Brands Hatch Morgans Motorsport News

Imagine being just twelve hours from a twelve hour race while looking at your engine in pieces and a handful of shrapnel that used to be your piston rings. That is what happened when, for the first time in 37 years, a Morgan was due to compete at the famous Le Mans circuit in France.

The 12 Heures du Mans endurance race took place at Le Mans on the 9^th and 10^th of July, and months of preparation had been invested in XOV 555, the 1959 +4 owned by The Morgan Heritage Trust.

Despite the pre-race hard work, Adrian van der Kroft, Rick Bourne and Bill Wykeham who made up the three man driving team for the race began to experience some serious problems during qualifying.

After the first timed practice early on Friday afternoon, in temperatures well over 30 degrees, the distributor self destructed.

	At about this time Chris Acklam back in Kent, was preparing for a quiet Friday night in front of the telly. He gets a phone call from Rick, who manages to persuade him (without too much difficulty it has to be said) that a weekend being team manager at Le Mans was vastly preferable to staying at home to watch the British Grand Prix. Oh, and could he bring a new distributor with him
How many laps to go, I'm knackered. Click on the photo for a full size picture (36Kb)

The second timed practice session was probably great, but XOV spent it in the garage with the mechanical team, comprising Richard Walbyoff, Brett Syndercombe, Jack Bellinger and Ron Bourne all working feverishly to get her working again.

The afternoon got hotter, and the prospect of a glorious result got further away. After the third timed practice all three drivers were qualified, but XOV came back in covered in oil and something was obviously seriously wrong.

Several hundred miles away in Holland, Jens Beck was, quite conceivably, not thinking what fun it would be to drive through the night to France with the rebuilt engine destined for his own restoration project in the back of his car. Nevertheless, that's what he did, following another, slightly more desperate phone call from the persuasive Mr Bourne.

After yet more persuasion, the team managed to get agreement from the organisers that they would only have to do one complete lap per driver in the compulsory night practice (Oh yes! Did I forget to mention we still had that to come.) Somehow she made it, and after completing the last lap the team took XOV straight through the garage, emptied her of water and began the job of taking the engine apart to discover the cause of the problem.

Just before midnight the team had XOV's engine stripped, and the realisation really began to dawn that she might not ever start the race. The cause of the problem was that the engine had been over revved, the result was pistons destined to spend the rest of their lives as paperweights!
	OK, fire her up. Well maybe not? Click on the photo for a full size picture (52Kb)

So here's where the real drama begins. Richard, Brett, Ron and Jack had done everything they could by about 2am and could only wait for Jens to arrive with the new engine. After returning to the hotel for just a couple of hours sleep they returned to the circuit at five in the morning to meet Jens.

Things did not go quite according to plan, but by 8.30am they had stripped the donor engine of its pistons and liners, fitted them into XOV's engine and had the car running! They rang the drivers at the hotel, who nearly choked on their croissants when they heard the job had been done so quickly!

Rick took the car out for the morning warm up and, after sorting out a pinking problem, the car was running well. It was hot, everyone was tired, Chris Acklam hid under the peak of his baseball cap and Jens fell asleep in the boot of his car, but spirits were definitely lifting
	Le-Mans pit lane(is that Bernie Ecclestone?) Click on the photo for a full size picture (40Kb)

Adrian took first stint in the driving seat and so had the honour of taking part in the 'Le Mans start'. It was very dramatic - he ran across the track and was one of the first drivers to get into the car, she started first time, he put her in reverse and headed straight for pit wall. Later he insisted that this was only to wake up his rather drowsy team of mechanics, of course! Whatever the reason, no damage was done and she was away.

Bill's hand over to Rick and Rick's to Adrian were uneventful, apart from twice arriving at the communal refuelling rig just as it decided to break down. Some of the antics of our fellow competitors during their pit stops helped keep the team amused. Porsche 911's being waved at frantically to 'Go, go, go' while the driver was still looking at a windscreen covered in cleaning gunge, or even with a mechanic still attached to the wheel by his torque wrench were just some of the examples of the comic relief.

As the race progressed, a transition began to take place from hoping that the car would run went to hoping that a top ten finish was within our grasp. Now some pace was needed, while bearing in mind the history of the 'fresh engine'. It was so hot and all the cars were suffering, not to mention 'Les Girls' (Sarah Walbyoff, Joanna van der Kroft and myself) who had by now spent hours standing next to a concrete radiator called the pit wall recording, signalling and reporting each and every lap.

As dusk changed to darkness and Bill handed over to Rick for the final stint, he advised that the brakes were long. In just a few laps, Rick realised that the brakes were in fact longer than his legs. With tyres that were way past their sell-by date he decided that a steady run to the finish was the safest option. Oh yeah! Well, ten laps later the pit crew start telling him to speed up, as they realise a Lotus Elan is within 30 seconds of stealing our chance of that top ten finish.

Le-Mans pit lane at night, impressive! Clickon the photo for a full size picture (34Kb)

In the absence of a radio Rick resorted to sign language of a Churchillian nature (well that's what it looked like in the dark!) but nevertheless put on enough pace to secure 10^th place overall and the class win. The only error in his stint was possibly that he might have used main beam headlamps at some point so that he could see where he was going, but the fact that he was the only car on the track driving on dip beam meant that he was, at least, easy to spot when he turned on to the pit straight.

The last half hour was the longest any of the twelve members of the team had ever known. But at last that glorious chequered flag (which looks even better at Le Mans!) was waved to the relief of everyone - and their cars. A very tired XOV was eventually returned from parc ferme to a tumultous and drunken reception from her crew who had, by this time, abandoned adherence to the rules of drinking and smoking in the pit lane.

Wake me up before you go go. Click on the photo for a full size picture (46Kb)

The success was made all the more poignant due to the fact that each of the drivers felt they were treading in the footsteps of Chris Lawrence during the legendary 1962 Le Mans 24-hour race, even to the extent that the organisers had given us the same no. 29. In that year, as we all know, Chris drove a similar Morgan +4 and finished first in class and 13th overall - and still drove TOK all the way home. Ah well, maybe next year!

To the winners the spoils. Click on the photo for a full size picture (43Kb)

Did anyone see if that was our car? Click on the photo for a full size picture (27Kb)	Not a bad 12 hours work........Click on the photo for a full size picture (50Kb)

Cathy Bourne

Postscript

During the race XOV consumed 12 tyres, two sets of brake pads and one set of shoes. Please don't ask how much fuel at 11.5 ff per litre.

What a team. Click on the photo for a full size picture (48Kb)	Tyre wear, what tyre wear. MOT failure I think?Click on the photo for a full size picture (53Kb)

All of her care was lovingly given by the crew who where:-

Without all of the above we could not have started the race, let alone achieved the fantastic result that will last for ever.

A big thank you from the Drivers