Porsche le Mans Relay Race

Well, as you may know Ade and I were mad enough to answer an email asking for interested people to complete a team for the Porsche Le Mans relay race. I just thought I’d let y’all know what happened.

The race is a fun event which is probably more interesting for the competitors than the spectators as it gets impossible to tell who’s leading after about 8 or 9 laps. Anyway, the format of the race is that each team sends one car out for 12 laps. The driver wears a garter on his/her right arm and after 12 laps the driver must come into the pits, stop the car, get out, run over to the next driver in the team, shake his/her hand and transfer the garter. The new driver can then start his/her engine and leave the pits to complete their 12 laps. The race ends after a certain time period (2 hours in this case).

The key to this race is to consistently and reliably lap the track without breaking down and to transfer the garter without breaching any of the many rules. To ensure that each team adheres to the rules, a "plombeur" wearing a french gendarme’s hat and cape polices the garter changes.

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"Twitchy" - the race car - all ready for the Porsche le Mans relay race

The team that we hesitantly hooked up with was made up of Doug St George driving a Ford 2 litre powered Lynx (Lotus type open sports car), Ian Lloyd driving a Toyota 1600 powered Lloyd special (similar style to the Lynx) and Ade driving the 1600 supercharged MR2. We were a bit nervous about it all because we’d never driven the car around Pukekohe, we didn’t know what times we could achieve or how reliable the car would be, but Doug assured us that the whole idea of the team was to get out there, do some laps and have fun.

We quickly decided that we’d need all the practice we could get so when we found out that Thursday was available for testing, Ade organised the day off work and with the help of Malcolm Cambridge and Brad Nolan (don’t engineers ever have to work?) she headed off to Pukekohe for some testing and practice. Thursday was showery and the track had very little opportunity to dry between showers. Conditions were far from ideal but at least Ade was only sharing the track with a VW Sirocco and a TVR Tuscan (!) After spinning once, Ade was recording lap times of 1 minute 28 seconds with a best lap time of 1:25.

I managed to get a couple of hours off work to join Ade at the track (thanks to the Monica taxi service). It was still wet and slippery but Ade was insistent that I get out on the track and give it a go. After 3 spins in my first 5 laps (including one that finished about 18 inches away from an Armco barrier) I was not too confident of my abilities to drive the car, however, I persisted and when the session finished I found that my first clean lap had equalled Ade’s best (ooops, sorry Ade). I had managed a best lap time of 1:23, but I was convinced the car could go faster ..... maybe even a 1:20.

A free practice session was available on Friday so we were back out there for more laps. This time the track was dry(ish) and lap times dropped a bit. There were more cars and it was interesting to see how the MR2 compared for power and cornering. It was a little hard to tell, but the Datsun 260Zs didn’t seem to have the same straight line speed or brakes as the MR2, but they were close. The MGs and Spitfires seemed to be down on brakes, hp and cornering, but to keep our feet firmly on the ground, the TVR Tuscan was lapping at around 1:02 and a Ferrari was roaring past with monotonous regularity. By this stage Ade had shaved her lap times down to 1:22’s with an occasional 1:21. By the end of the day I had managed to bring my lap times down to around the 1:19 mark.

Saturday was the big race day for Ade. She had an official practice session in the morning and the relay race was scheduled for the afternoon. The race was orginally going to be 3 hours long, but because of delays etc, it was cut to 2 hours. During her practice Ade was lapping at about 1:20.

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Doug St George’s 2 litre powered Lynx 7

It was decided that Ian would be the first driver out, Doug would be second and Ade would be third driver. Ade was a little unsure of herself, particularly when Ian and Doug were consistently lapping at around 1:16. The guys were happy with Ade’s lap times and kept saying they were just out there for fun.

When the flag fell, Ian took off and tore around his 12 laps in stirling fashion. The pit board system the guys had devised worked perfectly. On the 9th lap, the driver was given a 2 laps to go board. The pit board person rang a cellphone in the pits when the 2 lap board went out to alert the next driver to get ready. On the 10th lap the driver was shown the 1 lap board and on the 11th lap the IN board was hung out. The change-overs all went very smoothly, and all three cars ran perfectly.

Not all of the teams were so fortunate. More than one driver was observed running back to the pits with a garter on his right arm. The only reliability problem our team (which by the way was called the Pheasant Pluckers) had was when Ian’s radiator overflow hose failed with a loud pop and sprayed hot water around the engine bay. A 5 minute repair job was required and kept the car running for the rest of the weekend.

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Doug transfering the garter to Ade with a handshake

Because of the 2 hour limit, Ian got to drive 3 complete sessions, Doug drove 2 complete sessions and about 3 laps and Ade drove 2 sessions. The only thing that had the team really worried was when Ade after lapping in her last session at a consistent 1:18 pace was shown the IN board. Ade had an Escort hot on her tail and determined not to let him past on her last lap, tried a bit too hard through the S’s. The team was getting Ian ready for his last session and things were going really well. We knew Ade had been shown the IN board and she was driving really well. Panic set in, however, when over the PA system we heard the following from the commentator:

"What’s this, someone’s had a big lose!! The little MR2 has done a big 360!! Oh he’s had a big spin and he’s definitely flat-spotted his tyres!! He’s gathered it all up again and he’s away"

Ade was pretty philosophical about it all. No damage was done and nobody had to change their undies ..... except maybe the Escort driver.

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Ade transfering the garter to Ian (in his homebuilt 1600cc "Lloyd Special").

It was a really fun event. Ade seemed to enjoy the experience despite some last minute nerves and a last minute loop. The team finished 12th over the line and after complicated handicapping and adjustment of positions finished 12th on handicap. With 19 teams competing, a 12th isn’t too bad. At least the team finished which is more than 2 teams managed.

Thanks go to Doug St George and Ian Lloyd for inviting us to join the team and for being so encouraging and supportive, for Doug’s team of lap scorer’s, pit boarders, plombeurs, etc. and to Malcolm Cambridge for volunteering to be the team’s flag marshall and having to endure a day with the infamous Matthew.

Steve White