Team NASAMAX
Hours Seven to Twelve 15.06.03

The seventh hour of the race was notable only for its lack of incident. Nothing happened other than the Reynard continued to circulate consistently with Romain Dumas at the wheel. Fuel stops at 22.30 and 23.00 went off without incident. Oh, but for three selector cables.

Without the earlier problems, the car would likely have completed 95-100 laps and been occupying at least 18th place. As it was, it was on lap 71 in 42nd place. At this point in the race the only cars being passed were either on the verge of retirement or actually retired. However, five laps ahead lay the Norma Ford and it was in the 900 class. Would they be able to catch and pass?

Almost immediately, the Norma hit trouble and the NASAMAX car soon took 41st from it. Now only 12 to go, Janice! Romain had wound the wick up and was into the 3:55s.

The next targets for the team were the #81 Racers Group Porsche and the #99 XL Ferrari, both two laps ahead but circulating considerably slower than the Reynard.

Romain stayed in the car until 00.16, at which point he pitted and vacated the driving position for Robbie Stirling to take over. He very slightly overshot his pit on arrival and had to be dragged back. As the fuel went in, the drivers swapped over. When refuelling was complete, the tyres were changed. As Robbie drove off, Romain removed his helmet and balaclava and drank from a bottle of water, all the while being filmed from a very close distance by a TV camera man. The stop took two minutes 15 seconds.

Robbie immediately dropped the pace to the 4:12 mark, which is still enough to catch the Ferrari. This is the first race-pace change of position for the Reynard. By 01.30, the car has completed 105 laps and lies in 37th position. Another fuel stop for the Canadian takes place at this time.

The team’s trouble-free run ended at 2.25 when the car had completed 117 laps. Robbie reported that the car was starting to cut out at 7000 rpm. As it was near the end of his stint he pitted immediately to get it sorted. Fortunately, this was not new territory for the team and a change of spark plugs was the answer. Another repair was made at the same time; “I got pushed on to the grass earlier in the stint and hit a kerb quite hard, damaging a pushrod. It altered the ride-height slightly and the front end was scraping the ground at the end of the straight. Nothing serious, but the guys are changing it anyway,” explained the driver. He continued, “The car loves the night - she’s lovely down the straight.” The repairs took 20 minutes to complete

Werner Lupberger stepped into the car for the second time in the race and set about regaining the two laps lost to the XL Ferrari. At 03.00 the car had completed 121 laps and lay in 37th place.

Just as it looked to be business as usual, a very slow third sector time indicated trouble. The car was back in the garage.

Rounding Indianapolis, Lupberger had felt a knocking coming from the rear of the car and nursed it back to the pits. The South African initially thought it was driveshaft related, but the team diagnosed a problem with the support bearing in the gearbox. It was all hands on deck once more for the crew, and this repair looked like being quite hefty.

Werner was disappointed to be out of the car once more; “I was just getting into a rhythm - not looking at the lap times at all, but getting a feel for the car.” He was lapping in the 4:05s, but this was due mainly to yellow flags on the Mulsanne for three laps while cement dust was put down on some spilt oil.

With that, Werner went off to wash his hands (which were black with brake dust despite him only being in the car for 15 minutes) and wait for the repairs to be completed.

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