2013 FIA Masters Historic series, held at the Catalunya circuit in Barcelona, Spain.
We had some teething issues with the Guards Red Porsche 911 3.0 RS during qualifying with the throttles/linkages but managed to solve them ahead of the race. James did well and came home second in class after ninety minutes of racing.
The Yellow RSR was on the pace after winter, qualifying a second faster than last year, despite running the new series-spec Dunlop Post-Historic tyres. In the race, we had a fierce battle with the Ford GT40’s, eventually managing to get ahead and into the top ten.
Having lapped everyone in our class, the gearbox developed an issue one hour into the race, so we retired the car to save any big bills. Coming away with our first-ever DNF was very disappointing, but that’s racing!
It was fun to race at Barcelona this year, running these new regulation Dunlop tyres and enjoying the changes we made to the Porsche over winter. The track is quite a tricky one: some parts suit our car and some parts don’t, so you have to plan what’s happening.
Barca has a very long pit straight, and a quick open right-hander in sector one, so is better for the faster, more aerodynamic cars in the dry. Sector two has some point and squirt sections, while sector three adds a tight sequence of corners, which allows us to make some ground up or get ahead before the 150 mph straight (170 in Ford GT40 and more in a Lola T70).
It’s a shame we had no camera this year, as we enjoyed a fierce battle for 45 minutes before others started peeling off for their pit stops. We held out to the pit window almost closed, then our car threw a wobbly on the first full lap after!
Qualifying was around one second faster than last year: one second slower than our fastest-ever time in three years of racing here. This is despite the switch to post-historic tyres, so we are pleased with that performance! The RSR ran a 2:10-minute lap time for most of the race, carrying 100 litres of fuel which takes the edge off performance.
Silverstone Classic is next, at the end of this month. Hope to see you all there! Drop us an email if there is anything in our product line you would like to see up close.
