Continued....

PK - The Support Act

At ten past six David Warnock took over the PK Sport Porsche from Robin Liddell. It was a typically slick exchange, with Robin helping to strap in his replacement while the pit crew put fresh tyres on the car - pre-scrubbed on the back, new on the front. A quick once-over to clean the windscreen and Warnock was away.

Driving a Porsche is very different from the Lister Storm that David Warnock normally races, but he soon established a steady rhythm, setting a series of laps in the four twenty-fours and sixes. "It was very hot in the car," he said later, "but I settled down reasonably quickly and kept an eye out for prototypes and more aggressive GTs.". By six thirty the #78 was holding a strong third place in GT LM, 29th overall, with the #81 second (28th o/a) and the #80 leading (25th o/a). "I went past the Ferrari and the Morgan, and the Racer's Group Porsche overtook me twice. I suppose the second time was after a pitstop. Apart from that I didn't see any other cars from our class." It appeared to have been a pretty straightforward stint. "It was getting a bit greasy and I had a couple of moments in the Porsche Curves, as well as another when one of the Vipers was particularly vicious, but apart from that, yes, it was pretty uneventful."

Warnock's stint lasted just under eighty minutes, handing on to Piers Masarati at half seven. For once the driver change didn't go exactly to plan, with Piers starting to drive away while an oil container was still attached to the car, but it was a minor delay. "I'm happy," said Mike Pickup. "So far everything's going to schedule and we've not had any real problems. Long may it continue."

With four hours completed the PK Porsche was classified in thirtieth place overall, third in class, with 53 laps completed.

Piers had a trouble-free drive that lasted ten minutes over the hour. His times were steadily improving, and a string of laps in the low four twenty-twos suggested that the youngster was coming to terms with the Le Mans circuit. At 8:38 he returned to the pitlane and handed the car back to Robin Liddell once again. The crew followed their well-rehearsed routine - new tyres (a mix of scrubbed and new) and topping up the oil before sending the Scotsman on his way. "That was brilliant," said a clearly delighted Piers. "The car is so consistent and the Pirelli tyres are mega. I didn't want to push too near the ragged edge - and some of them out there are doing that! - and I wanted to look after the car. On the whole there didn't seem to be a lot of traffic and the prototypes were behaving themselves. I had no problems. It's a long circuit and it's easy for them to pick us off. You just have to be careful in the Porsche Curves."

As the race entered its sixth hour PK Porsche #78 was running in 31st place, one down on the previous hour thanks to the recovering #11 Panoz, but still third in GT LM. It had covered 66 laps of the 13.65 kilometre circuit - almost 560 miles.

Next report...