M’off…. For the month of June

[EVskiy]

Cheers Richard,,
Very well written and pictured aswell...

Ditto.

 

[adventuredon]

Day twenty one, three weeks in

The 24-hour race starts at 16:30, so we spent the morning having a look around the paddock, most particularly at the huge area which Pirelli occupy to supply and fit the race control tyre. To give you an idea, in the main race there is some 70 cars. Each car has thirty sets of slick tyres, four per car, which is 120 tyres. Times 70 cars, gives 8,400 tyres, at about EUR 600 each, resulting in EUR 5,040,000 just for tyres.

View attachment 424416View attachment 424417View attachment 424418View attachment 424419View attachment 424420View attachment 424421

The 70 cars grid starts to form for its rolling start, the teams setting up with their tyre crews:

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And there I was moaning at my £5 disposal charge when I change tyres...

 

[Wapping]

And there I was moaning at my £5 disposal charge when I change tyres...

It’s an almost military affair:

 

[Wapping]

 

[Tinytim]

Enjoyed your trip thanks.

 

[Jockser]

Great write-up & pics, thanks Richard

 

[Wapping]

Thank you.

 

[Greg Masters]

Day twenty one, three weeks in

The 24-hour race starts at 16:30, so we spent the morning having a look around the paddock, most particularly at the huge area which Pirelli occupy to supply and fit the race control tyre. To give you an idea, in the main race there is some 70 cars. Each car has thirty sets of slick tyres, four per car, which is 120 tyres. Times 70 cars, gives 8,400 tyres, at about EUR 600 each, resulting in EUR 5,040,000 just for tyres.

View attachment 424418

The 70 cars grid starts to form for its rolling start, the teams setting up with their tyre crews:

View attachment 424424

RJN is gentleman Bob Neville's Team - based in Oxfordshire.

All the teams have a Tyre Bitch for this event - an individual whose sole responsibility is to manage tyres.

Tyres are pre-heated in a tent out back of each garage - mostly powered by space heaters. The Tyre Manager must ensure that tyres are mounted, balanced, pressures set and heated for when they are required. Tyres shouldn't be heated for too long, nor through multiple heat cycles.

Each car will have a dozen or so sets of rims (some will have more, some will have fewer).

This being Spa, teams and Pirelli will have to be ready for rain. Pirelli bring enough wet weather tyres to about half the race - around 4,000 tyres. As it happens, this years event was totally dry (almost unknown!).

 

[Wapping]

Thanks, Greg.

Yup, a dry race but some rain on the Friday, which made some parts of the track tricky, not least as it was patchy on such a long fast surface.

RJN are my initials, so I was watching them with interest. A very decent team, as (to be fair) they all are. If anyone hasn’t been to see a long distance race, give it a go. The big grids and mixed classes (races, within races, within races, all going on simultaneously) is really fun, especially at a circuit like Spa, which is so good for spectators.

We are going back in August for the 4-hour ELMS race. At EUR 10 a ticket, it would be rude not to.

 

[LOLGEOFF]

If you fancy some high octane endurance racing nearer to home you'd be hard pressed to beat just over 8.33 hours of cut and thrust of The EnduroKA Indy 500 at Brands Hatch in November. Spectators can see nearly all of the World famous Indy Circuit with an unbeatable entrance fee and access most areas pass. Free Camping too!

 

[richardbd]

Cheers Richard,,
Very well written and pictured aswell...

What Crumbles said +1

 

[Wapping]

Thank you.

 

[richardbd]

Thank you.

No, thank you