Result:
3rd, 86 laps, 3h 01min 9,658s.
Best lap:
1:32.486 |
| This saturday
we secured the Championship title of the Swedish 3h Endurance Cup for GT
cars!
The race was a wet event where many teams had to run on the edge to get
a shot at the championship. |
|
| Accumulated
points from the 3- AND 8-hour Cups total point standings decided the starting
grid. We only compete in the 3h series and started down on 18th with Flatout
Racing in front and Ravila Motorsport on our left. We all got a couple
of laps behind pace car to get to warn the cars. I used it to the max and
got a decent temperature in both the tyres and the brakes. |
 |
| The TV
team checks the pulse of the drivers before the start. Photo S. Lindqvist |
| I had set
my mind to taking it easy and not get involved in any incidents. Evidently
so did almost everyone else too, cause the field split up like the "Read
Sea" at the start, so I could just go for it in the middle. In the first
corner I was ninth. MH Motorsport had a spin and Klugscheisser hit them
with no chance to avoid it. Yellow flags came out for a short section,
but then when the track cleared I went up to fifth. It only took half a
lap from 18th to 5th, that felt promising. |
| I soon went
into the lead and 30 minutes into the race I did the first out of three
mandatory pit stops and handed over to Håkan. This was during a long
safety car period so Håkan could switch to Mårten during this
same slow part of the race. It now felt really good fot the race and Mårten
could drive on until we had to fuel up and put slicks in the car. |
| This feeling
didn´t last long though; we receieved a one minute stop&go for
speeding in the pits, such thing MUST NOT ever happen, but now it had.
We lost a lap on this and then Mårten also reported over the radio
that the front tyres were beginning to turn really really bad. |
 |
| Final pit
stop for the season. Photo S. Lindqvist |
| As Mårten
came in the track was not dry enough for slicks tyres, and I had 75 minuntes
to go on worn out rain tyres. I felt immediately there was no grip left,
but I managed to hustle the car and get past our fiercest competitors to
reduce some of what we lost on the penalty earlier. I also got the second
best laptime of the race doing this. |
| Now Glorias
Motorsport was in the lead, and them being there we only needed to finish
right behind our main competitor Hubert Bergh Motorsport #0, and not lesser
than fifth. |
| We were heading
for a strong finish towards the end after #0 went of the track, but BRS
Motorsport overtook us at a yellow flag section and got away with it. Unfortunately
nothing to do, our tyres were just not up to it anymore, they had had a
really hard time during my earlier chase and I couldn´t catch them
again without jeopardising the finish, and the championship. So we had
to settle for third today, only 0,88 seconds behind BRS, but it felt like
a victory all the same since it secured the Championship Victory! |
 |
| Pleased
team boss (and driver) Photo S. Lindqvist |
|
| Result, Mantorp
Park 16/10 2004: |
Class 4: Glorias
(1st), BRS (2nd), MV Racing (3rd)
Class 3: Eks,
X-Racing, Nygård
Class 2: Coffee
Fresh, Flatout, Rutger
Class 1: MH
Motorsport, Type R, Swede Team Motor
|
| We came to
the finals with only one target, to get the championship. We did it after
a tough race and it feels like a true working victory. This will be greatly
celebrated at the SLC Prize Ceremony/Banquet at Berns in Stockholm! |
|
| Final standings
SLC Endurance 3h GT (top 5): |
1. MV Racing
71p
2. Glorias
Motorsport 66p
3. BRS Motorsport
59p
4. Hubert
Bergh Motorsport 59p
5. Morin Racing
58p
|
| Compete
resultats and standings at www.slc.se |
 |
| Championship
winning car of the 2004 3h endurance cup, the Porsche 911 RSR of MV Racing.
Photo JChr |
| I´d
like to finish up with a big thank you to the entire team, especially Mårten,
Håkan and Ulf and my sponsors. The victory belongs to each one of
you! I also say my thanks to the K3 workshop for serious work on the car,
Team Tysslinge for nice ground service at the track and the SLC race organization
and all our competitors. |
| Now there´s
a pause for a few weeks before getting to work with preparing contracts
etc for the next season. |
See you all
soon!
/Says a very
happy Carl |
