Spa 6 Hours - 28th September 2019

The Spa 6 hour meeting again produced some fantastic racing. Olly Bryant had a busy weekend racing 5 cars throughout the weekend.

• Olly Bryant again partnered James Cottingham in the Ford GT40 for the 3rd attempt at the Classic 6 hour race. The qualified 5th overall on the 120 car grid. Bryant started and the wet conditions made it very difficult. In spite of this, he pressed on and lapped consistently whilst saving fuel. Cottingham was installed for his 2 hour stint and did a fantastic job as the circuit dried, amongst the fastest on circuit. Cruelly with just over 1 hour remaining, the car stopped on circuit with a nasty vibration from the engine. This later turned out to be a crank failure, a very rare occurrence and a bitter pill to swallow for the whole team, who’d spent a year preparing for this race. Needless to say, they’ll be back in 2020 to try again!
• Father and Son pairing Grahame & Olly again emerged victorious in the Chevy Camaro in the Tony Dron Trophy race. Tricky conditions in qualifying meant they started some way down the order, and Grahame brought the car home P5 in race 1. Olly was able to finish 1st in race 2 and on combined times the pairing won by just over 10 seconds from the quickest of the Capris.
• Olly set a blistering pace in the Lotus XV to claim pole position for a second year running in the Stirling Moss Trophy race, despite contact with a spinning car at the start of the session. Unfortunately the resulting contact had damaged the differential casing and despite lengthy overnight repairs which allowed the car to start the race, the handling was affected and he was only able to finish P4 and 2nd in class in the damp race.
• Olly again partnered father Grahame in a 1962 Jaguar E-Type in the Jaguar Classic Challenge series. This was the first outing for the freshly restored car, and in treacherous conditions, the pair finished 4th in class in the 1 hour race.
• The best result of the weekend was a dominant win in very wet condition in the FIA Sportscar Masters race. Olly lined up second behind the rapid McLaren of Banks & Banks. Olly’s time of 2m.28s in the Lola T70 Mk3b matched his previous best, but could not challenge the 2m27s of the McLaren. Come the race however, the circuit was very wet and Olly used his experience of the conditions from earlier in the weekend, to take the lead around the outside at Eau Rouge on the opening lap. Olly never looked back and charged to an emphatic victory over 1 minute in front after 61 minutes of racing, also recording fastest lap.