Yes, I know what you are thinking. This is not our first 24h, nor is our first endurance race, of course. Back in 2013, with the Bas Koeten Racing we took part into the same event: the 24h of Zolder. At that time, unfortunately, our event lasted briefly as on the third hour an accident in pit lane with another competitor not taking enough care while exiting from the refuelling area brought an abrupt end to our race. (You can see the video of the crash here)
We were disappointed enough to drive back to Milan without waiting for the end of the race.
A couple of years of prototype and endurance racing experience later, we decided it was time to try again to compete and finish our first 24h, and this brought us back to Belgium, this time with the Avelon Formula team.
The event was packed with car with 61 vehicles at the start. Qualifying under pouring rain put us in ninth place while trying to avoid crashes that certainly we did not want to. The team was build up by me and my brother, the Singaporian Sean Hudspeth and by another italian Fabio Emanuele. This was also the starting order and, as for the last time, Nicola started the race.
After two hours of lapping cars while trying to maintain a constant pace, the car has been given to his brother Stefano, which took the car in fourth position before paying with a Drive Through a penalty because of the malfunctioning of the starter motor (that also afterwards slowed down our progress) during the refuelling.
When Stefano was missing just 20minutes at the end of his stint, as if we were not supposed to complete a 24h ever, a brake line exploded, launching Stefano into the barriers, damaging heavily the car and also forcing him not to drive until 6 o’clock in the morning as per decision of the medical center.
The car took a little less than one hour to repair, and after that we kept going and even a fault with the alternator and the gearbox cable did not hold us back enought to retire. At around 8 o’clock in the morining Stefano drove back again, amazingly with the same confidence he had moments before his crash, and we pushed to the end.
Final position was not good (we finished in 25th position), but we were happy to be able to finish our first 24h. It has not been without issues, but we have been happy to share the moment with Sean and Fabio, that have been extremely professional to keep on going even with all the things that happened to us.