I went up to Snetterton in the driving rain yesterday to see RichUK begin his career as a racing team manager in the annual 2CV 24hr race.

Team 'Dedouche' (German for Donkey I'm told) are a 4 driver team, 2 of whom only obtained their race licences a couple of weeks ago, yet managed to qualify 21st out of a 34 car grid.

For those of you who don't know, the 24 hour 2CV race has been held annually for many years, and for a long time was the only full 24 hour endurance race in the UK until Britcar began a few years ago. Despite the fact they race 2CVs, there are many highly professional teams who've been racing for years, so it's no mean task starting and running your own outfit, there is some stiff competition from some very experienced people.

When I got there the team was in the winnebago (yes, they have a full professional 40 foot race team winnebago) watching the Grand Prix, but as it approached 4pm they were down in the pit garage checking the car.



Included in the package are a team of very experienced pit crew and mechanics who can swap an engine in minutes, so Rich just had to worry about everything else. Like the starting driver, who hadn't raced before....



But a few wise words from team guru Rich.......



...and he seemed happy enough.

The start went well and within the first hour, the team had made up several places and were lying 16th. Rich took up the lonely vigil on the pit wall in the p!ssing rain and wind, keeping his drivers informed of progress.
As you can see, it was a wet race...



But with team manager Rich keeping track of progress, the drivers were kept well informed....





While the rest of us kept dry...



...and shouted out race position to the masochist on the pit wall, who seldom came in during the opening part of the race, and when he did, it was only to check on positions on the TV in the pit garage linked to race control...



Unfortunately, I had to leave in the evening as I can't see that well in the dark yet thanks to my recent eye operation (it's a long drive from Norfolk to Wiltshire), but by 9pm the team were in the top 10, and have so far been up to 6th, dropping to settle in 8th place at the moment (midday, Sunday) thanks to a broken fan which cost them a lap. They finish at 4pm today, and a top ten place on the first outing would be an amazing achievement, a testament to intelligent team management and driving and a great start to Rich's new hobby.

 

Great write up Mark. Look forward to seeing how they went on

 

Nice one Rich. Nice to see someone doing something interesting. Look forward to the updates.

 

I know you said he was a masochist

but trying to stick that banana up his own bottom, in the last pic

is surely going too far?

no wonder the rest of you couldn't bear to look

 

From the position of the other hand, he'd obviously been suffering from toxic flatulence.

 

What was Harry Enfield doing in the garage ?

 

Cheers for the update Mark

And excellent work so far by team Dedouche, I look forward to hearing how they finished up.


Gotta love your logo on that pit board.

 

Entertaining thread (well, photos of Rich are always entertaining ). Result?

 

Looks like a painful way to get your five a day!

How did you get on Rich?

 

They remained in 8th to the end of the race, they're all now in the bar getting very drunk.

Great result for a first time