Our team has a long tradition of competing in endurance races and special events for at least 25 years, so the first 24 hour race of the year could not be missed.
After a fortnight of hard practice in the track with many scenarios we decided to run two separate cars forming two teams.
The first team for Hellenic Racing car consisted by
- Andy Perrs,
- Loukas Tzivelekis
- Bill Kazantzas
- Andreas Arvanitantonis
- Christos Panoulas
and for the Hellenic Racing Academy car we had the below drivers.
- Nikos Efstathiou
- Christos Kalamidas
- Stathis Bodiotis
- Aris Kousantakis
More detailed review of the academy car can be found in the dedicated website here.
Our irating in the formed teams put us into the third and the seventh splits.
For the Hellenic Racing BMW car the qualify has not went well, mainly because the second flying lap started with an off track that invalidated the whole try. We started 15th position in our class.
We managed to have a careful start without unnecessary risks and with our good pace we earned some spots. For the first 7 hours everything went according to our initial plan and we were rewarded by climbing to p4 looking strong for even a better finish.
That was when a combination of some small mistakes from our part and bad handling of traffic from higher class cars limited our chances for something closed to the win.
We did not quit even after a technical problem (disconnection) that costs us a lot of time and we ended up finishing ninth. That was not what we expected, having in mind our pace and our potential, and left us on the bitter side but a finish in a 24hour race is always an achievement.
With the promise of a much better result in the future we need to thank all team members that took part in any possible way.
Andy Perrs
