'Lion Hearted Peugeot'

The www.theAA.com MSA British Touring Car Championship was blessed with a morning of glorious sunshine as the rest of the country was doused with rainy showers for practice and then qualifying sessions. But this merely signified the start of the long night that was in store for all teams in this, the second of the two allocated night races.

The unusual format of the night races gives teams the added workload of producing two days of work in a one-day session. Free practice 1 and 2 then qualifying all takes place before 3.30pm, this is then followed by the pit lane walk about at 5.30pm, that leads into the 18 lap SPRINT RACE at 8.15pm, followed by the 34 lap FEATURE RACE at 10.50pm. The crowds certainly get good value for money, with a day packed full of practice, qualifying and racing from not only the BTC categories but also all the support races that, when the night comes, are all transformed into a magical spectacle in the dark.

Championship leader Jason Plato started both races in pole position. Steve Soper and Dan Eaves qualified in 5th and 6th place respectively for the Sprint race, Soper put in a time of 1.14.127 with Dan Eaves running only 0.06 seconds behind that. Yet both Coupes, despite the obvious increase in their speed, were struggling to keep up with Vauxhall Astra of Jason Plato, who was running just under a second quicker per lap.

After a morning of perfect racing conditions with high track temperatures and bright sunshine, the evening drew in bringing the earlier forecast rain. So by 8.00pm, with the Sprint race imminent, the teams were left with the tough decision as to weather they chance slick tyres, or if wets would be essential.

Team orders for the Peugeots camp saw the team take a gamble with the weather and start the race with slicks on the front of the car and wets on the back. (With the view that this would create a winning advantage for the team if the rain were to subside.) Unfortunately the weather turned for the worst and Dan Eaves was forced in to the pit lane for a full set of wet tyres, while Steve Soper resided to taking the rest of the race at a slower pace to avoid car damage.

The FEATURE RACE saw all teams start with full sets of wet tyres, due to the non-improvement in the weather, and unfortunately there were also two no-shows from the Alfa Romeo 147 team.

From start to finish the night race was electric, and it was evident that every driver was out to win. The start saw the usual four pack of Vauxhalls take the lead, but this would be a long race where anything could happen.

Lap 8, saw Dan Eaves pit for a tyre change from full wets to full slicks in the hope to gain an extra advantage on the quick drying track, Steve Soper also pitted lap 12 for the same reason.

Although the track was drying and the rain had stopped the track was still incredibly greasy due to oil dropped earlier from several cars. This was a problem experienced by all teams, with a number of cars losing control. Peugeot's run of bad luck continued when Dan Eaves spun off at Coram corner, crashing in to the tyre wall and causing some considerable damage to his Coupe. This unfortunately resulted in Dan not finishing the race then, after a succession on near misses from Muller and the Production car of Robert Collard spinning off at the same corner, the race was stopped for safety reasons.

Dan Eaves said "It was a very disappointing weekend, after a promising qualifying session. The sprint race was a disaster due to a risky tyre choice, and the feature was even worse with my car ending up in the tyre wall. But we have a dedicated team, and our determination will see us pushing even harder at Croft, we are certainly not beaten yet!" Vic Lee, Team Principal said: "We have had a bad weekend, but that's what you have to expect in the world of Motor racing. There was a lot of effort put in to get Dan's car ready for this weekend, so if we've done it once we'll simply do it again. The adverse weather and tight race programme didn't really help us, but we are not down-hearted and we shall be back in full force for Croft!" Mick Linford, Motorsport Manager for Peugeot commented: "It was worth the gamble with the tyres in the Sprint Race. If the rain had held off, our first ever BTCC race win would be in the bad by now."