Xero Competition At Oulton Park
“The Fear Nothing Tour 2003” Takes On A Hot & Steamy Cheshire Event
“If” Is Not The Real World

Paul Slinger tells the story……

Xero Competition arrived at Cheshire’s own mini-Nurburgring following an enforced seven week absence from racing, after a Saturday shunt put paid to their chances of competing at Castle Combe in June. The Corvette was sporting a new Pratt & Miller style front end, which gave the car a slightly more menacing and purposeful look about it, which is very fitting as Xero are not in the championship to make up the numbers – they are there to challenge for wins.

The car also appeared to be sporting a third driver going by the name of Oscar, but the nationality flag was somewhat unusual in that it looked like a carrot. All became clear when it was revealed that the team had somehow managed to adopt a donkey at a sanctuary run by Jackie, the sister of Aiden Cole (driver Ricky Cole’s father). Team boss Dave Beecroft explained: “A couple of days after Combe we got a package through the post explaining that we had adopted Oscar – a frisky little fellow rescued from the New Forest. Apparently the sanctuary gets £13 million in donations every year – I’d have thought it was fairly hard to spend £13 million on donkeys but obviously not!” An unusual reverse-sponsorship deal for a motor-racing team, but then Xero are far from conventional on many counts.

While Oscar enjoyed a carrot or two on Dave Beecroft, both drivers were able to go out for warm-up on Saturday. Warm up barely described what was happening to track temperatures however – it was turning into a seriously hot day. Times generally were slower than Friday testing and the Corvette was no exception. “It was really down on grip, I just couldn’t get the turn in we had yesterday” – Peter’s comments echoed exactly by Ricky.

New tyres for qualifying might help, but temperatures were even higher by then. Ricky Cole’s strategy was “to be careful with the new tyres and make sure I looked after them,” in order that Peter had as good a shot at possible at a useful grid position. Unfortunately he brought the car back into the pitlane before he could set any kind of meaningful pace. “It felt really soft, much worse than yesterday, I think we’ll have to do some big changes because it really doesn’t feel right. I ran over the grass as well so I thought I’d better bring it in and get it checked out, because it is so hot anyway.”

Obviously lacking in confidence in the car, it was unlikely that Ricky would set a blistering pace around the daunting Cheshire track: in the two quick laps he did get in, the best was a 1:46.986. Then it was back up inside the pit wall – this time for a practice driver change. Team boss Dave Beecroft literally threw Ricky around the back of the car as he pulled him clear, and Peter Le Bas was quickly installed - looking hungry immediately as he left the pitlane tucked under the rear wing of the GTO Ferrari. He was unable to get a clear lap but still managed a 1:44.144 before a red flag ended the session five minutes prematurely due to the Tech 9 GTO Porsche being stopped in a dangerous position. “I had to go down the inside of the little [Sospiri] Lotus on the last corner so I lost some time there. It’s been a bit frustrating I must say. We had new tyres on but it was quicker on the old tyres yesterday by about two seconds. We have been experimenting with some other things as well, but it looks like we’ll have to change things a bit more.”

Still, sixth on the grid was hardly disgraceful, it was just a shame that Xero seemed rather more distant from the leading five cars than we had hoped.

Come race-day warm-up it was time to see if the lessons learned from yesterday’s experiments had been put into practice, and it looked as though Beecroft and his team had engineered an almost perfect solution. Peter Le Bas was much more upbeat: “Oh yeah, its 100% better than yesterday – it’s gripping really well into the corners and the gears feel nice and tight. We’ve changed a few ratios so it feels like a single seater now! Waaaaaaaah, waaaaaaaah, waaaaaah.” And this from the man who said he doesn’t do impressions! “I only really got four laps and was behind the white Porsche for most of the time, but we’re only thousandths off the Moslers now.” Indeed, the Xero car ended the warm-up in an excellent fourth with a 1:43.502, bettered only by the two Moslers (1:43.468 and 1:43:470 for the Rollcentre and Balfe cars respectively) and the Master Motorsport Ultima, which topped the timesheets for the first time ever with a stunning 1:42.503. That Ultima time left many in the paddock scratching their heads however and the general consensus in the Xero camp was that the Ultima would not be able to run at that pace for the 75 minute duration of the race.

So all was looking good for the race and Xero’s awning seemed to have become something of a kindergarten – there were children everywhere! Peter’s three kids Sam, Alex and Megan were over from the USA, almost filling the paddock with their American accents and seemingly incessant chatter. His youngest son, Alex, was very keen on spending as much time as possible scooting about on the team mopeds whilst his eldest was intent (and eventually successful) in obtaining Nell McAndrew’s autograph (and phone number?) – the Le Bas gene seems strong in both of them. Whether they were better behaved than Peter was a tough one to call. Dave Beecroft’s son Scott was also to be found climbing in and out of the car and generally appearing and disappearing seemingly at will. Various other family visits were also paid to the awning, as Oulton Park is essentially Xero’s home racetrack.

Come the race, various stoppages and tyre wall rebuilding exercises from previous on track clashes led to the decision to revert to the traditional 60 minute length. This put Xero at a disadvantage – at the very least because the Ultima’s chances had improved, but so had everyone else’s chances of completing the distance, something the Xero mechanics seem to be able to practically guarantee.

It was a bad start to the hour though as Ricky accelerated hard towards Old Hall, exploding forwards but “it was the first time I’d been in the car with the new ratios – I hit the limiter in the first three gears,” so by the time the cars spat themselves out of Old Hall and down Cascades he had slumped to ninth place. He was soon making amends though, following the GTO Ferrari 360 past the Cup class Porsche before becoming embroiled in a three car scrap, once the Glenn Eagling Marcos had attached itself to Ricky’s tail.

Unlike this morning, Oscar’s luck was not riding with Xero and Ricky was punted off at the hairpin, leading to damage to the new front splitter and an extended pitstop to patch it up. “The number 9 Porsche made contact up the back at Shell and pushed me round. I didn’t want to come in before the pitstop window as it was close anyway, but I had to drive round with bits of the car falling off.”

The stop was therefore a lengthy one as the tank tape came out, and unfortunately a couple of laps were lost to the leader. Peter took to the track and put in a storming drive however: clearly he was not prepared to hope for attrition putting paid to the competitors – he was out there to race them, unlapping himself from the leader (!) in the process. He was flying.

Sadly a further stop was forced when the gear linkage broke halfway through Peter’s stint. “The whole gear-shift sheared off. I brought it in and they jammed it in fourth and put a mole grip on but that fell off straightaway, so I had to finish the race stuck in fourth gear. I had to try and carry so much speed through the slow corners it was hard work.”

A big wave to the crowd on the slowing down lap was proof enough that Peter had enjoyed it though - “It was brilliant, unbelievably good, I was passing stuff left, right and centre – I saw 17th on the pitboard, then next time I looked at it – 12th, then 5th – I couldn’t believe it! When the race finished I saw third on the board, so I thought I was third overall, but it meant third in class. If I hadn’t had the gearbox problem and if Ricky hadn’t spun….. but then ‘if’ is not the real world.”

Dave Beecroft was a little confused after the race as to what class Peter Cook’s Porsche was in – as it qualified in GT trim but had apparently had some GTO downgrades carried out overnight. Either way, those pitstops put paid to any chance of finishing ahead of Cook and Pelle anyway and the best thing to come out of the race was an awesome drive from Le Bas which, as ever, puts Xero closer to the front of the pack. “The good thing is, we’re competitive,” summed up Beecroft - all Xero need now is a bit more of Oscar’s luck and they should be looking long and hard at a podium next time out at Rockingham.