Lister Storm - fastest lap in the first hour at Spa.

The start of the 24 Hours of Spa was controlled by the weather ;  it was dry when the cars left the pit garages. With 10 minutes to go before the start, the cars were on the grid and it started to rain  All teams changed from slick tyres, some to intermediates, some to slicks;  Justin started on the Dunlop wet tyres.

He was soon up to 5th position and second fastest on the track - he had a small moment when he made contact with a Porsche, but no problem.  After ¾ hour he came into the pit to change to slick tyres - the first car to make this move and, although the track was still very damp, this was an inspired decision.  He went out again and set the fastest lap during the first hour of the race.  After one hour and 10 minutes of running he was back up to 6th position.  Justin was passing Bertolini in a Maserati;  there was plenty of room, Justin was easily the faster car but the Maserati moved over on him;  there was heavy contact and both cars spun.

The impact had serious consequences;  the steering had been damaged.  A few laps later Justin had a trip to the gravel caused by this; he was pulled out and continued.  Now running 9th, he came to the pit to sort out the steering problem.  The team had to change a steering arm and a rear hub;  this took double the length of time it should have due to the cramped working conditions behind the pit garage;  the organisation had allocated Lister a working space approximately one tenth of the space of any other GT1 team.  Pit allocations are organised by the WTCC.

The car was back on track after one hour, now 29 laps down and for the following 4 hours everything was problem free,  Liz drove one stint, followed by Jens who completed one and a half stints, then Bobby.  Around 10.30, Liz was back in the car.

Then the race went 'pear shaped' - Liz had to move slightly offline at Pouhon to avoid another car, missed the apex and went deep into the gravel; that was the end of the race for Lister.  The car was towed back to the back of the pit garage using the interior roads. 

The exciting first hour and a half of racing once again showed the true potential of the car, and the excellent performance in both wet and dry conditions on wet and slick tyres proved the quality of the Dunlop tyres.  We believe the team was the only one to make the correct tyre decision in the first hour.  The fastest lap - interestingly the engine in the car for this race was the old specification one;  all drivers commented on the fact that the new specification engine which we have run all year has much more power.

On the other side, we looked at the data after our early exit, everything was running perfectly, engine, gearbox etc., no wear on the brakes - there was no reason why the Storm would not have run problem free for the full 24 Hours.