Post Race Report - TORA Britcar 24hrs

This weekend was the first time a driver from Doodleco Motorsport has competed in a professional online race. Normally a new driver would be start off in the little leagues with short sprint races in club class cars but Tango Wh1skey (Gamer Tag) was given the chance to jump straight in with Team CRA Shell V-Power as they raced for 24hrs at Silverstone, the annual TORA Britcar 24hrs.

Team CRA Shell V-Power (left) lapping the CRA Red Bull car (right).

Q. How did the race go overall?
A. Generally it went pretty well. We sent our fastest driver out first who had a good scrap with the LMR Porsche but it became clear later on that we wouldn't be in the running for a win. As chance would have it a couple of cars dropped out, including the LMR Porsche which promoted us up the field a bit more but I would say our strength came from the fact that we had issues at all, allowing us to keep racking up the miles.



Q. Tell us about your stints in the car.
A. I was in the car twice during the race, the first stint being from 6pm to 10pm and the second from 10am to 12noon on the Sunday. As soon as I went out on track I found out how good the other drivers were, putting a considerable distance between them and me. After the first 10mins I found a rhythm that suited me and apart from when I encountered traffic from the clubman class I generally kept it steady. As night settled in I found a few difficulties which are common to endurance racing. At around 9.15pm I made a mistake at Stow which probably cost me around 15 or 20 seconds. Coming into the corner I lost focus and completely missed the braking point sending me straight on. A little later on the similar problem at Maggots when I simply forgot to brake, probably not a good idea when you look back at it! Apart from that the race of my race went well, slow but smooth.

Q. What are your thoughts about the result?
A. We finished 7th overall, probably could’ve had 6th but we were taken with a couple of hours to go, unfortunately during my final stint. I haven’t yet had a proper chat with the team but I’m pretty pleased by our performance.

Q. What about the other CRA cars?
A. We were running three cars this weekend, one in each class. I was driving the CRA Shell V-Power Jaguar XKR-GT in the TGT class. The PGT car was the CRA Koyo team, running in the Porsche Cayman. The Cayman managed to scramble 6th in class after a problem in the early stages forced them to lose the best part of 1hr 40mins. Our third car was the Ford Sierra, running in the Clubman class. Perhaps our best performance over the weekend with no issues and plenty of pace, the CRA Red Bull guys finished on the class podium in 3rd.

Q. Anything else?
A. That’s probably about it, I thoroughly enjoyed the race and pass on my congratulations to the overall winners at F4H as well as all those involved. Also a big thanks to those who made the event possible; TORA Staff, lobby hosts, commentators and of course CRA for giving me this opportunity.

Q. With the race over, what happens next?
A. Well the race finished around 20hrs ago, my arms are recovering so I guess it’s time to focus on the next race. Doodleco Motorsports will be looking at preparing an entry for the Nurburgring 8hrs in December so we better get to work!