2008 6 Hour.

Team Caulfield Jag Sprinters entered a team of Jaguar XJ6 Sprinters for the third year in a row to run in the 2008 Victorian 6 Hour Regularity Relay at the world famous Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit. This year's event was run with an increase in the number of teams with 50 teams forming on the grid.

Our line up was changed with Paul Zazryn not available and replaced by Jim Mulholland in Rob Sinclair's red sprinter. Phil Pearmain returned to the team having missed last year and joined both Brian Wheeler and Rob Sinclair lining up for their third time.

We arrived at the track on Friday night to unload the cars into our garage, ready for qualifying on Saturday. At the end of the first qualifying session our team had qualified three cars with Sinclair's car yet to hit the track. Despite heavy race traffic, our drivers were able to record very quick times. Sinclair had problems getting too scrutineering with the engine stopping. After flattening the battery in attempting to restart the car it was found to be out of fuel .

The last session was the longest and things were looking good with each of the sprinters showing that they were capable of running consistently in the low 2 minute bracket with Mulholland now down to (2.00.81), Wheeler (2.02.13), Sinclair (2.02.42) and Pearmain (2.02.42). Just when we were looking to pack up for the day, Pearmain's sprinter returned to the pit garage with gearbox problems. It was decided to take the car back to our accommodation to repair the car for the next day's race.

Before leaving the track we had to submit our nominated times for Sunday which were based on dry conditions, just as rain began to fall. Back at our accommodation

the support crew of Graeme Rodgers, Chris and the owners, Graeme & John from our sponsors, CAULFIELD JAGUAR SERVICE worked on the car until late into the night to ensure that we still had a team for the next day.

Sunday morning, race day, was cold and grey with rain having fallen overnight. It was decided that we would stay with our nominated times and hope that the forecast rains would only be showers. The weather cleared and things were looking up for TEAM CAULFIELD JAG SPRINTERS as the whole of pit lane were looking on with envy at our grid girls. Sam & Anita walked onto the grid and stood alongside Brian Wheelers' sprinter as he lined up in grid position 15 for the start of the 6 hour. The girls created a lot of interest for not only Jaguar Sprinters but also our sponsor.

By staying with our dry weather times, Wheeler was up with the front runners and got off the line cleanly at 10 am and by his second lap was down to 2.02.26. Mulholland took over and his times ranged between 2.10's and his fastest of 2.01.58 as he was caught up in traffic.

At the end of the first hour (11 am) our team was running in 6 th place having moved up 9 places. We were one of only two teams on lap 25 with just one other team leading on 26 laps.

Mulholland pitted and Phil Pearmain entered the track and before he could record a lap time he came off at turn 4 (Honda) and returned to the rear of the garage to hand over the relay tag. Once again the gearbox had failed and the service crew started to work on his car. Having lost our third car, Rob Sinclair was sent out in his white sprinter.

With the team service crew busy repairing Phil's sprinter, the management crew were making adjustments to our team strategy. If things were not busy enough, the pit wall crew started to worry as Rob's car was overdue and had not completed his first lap. With our garage position, we did not have a full view of the entire track and as Team Manager I was concerned for not only the car but also Rob's safety. Still, not being contacted by race Control we could only presume that nothing wrong had occurred. Just then Rob ran into the rear of the garage on foot to hand the tag over to Brian Wheeler who returned to the track for his second session. Rob's car also had a broken gear box and he parked it at Honda and ran back to pit lane to hand over the tag.

So in only two laps we had lost two of our sprinters with mechanical failures but we still had four drivers. A quick meeting with the service crew and it was decided to continue to repair Phil's car and withdraw Rob's sprinter.

I had a meeting with the event organisers and our team was permitted to continue to run with just two cars and four drivers. However, we had been penalised with 1 lap as it was considered that Phil had taken a short cut by coming back via the rear of the pits.

The good news was that Wheeler had managed to get past dreaded turn 4 and was lapping in the low 2 minute bracket. Despite the loss of two cars and 2 laps our team standings at the 2 nd hour (midday) was to drop 3 places to 9 th outright and just 1 lap behind the leading team.

Sinclair was put into the red Sprinter previously driven by Mulholland so that our team could continue as each driver is limited to only two hours maximum time on the racetrack. Despite all our problems along with Rob not having qualified in the red sprinter and not having driven the car since it was modified our team had moved up the standings and at 12.30 pm we were running in fourth place, just 2 laps behind the leading team.

The next change was for Pearmain to drive Wheeler's sprinter as the service crew were still changing the clutch in the green sprinter. Once again we had a driver that had not qualified or driven the vehicle previously and our lap times were to suffer with both Sinclair and Pearmain recording their best times some 10 seconds slower than their nominated lap times. At the end of the third hour our team standings had fallen to 25 th place and we had lost another 2 laps to the leaders.

Things did not improve within the next half hour and at the 1.30 pm results we had fallen further behind and running in 29 th place.

With Mulholland back in the red sprinter, our team managed to move up 3 spots to 26 th place at the 2.00 pm timesheets and this trend continued despite our problems. At 2.30pm we had improved to 16 th place and things were looking good within our team garage as the Pearmain car would be repaired and Phil would be out onto the track, finally in his own sprinter.

Just then race-control advised all teams that heavy rain and possible hail would be hitting the track with a vengeance within minutes. Out in the back of the garage the crew continued to work under Pearmain's sprinter despite the water flowing around them. It was a great effort by Graeme & Chris from Caulfield Jag Service to get the car repaired in such appalling conditions.

The 3.00 pm time sheet was released and our team was climbing the leader board and we were now running in 11 th place. However, the last hour was run in heavy rain, with hail and our lap times were very slow and with these conditions we dropped down to 30 th place as the chequered flag was shown to finish the 6 hour event. That's motor racing!

On a dry track and without problems we did manage to get up to fourth place outright and we can only wonder what may have occurred if we had not suffered mechanical problems and the rain was restricted to only showers. We may have ended up on the podium at the end of the 6 th hour.

Thanks to everybody who assisted our team and in particular, our sponsors CAULFIELD JAG SERVICE and all their crew.

Ross Coles

Team Manager