started the race and made a good, clear getaway which was just as well as he had the Sky Sports on board camera looking over his shoulder! In his first two and an hour stint he made up several places from their 21st qualifying position (in a field of 59 entrants). By the end of his first shift Ryan had raised the car to 3rd place in a strong opening section.
As Ryan took a well earned nap before the night-time onslaught a niggling problem to the cars diff reared its head which would sadly overshadow the race. A number of diff changes followed throughout the remainder of the night with Ryan putting in a further two and a half stint in the dark hours from 11.30pm.
Ryan's third and final stint started at 7.45am and again was a positive two and half hours in which Ryan sat the fastest race lap for the car. However the shadow of the diff problem continued to loom and the team retired with five hours left on the clock.
"It was disappointing for the team not to make the finish" said Ryan afterwards, "especially after all their hard work and the team is extremely well manned and organized but these things happen. The problem with the diff is an unusual and has never struck the team before so it will be interesting to here the post mortem on the car and whether this was simply the bad luck of a faulty part.
"However, I had three very strong stints in the event adding up to almost 8 hours of racing and the car was very stable and lovely to drive. It was another great experience for me and hopefully I'll repeat it in the future but with a finish the team very much deserve."
Ryan started the race and made a good, clear getaway which was just as well as he had the Sky Sports on board camera looking over his shoulder! In his first two and an hour stint he made up several places from their 21st qualifying position (in a field of 59 entrants). By the end of his first shift Ryan had raised the car to 3rd place in a strong opening section.