Xero Competition At Spa
“The Fear Nothing Tour 2003” Invades Belgium
Ronseal Joins The Gang - & A New Wheel Washer

To provide a full background story behind a race weekend, what better opportunity could there possibly be than travelling from workshop to racetrack and back with the team? That’s exactly what Paul Slinger did for the 1000km of Spa endurance race, round 9 of the BRDC British GT Championship.

Arriving at the base of Dave Beecroft’s Xero Competition outfit on the Wednesday prior to the race was part one of the mission, and despite following precise instructions something seemed wrong – I seemed to be heading into a farmyard. But there before me as I turned the corner was the stunning bright yellow Corvette C5-R that I, and anyone else following the championship this year, know and love so well. Although it initially looked out of place next to a barn and fork-lift truck, it all seemed to make sense, when turning the corner into the yard it became apparent the car was all ready to be loaded up onto the shiny race truck and there was a spotlessly clean workshop alongside. The workshop contained the Cup class Corvette that had competed, albeit briefly, at Thruxton. Sadly, the engine damage sustained there had sidelined the car for Spa, but at least this meant all efforts could be concentrated on yellow 50, or 150 as she would become due to the presence of the FIA Sportscars in the same race.

Dave Beecroft was already unimpressed with the latest team-member (me). “Ah, you’ve turned up now that all the work has been done. I wanted you to clean the truck.” I felt somewhat more useful having helped to load the car onto the truck – despite being rather surprised as to how tight a fit it was. The bigger surprise would come when unloading the truck and realising just how much extra equipment and spares were already securely strapped up on the top deck of the trailer.

So then it was time to grab a sandwich and set off to Hull for the overnight ferry – a transit van taking team members Andy, Ian and Laura on the way with Dave, whilst Jay and I trucked off onto the M62.

Xero’s trailer is certainly tall, and once at Hull the stevedores made us wait until almost last before attempting to get us on board, whilst the transit crew were able to go their rooms and shower and get changed ready for the night ahead. All we could do was sit and watch Dave sitting watching us, eager to see the precious cargo loaded on board. Eventually, Jay got the signal to reverse on and was informed he was being ‘watched very carefully with a guy with a whistle’. So back we crept until BANG! ‘woah!, sorry about that, I thought he was watching you, pull forwards very carefully, I’ll fill a form in for you – sorry about that…” Not the best of starts, but fortunately no serious damage was done.

The truck fitted rather better forwards on and surprise, surprise the whole crew were reunited at the bar. After a couple of drinks on board as we made our way across the North Sea to Zeebrugge, it was soon time for bed.

A grey morning greeted us in Zeebrugge, but at least last on meant first off, and we were quickly on our way down to Spa. My navigational skills were admittedly questionable, but I blame the Belgians for not signposting Liege as “Liege”, with the unfortunate result of ending up in the middle of Brussels having to do a U-turn with a 40 foot lorry, whilst Dave held up the traffic behind with an interesting positioning of the Transit. It was like something out of the ambush scene in the Italian job, only obviously this was part of Xero’s Belgian job.

The rest of the journey passed smoothly (and frustratingly, the Belgians were now signposting Liege as “Liege”). So once we arrived at the circuit, having driven along the hallowed old track, there was plenty of time to find our place in the paddock and unload car, wheels, tyres, four very large toolboxes, pit trolley, refuelling rig, jack, lighting and of course, the CD player. That is not to say there was nothing else on the truck, that was just all we could fit comfortably in the garage around the car, because the start/finish line straight pit garages are very much on the small side. There was time to purchase a barrel or two of racing fuel and dust off and polish the car, then it was time to find the hotel.

As everyone dozed in the back of the Transit, we headed off to Malmedy and after a bit of hunting around found ‘Chez Xero’ for the weekend. Time for another shower and change and all meet up (once gain) in the bar. We commented on how easily the Belgian lager went down: all that travel must have been thirsty work but then again the fact the glasses were shaped like test-tubes certainly seemed to help.

Ian made a significant discovery only 30 minutes or so after arriving at the bar, informing us there was a bowling alley downstairs. Despite initially doubting his sanity and putting it down to the strength of the lager, once he told us there was also a bar downstairs we eventually decided it was worth a look. Expecting to find a few wooden pegs and a tennis ball, it was something of a delight to find a four lane fully automated bowling alley with electronic scoring, not to mention the buzzer we simply had to press when we needed more beer.

Friday morning came all to soon, and over breakfast we somehow managed to remember that the team boss had succeeded in the clinching game, after only ooooooh, about four hours of continuous play. “I’d have been in a bad mood all day today and you knew it, so thanks for letting me win.” Not quite the truth Dave, but rumours soon spread around the paddock that the truck motif “It’s not the taking part but the winning that matters” would become “It’s not the racing but the bowling that matters.”

As heads cleared, there was work to do, and the drivers were sticking their heads into the pit garage for the first time: it is odd to think of all the work that has gone on before the drivers even see the car – the drivers simply having to turn up and everything is ready for them, raring to go. But then again they have enough on their plates already – charging off into the Belgian woodlands at 160 mph is a big task for anyone, so thankfully Friday gave them two practice sessions to familiarise. Ricky Cole and Peter Le Bas were joined for Spa by Paula Cook, and fortunately all three drivers had experience on this wonderful circuit. Ricky and Paula were appreciative of the exploratory laps in that soaking first session – an eager Le Bas having to wait until the second session. Ricky bedded the car in nicely, leaving Paula with a chance to experience the Corvette for the first time ever – and what a daunting place to do it. A 3:08.542 was very respectable indeed, given that she had to avoid a spinning Clio at the Bus Stop, and was good enough for sixth fastest in class and proof enough that it would take much more than this to faze the Rotherham lass.

“It was really good – there’s loads of grip and it felt really stable. It’s quite easy to drive. The wiper stopped working but it wasn’t just the rain that was a problem because the wiper stopped right across my line of sight, so I head to cock my head to one side.”

Peter finally got his chance to unleash the Corvette later in the afternoon, in similarly sodden conditions, banging in a 3:01.249 on his first flying lap. Le Bas only seems to have one driving style – flat out and on it the whole time: I suspect he actually has more styles, he just prefers this one the most. The pace was soon whittled down to a 2:56.146 bringing him into the top 16 overall (including the FIA sportscars), which at least meant I could watch him on the first computerised timing screen. It was even better news to see the Corvette climb to 13th overall and an excellent fourth in class, behind the two dominant Moslers and a works TVR, but ahead of the rest, including the second works TVR.

Paula’s second drive was nothing short of exceptional – “I had a little spin at the Bus Stop but I knew exactly what happened – I got the rear wheel on a metal grid there and pressed the throttle too early. It only went sideways and stopped but I know not to do it again. It’s getting a bit harder now at these speeds.” Far from unsettling her though, she got straight down to working her lap time down to a 2:50.162, preserving that fourth in class, behind only the works TVRs and the Balfe Mosler.

An excellent day’s work could only be rounded off with a game or two of bowling and the odd beer or two, and despite Dave practising his bowling action incessantly as he walked the pitlane and paddock, it was the rookie, yours truly, who scooped the honours that night, not that I wish to dwell on it. Much. But I did win. So there.

Saturday saw the first qualifying session, although for the British GT runners, this was merely another free practice session. It counted for the FIA Sportscars however, so number 150’s drivers had to keep a careful eye on the mirror as the likes of Kristensen in the Audi, Lammers in the Dome and Wallace in the Den Bla Avis DBA Zytek all did battle around them.

It was a drier session than Friday, but as Ricky took to the track, there were still roosters of spray being flung into the air as the cars circulated. A 2:52.435 was the first meaningful time Ricky had posted so far, and was good enough for fifth in class – the smoke pouring off all four wheels when he handed over to Le Bas showed just how hard he had been working.

Peter Le Bas was somewhat frustrated when the session was shortly afterwards red-flagged, owing to the ISL Marcos nudging into the barriers and stopping on the kerbs on a dangerous part of the track. With just over thirteen minutes to go the session was re-started but Dave Beecroft was happy with the progress made so far, and the Corvette stayed safe and sound in the garage whilst the others improved their times. “There were two things that could have happened, the first is we could have stayed on wets and kept pushing for a better time, but that would have ruined them as the track dried. The second is we could have sent Pete out on slicks but it is still damp and if he made a mistake and went off it could wreck the car and mean we have to go home now – and all for absolutely nothing.” Good plan: others went out and destroyed a set of wets. Xero would have to do the same in the afternoon.

Qualifying for real came that afternoon, but Paula’s run was interrupted by yet another red flag. Ricky Cole took over and when the session resumed, posted the car’s best time of the weekend so far with a 2:48.160: on a drying track with worn-out wets, this was good enough for seventh in class, but then in nearly six hours of racing, grid position is not so important. “The tyres were so far gone it felt like something had broken in the suspension.”

It is not just as easy as throwing another set of tyres on as Dunlop had a finite supply and they were running out quickly. With an endurance race left to run, it made sense to save the tyres for Sunday.

The car was in one piece and so it would have been a nice early trip back to the hotel but for Dave Beecroft’s generosity – offering to weld up a broken exhaust manifold on Cor Euser’s Marcos. It was a relatively leisurely evening too once we did get back to the hotel, bowling muscles even being allowed to relax in readiness for the big day.

The big day came all too soon. With an 8:15 warm-up we even had to miss breakfast to be at the track in time to prep the car, and of course ‘warm up’ for the warm-up. Paula Cook took the helm and set a brilliant lap time of 2:32.412 – a stunning third in class, and it didn’t look like some of the front-runners were just warming up either…very promising.

“The car just has heaps of grip in the dry and there is still so much to come from it – it felt like about an 80% time – I didn’t get any squirming in the corners or anything, I just need to keep going faster and faster into the corners, but it needs just a little more bite on the initial turn in. I think that might just be because there is so much grip at the rear though.”

So a very upbeat crew enjoyed some bacon sandwiches courtesy of Laura, working away in the little kitchen at the front of the truck. I got down to business cleaning wheels, where I was unfortunately spotted by DSC photographer David Lord, deputy-editor Graham Goodwin and his kid, “The Kid.” And yes, they laughed at me. Still, there are so many jobs that need to be done during a race weekend that few apart from me were able to enjoy much of an idle moment, and this is how frantic things are when all is going very smoothly!

The race came around quickly, and it was a clean set of rims bearing slicks that went onto the car for the race. They only lasted two laps after the roar of 35 Sports and GT cars echoed off into the hills for the first time following the rolling start.

The skies really opened and as everyone dived in for wets the pit-lane turned into a instant car park.

Ricky really had to try and swing around the Eclipse car to get anywhere near the pit garage, so tight are the confines, but the airlines just about reached and on went the wets. The Corvette surged back out in 22nd place and eighth in class, but this soon became seventh as CDL were forced into a lengthy stop to repair a broken rose-joint.

There was some concern as the clerk of the course noted the Corvette was not using headlights in the gloom, but Ricky was trying to work out which combination of switches would illuminate them: “There are three switches, but we usually have them set so only one needs flicking to switch them on. Someone obviously thought it would be funny to play around with them.” After a few laps when he may have caught the odd Cup class car slightly unaware, the lights were blazing and it was back down to business, not that Ricky had let up throughout - closing on the Ferrari 360 ahead and trying to defend from Peter Cook in the flying Porsche.

With a drying track and the fuel nearly exhausted it was time to hand over to Peter Le Bas, but the change could not be made until the Eclipse car had completed its refuelling stop – with that car in the pit-lane it was impossible to reach the C5-R with the refuelling rig. Ricky did another lap then handed over. “It was all right but quite a long stint – I can’t really feel anything in my hand, but I’m sure it will be ok!”

Peter drove a good, quick and incident free stint in the low 2:30s and climbed to 15th overall and sixth in class after 45 minutes in the car. During this time I was rushing backwards and forwards getting tyres changed at the excellent Dunlop paddock facility and bringing the bad news back to Dave Beecroft that there were no wets left. We only had one set left to go…

Paula was then strapped into her sizeable booster cushion and went out to work, rapidly earning her a new nickname – “Ronseal” – as she does exactly what it says on the tin. Dave would issue instructions to her as she drove flat out round one of the most daunting circuits in the world and all he would hear back was “Righty-o-Dave”. This is one cool customer. Halfway through the race and we were still sixth in class, but with Eclipse making their next stop, Paula moved to fifth in class and an impressive 12th overall.

A safety car period gave Paula a realistic chance of closing up on cars ahead, but the Italians in the Lotus Elise were struggling somewhat with the concept of the safety car signs being out and were trundling around at a frustratingly low speed, halting Paula’s progress. “You need to push them as hard as you can,” instructed Dave Beecroft, but this time, after an initial “Righty-o-Dave” he heard back “errrr, I’ve pushed them off the track”. “I went up to see them afterwards but they told me they had exactly the same thing happen to them with someone else in the next safety car period so there was really no need to apologise.” We were glad that one was cleared up as the Italians and their crew were staying in our hotel!

With the safety car in, Paula started pulling strongly away from the Eclipse TVR by seven to eight seconds a lap. Shane may have been struggling to find his feet at Spa and the car was far from perfect after a heavy Friday shunt (and he had no wipers – and it was drizzling slightly), but there were suggestions of a sticking throttle holding him back too. This was all good news for Xero though, as the Corvette ran faultlessly, even on some heavily-used double stinted slicks. Paula took third in class briefly, owing to the order of pitstops, but then settled into a genuine fourth. “It was good, but the car was all over the place towards the end because the tyres had already done an hour and a half before I even got in the car and they were totally shot. But it only took me a couple of laps to see where it was wanting to oversteer and where it was wanting to understeer, then I could just get on with it,” said Ronseal.

Towards the end of Paula’s stint it began to rain again and this left Xero with a difficult choice. Without enough fuel to stay out and determine what the weather was likely to do, the right choice seemed to be to use that last set of wets as Ricky climbed aboard. “I’m disappointed with that stint. I was reasonably quick for the first couple of laps but then I was practically going backwards once the tyres started tearing themselves apart,” explained a frustrated Ricky when he got out of the car only a few laps later. It just didn’t keep raining so preservation of the wets became a priority in case they were needed later, hence a very short stint ending and Peter taking over the controls again with enough fuel to hopefully last until the end of the race, now tantalisingly close at only 21 laps. The double pit-stop had however cost them two places in class and despite Peter’s typical driving style throwing up low 2:30 after low 2:30, short of the two non-works TVRs ahead pitting for more fuel, a finish in sixth looked like the result to chase.

And that was the result we got. The whole team leapt onto the pit-wall to cheer the car over the line - any disappointment that may have crept in on seeing the car slip from fourth to sixth was instantly replaced with euphoria. This was a serious endurance race and the car had been faultless the entire weekend. Everyone could feel justifiably proud, this was an excellent result for such a new team.

As soon as the grimy and battle-scarred Corvette was welcomed back into the paddock the drivers began celebrations, beer cans in hand as if from nowhere. Paula had to be off to the airport, but the rest of the team made sure the pit garage was cleared in super quick time and before we knew what was happening we were up the road in Spa village with pints in hand and juicy steaks in front of us. The rest of the night went rather hazy very quickly, but at least the next morning was a lazy lie in.

Dave had wanted to reward the troops with a session of karting at the excellent Spa track but alas it was closed, as was the rest of Belgium seemingly, leaving us to make a leisurely journey back across Belgium (avoiding Brussels this time) to Zeebrugge for the overnight ferry. Hitting the top of the truck again, owing to the absence of a man with a whistle again, waiting for ages again, drinking at the bar again - it was all enough to give a sense of deja vu - if we had any energy left to consider it that is. I have never slept so soundly on a boat in my life.

The icing on the cake for this most excellent and succesful weekend was an invitation from Stephane Ratel for Xero Competition to race at Le Mans in November - watch DSC for more on this story, and read about their exploits on the second leg of their European tour exclusively here. Let’s hope the returns from abroad keep getting better and better.
Paul Slinger