News > Silverstone 24 Hours 2005
 

 
The 9th and 10th of September saw the return of one of the greatest races in Britain, the Willhire Britcar 24 hour race. The race has moved from its old traditional home to the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit.
 

 
Having been involved in engineering the Adam Sharpe Motorsport (ASM) Ford Falcon Australian supercars for a few months, team boss Adam Sharpe invited Craig Dawson to get behind the wheel of these awesome cars for the 24 hours. Driving the team-leading #6 car it was a slightly daunting challenge for the 24 year old who has been racing a Vauxhall Astra in 750 Motor Club Hot Hatch to great success, as he had to go straight into qualifying not knowing the awesome Silverstone Grand Prix circuit, but also having never driven the hugely powerful Falcon. The team had to get all 4 drivers through their mandatory 3 laps in the 1 hour session, so there wasn’t much time to settle in slowly. With a few small problems the team qualified 24th.
 
Unphased by the problems, the teams moved into the 2 hour night practice. The weather here was the main opposition. It remained dry for only 20 minutes or so before the storms rolled into the area. The conditions became very tricky very quickly.
 
With the team sitting out the morning warm up to ensure the cars were ready for the off, there was no more chance to learn the beast. Graham Coomes was chosen to start the race, with Dawson taking the car over from team boss Adam Sharpe at 10pm. After the first hour things were going very well, until the first drama struck. The alternator was breaking down and the team had to change the battery and unit to get reliability back. This put the car around 28 laps down when Sharpe got in. A charging drive meant that the car had pulled back 3 laps on the damp track when he handed over to Dawson. With the circuit very greasy, Dawson threw the big Falcon around the Grand Prix circuit, being the fastest car on the circuit by 4 seconds at one point before people moved onto intermediate tyres. It had moved the big Falcon up to 30th overall, and only 20 laps down on the leading Parr Motorsport Porsche.
 
After re-writing the Falcon's fuel map to get further on the car's 90 litres, Dawson went to get much-needed sleep before a double stint in the early hours, but waking up at 3am, team mate Ryan Hooker broke the bad news that the #6 car had broken its rear diff after a lump of rubber had smashed off the cooler pipe from the axle. The smell of gearbox oil hung thick in the garage. Craig’s father Andy dashed back to the team's workshop to rebuild the diff to get the car back out - a huge job. The car was back together by 10am, with the team doing an amazing job with the damaged car.
 
Adam Sharpe returned the beast to the circuit, only for bad luck to strike again. The steering rack had cracked and the car had lost all of the power steering fluid. The team worked frantically to get the car back out, but no fix could be found to get the power assistance working again. Dawson and Sharpe decided to cut the power steering belt and try to run with no power assistance. Dawson was given the job of seeing what the big Falcon was like without it. 10 laps was all that he could manage before the pain started to set in, but Dawson had put in the fastest lap of the race for the car in the process, proving there was little wrong. Graham took the wheel again, with the decision having been taken to run round slowly to the flag. With the pace significantly reduced it was possible to drive for an hour. Adam returned to the helm before Dawson got in to run to the flag. It was frustrating having to go so gently, but the team had to keep going to maintain the 3rd position they had in class. With 5 minutes to go, any creak and thump seemed 100 times worse than it was, but the car kept going and the #6 took its 3rd place in class.
 
Craig said “Crossing that finish line with the pit wall full of people and Ryan alongside in the sister car was an amazing feeling. It was an awesome race, and a fantastic experience. We had our problems but I loved every minute of it. I have proved that I can drive these GT cars quickly and hopefully it will lead to bigger things. I love this endurance racing, and it would be great to get back out with Adam and Ryan again this year in the Britcar championship. I’ve just got to find some financial support to do it. I have to thank ASM for all the support and the opportunity to drive this awesome piece of kit!”
 

 
Falcon 'Crest': "Graham Coomes started in the orange car, then I took over," says Del DelaRonde, "but the engine stalled on a down-change, then cut out completely at Becketts. I was recovered from the Hangar Straight, but managed to bump start it. A new battery was fitted, and we've been running like a train. Adam did a double stint, then Craig (Dawson) was the quickest man on the track, before anyone switched to inters."