BRAKE WOE FAILS TO STOP BOSTON AND MANSFIELD

For much of the 12-hour Race of Remembrance there looked – barring failures – only one winner. The Rob Boston Racing Lotus Elise, driven by Boston and Peter Mansfield, was on another level. From pole, it had a lead of 50 seconds over its next challenger, having done one mandatory pitstop more, after Saturday’s six-hour first segment.

Then in the Sunday’s second half – in bright sunshine – it streaked away further. Even the Lotus unreliability bugbear was absent – the car’s only problems were a slow puncture at the end of Saturday and a small and temporary handling deficiency after contact with a Honda Civic.

That was until 20 minutes to go, when Mansfield – supposed to be bringing the car home – appeared in the pits.

“We’d done everything, crossed the

Ts, dotted the Is, raced pretty much exactly to plan,” Boston explained. “Then we had a radio call from

Peter saying he’d lost the brakes!

“The car was fine and safe [after inspection in the pits] so we just said ‘manage it to the end’. It wouldn’t be all the fun without all the drama…”

Mansfield rejoined with his hobbled car and two laps over second place and four on the next car competing for the Heroes Trophy. And late heartache was averted as Mansfield was still a lap clear come the end.

It also was a turnaround from last year’s event, when the same pairing, then with John Munro, started from pole but the Elise expired after just nine laps. “It was just a 50p oil seal that popped itself out,” Boston added. “This year we’d changed a couple of key parts to make sure we didn’t have any issues, and it went swimmingly.”

Victory in the race organised by armed forces’ charity Mission Motorsport was especially poignant for serving-solider Mansfield.

“It’s his main event of the year, it has a lot of meaning to him,” Boston said.

The Elise has been racing since

2002 and this was its first win in this event after several tries. “It’s been everywhere, done everything, been in all the paddocks,” Boston said. “This will be the pinnacle of its life – in race car age terms it’s a bit of a grandad!”

GPW Racing – Pete Walters, Geoff Price and Lee Bristow in Caterham 310Rs – finished second as the first relay team home. Though, unlike last year, it didn’t get the relay win as this is now based on a handicap. Solo64’s Caterham 270R trio of Ryan Hooker, Will Rossetti and Giuseppe Felet won on that basis.

The Elise’s most tangible threat was the unlikely TWP Racing Mazda MX-5, from a team of Wrexham Glyndwr University students with Nick Dougill, Munro and Brad Philpot driving. The MX-5 had amazing pace in Saturday’s wet; Philpot jumped nine places on the first lap and the car led for a time.

“That was a little bit unexpected,” Philpot admitted. “I was looking around at some of the drivers next to me on the grid and some of the cars, and expecting a bit more of a fight. But our car worked very, very well in those soaking wet conditions and I felt extremely comfortable.”

Philpot’s involvement was 11th hour. “I was just about to get a haircut on Wednesday after work and got a message from Jon [Earp, organiser] asking if I was available,” he said. “I finished work on Friday morning and rushed straight here to get here in time for qualifying – I just about did!

“It’s my first time at this event, first time at this track, first time in this car. It’s nine wins out of nine races this season,” Philpot concluded, referencing his VLN clean sweep.

And even with Sunday being dry, the MX-5 took a clear class victory, in fifth overall and third in the Heroes Trophy. There was no shortage of emotion in the garage, particularly from team manager and event founder Earp.

“For him to have been through it all in creating the event then starting this team with the university students,” Munro outlined. “To have them build a car that is so fantastic to drive in wet and dry conditions that we can compete for overall victory and win the class by such a large margin is just a credit to him and all the students involved. You can see it in his eyes, he’s got a lot of tears going on.”

Rob Boston Racing Lotus Elise appeared unstoppable

Demonstrating the full range of Race of Remembrance participants from Dario Franchitti et al, Jaffacake Racing 2’s Mazda MX-5 was driven by two complete novices.friends Stuart Humphrey andtimwalsh attended this year’s Autosport International show as fans and, from talking at the 750 Motor Club stand, were convinced to start racing. “We kind of got sucked in!” Humphrey admitted.walsh is also a neighbour of Darren Coles, who is a mechanic for Jaffacake’s team manager and driver Sam Moody, and Coles sold them the Mk3 car. Humphrey and Walsh only had trackdays for preparation, yet brought the car home without dramas.they want to do more endurance racing next year.

The tale of TWP Racing’s Lotus Elise – and its door – encapsulates Race of Remembrance’s spirit.the car lost its left-hand door in a Friday morning practice smash, as an after-effect of two Citroen C1s “in their own little battle”, as the team’s number one Mark Little described it.fortunately, another Elise owner, who happened to be there for the Supercar Drivers session the following day, was happy to let the team borrow their door for Friday’s qualifying!“thankfully we’re among friends!”little continued. Meanwhile a replacement door whizzed to Anglesey “in the back of a taxi, on the way from Cambridge”.

Team Slowa competed in the Citroen C1 battle, yet had conspicuous BMW representation. Compact Cup coordinator Greg Graham, assistant coordinator Clive Brookson and 2019 750MC Hot Hatch title winner, in a Compact, David Drinkwater were among its drivers.the team competed in a Compact until last year.“we thought we’d have a change, tr y the small cars against the big cars!”said manager Garry Sullivan“a couple of the BMW guys were speaking to each other and we’d seen the C1s flying around, and thought it looked a lot of fun. And next thing you know, we’d bought a couple of them.”