12.10.10
The MJC Limited Ferrari 430GTC crewed by Witt Gamski and Phil Dryburgh/Keith Robinson/John Gaw won last weekend's 24 Hr. Britcar GT race at Silverstone. It was the only Ferrari in the race; what a triumph for Witt, the other drivers, the team, Michelotto and Ferrari! Here is the story of the event in Witt's own words.
3 Litres of oil and a windscreen wiper blade!
That was all we added and changed on the car throughout the gruelling 2010 Britcar 24hr race at Silverstone.
I will attempt to put into words all the emotions, hard work and everything it took to get to the event and ultimately win the race.
I received a telephone call from Keith on the morning of Tuesday 21st September advising me that I will receive another telephone call from John Gaw. An hour or so later John calls, asking me if we want to enter the Britcar 24hr race which was to take place in ten days time! Well, at first my reply was no, not enough time to prepare among other things. By the end of that same day, we decided to go for it.
Panic stations, Neil Cooke threatened to leave the country, Darren Handley just went silent, Peter Livesey just smiled and shouted 'YES' .
Cristiano Michelotto told us we are absolutely crazy, although he said 'I love crazy' and gave us all the possible advice he could to get us to the race, Cristiano also sent us a small package containing minor parts he felt were necessary for reliability, these being front light brackets, accelerator cable, oil filters. Also, his strict advice to our crew was 'stop talking and get to work on the car!'
They did just that and the car was ready for the Thursday 30th September testing. And, very importantly, we had to postpone Agis (my wife) Mum's birthday party after all the arrangements were made. Luckily, they are both great fans and I didn't get into trouble!
On Thursday morning, John Gaw, Phil Dryburgh, Keith Robinson, Sam, crew and friends were at Silverstone, all of us not having a clue what we had just started. We have never competed in a 24hr race before and not being very sure what was to come. Probably a good thing.
John and Phil had never driven the 430GT2 before, but by the end of the day, they were very comfortable behind the wheel and showing very good times, to be honest far better than any of us expected with such a short time behind the wheel, in not very nice track conditions. Fantastic!
The Friday daytime qualifying session went well, again in damp conditions, the night session was also what we expected. We landed the car 7th for the start.
Saturday warm up, the track was dry and very enjoyable, 3rd quickest. OK, ready to go.
Race started, I was the usual starter. From this moment, all the nerves, anxiety, panic and everything else were forgotten. The race was the only thing on my mind. Got the car up to 5th position by the first pit stop, Phil got in the car and on his way, regained the position following the pit stop, brought the car back in great shape (by the way, Phil has eyes like a cat) ready for Keith, an amazing stint by Phil on slicks in the wet.
Keith did his stint as the weather deteriorated, keeping fantastic pace. Again, brought the car back for John, same again with a fantastic performance. I must mention that Keith was behind the safety car for more than 2 hours, this must have been so demoralising, just imagine, cold, dark, raining, foggy, tired, adrenaline not there to help out.
I think we were at around 11pm or so and all this began to dawn on me. My God, this is going to be one of the hardest tasks I have ever been involved in and at my age, not easy!!
Looking at the leader board, it was clear that the JetAlliance Porsche was the car to worry about. By around 12.30am the Porsche was in the lead with us following very closely in second. This configuration, with the occasional changes at the lead went on until 16.30 Sunday! This was the most stressful time we have ever had in racing. This became a 16 hour sprint race, unbelievable.
We decided that Keith and John were the ones to be able to take the fight to the Porsche to the finish, albeit 2nd place looked more and more of a reality. Don't forget we had suffered two 1 lap penalties. Together with their professional drivers and crew the JetAlliance team are not new to this game. The Porsche was also prepared beautifully.
JetAlliance were copying all our moves, pit stops, tyres, etc. However, they didn't realise that we were doing the same, keeping a close eye on their tactics. The final hour of the race was amazing, John got ahead and kept the Porsche a controlled distance behind, right up to the chequered flag.
What a finish, a 24hr race with GT cars decided by 55 seconds.
It may be a very long time, if ever, for this sort of result and race to be repeated.
My unreserved gratitude goes to all the team, family and friends who made this possible. Their support was outstanding. Everybody involved showed total passion and commitment which can only be described as amazing. And of course the car, it performed like no other, what a machine!
We should all be proud.
Thank you all.
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