[BAracer]

One of the perks of the event is that Joao Olifer brings over any orders you give him, saving a substantial amount of postage.

Here's my Le Mans treat to myself...the solid foundation for my £5 Classic Le Mans (Prototype?) body. 

   

[BAracer]

With daybreak comes the feeling of 'are we there yet?' Just 6hrs to go...and then you realise that that's still a quarter of the event.

But some of us have had their naps, driver rotas have been tweaked to deal with missed slots. 

We are not even touching the car at driver changeovers now...if it ain't broken, don't touch it!

During the night, at a driver chsngeover, I took the car over to the official Workbench to clean the tyres under the spotlamp, only to give Gary a clear view of our missing rear wing! Lesson learnt!

[BAracer]

Soooo tired. Seems like everyone has come back to the Premier Inn for drinks and nibbles.

And having spent the last hour of the race standing next to AdeC, can I say he is the most polite slot car racer you would wish to be standing next to when their car isn't quite on song...

[BAracer]

And now back home after a 5hr drive thinking about the event and any lessons learnt. 

Bad
Our gear ratio. Maybe I didn't think it over enough, or maybe I was worried about introducing risk into the build, but I learnt from a previous winner a couple of days before the event that their winning gear ratio was 14/24. I had gone with 12/25 for starters, and with the components in the box, could have gone with to 13/23 but wasn't brave enough. But it's clear now, that is the region you have to be in to make the most of the straights around the circuit. 

Nothing else bad as far as I can think.

Good
The car was reliable. Glad my re-assembly of the club's LMP2 Audi did not introduce any gremlins (mainly because Mike checked it over on Friday and added the bits I hadn't fitted!). That meant everyone in the Ecurie Worthing team got to drive for six 1hr stints, and didn't have to hang around doing nothing for any length of time whilst it was being repaired on the workbench.

From what I could tell, first timers Oliver, Jerome and Pete all enjoyed the experience. Obviously a 24hr race is a baptism of fire, but they seemed to come through it with smiles on their faces. 

The after race meal and social. Usually after a race meeting, everyone goes off and there is never a chance to chat things through with anyone. For those of us who stayed an extra night rather than driving back on Sunday afternoon, we spend a very pleasant few hours recalling moments from the previous 33hrs since we last woke up on Saturday morning. Fun things, annoying things, little things, magic monents. The time just flew by until my energy levels needed re-charging and the dialogue box popped into my head that said "Finish that drink and go to your room straight away, you only have 5 minutes left of activity in you before shutdown".

[BAracer]

Some final images of the club LMP2 Audi, which cannot run again as it will be outside the time limit for cars that can enter. Beautifully built by Mike to be as simple as possible in order to reduce the number of things that can got wrong, And nothing has gone wrong in the 3 x 24hrs that it has competed. You could also add in the 3 x 8.5hrs of practice and qualifying, which then comes to an impressive 97.5hrs faultless  running.

Where it finished when the track power was turned off at 3pm on Sunday...
   

The top end of the Mulsanne Straight. Perfect, there could be nowhere better! 
   

Proof that you don't need a brain to be a slot racing driver! 
   

The Car!