Troubles for Bryant in the Silverstone 24 hrs!

19th July 2007

Troubles for Bryant in the Silverstone 24 hrs!

Oliver Bryant competed in the Britcar 24hrs for the third time. He was driving a Marcos Mantis fitted with the mighty LS7 Corvette engine. This power was to cause trouble though.

Oliver was sharing driving duties with father Grahame, Howard Spooner and Laurence Bilton. Oliver lined the ill-handling car up 13th on the 60 car grid with a 2m01.6s lap. During night qualifying, Howard Spooner left the circuit with a puncture and grass filled the radiator overheating the engine. A new engine had to be located and installed in the car. This was completed with 5 minutes to spare and Oliver took the start and ran within the top 10 until the first of a series of problems began.

A gearbox leak had to be rectified which cost 20 mins dropping the car 10 laps behind straight away. The power of the engine then took its toll on 2 gearboxes during the remainder of the race costing the car 3 hours! When Oliver was strapped in for the final 3 hours, only 4th gear worked but he managed to lap the circuit in 2m03s with the one gear to the disbelief of the team. The car came home in 35th position, some 180 laps behind the winners.

When the handling issues and gearbox troubles are sorted, the car will be a formidable force in the race with good pace and reliability throughout the rest of the car, as the gearbox was the only major trouble.

Oliver would like to thank Brian at Top Cats Racing for rebuilding the gearbox at 3 in the morning!