14 Group C cars took to the track from a range of marques including Porsche, Jaguar, Sauber, Lola, Spice and more. We entered the Richard Lloyd Racing Cabin car (962-200) and driving was shared between Henry Pearman and Mark Sumpter.
Also present was the ex collection FAT turbo 962-011 in its high down force configuration with distinctive ‘bi-plane style’ rear wing. This car was largely redeveloped with the help of Weissach for the 1993 season; this resulted in possibly the most highly developed Porsche 962s built, which was certainly reflected by the performance.
The Cabin car was fresh from a full restoration and race preparation so this race was technically acting as a shakedown of the car before it was sent off to Spa Classic.
Qualifying was extremely competitive, with touring car legend Rob Huff taking 1st place in the Spice SE89P. The Cabin car came in at 7th place, just 0.6 seconds behind the FAT turbo 962. This set things up for a great race the following day.
During the first race the car was competitive but experienced a few issues, notably the gear linkage was stiffening throughout the session and ended up with the car being stuck in 5th gear for the final section of the race. Impressively Henry stuck it out and crossed the line using only the final gear. Race one acted as a valuable testing session and the team made a number of tweaks to the car before the second race.
As Sunday came, the weather was not on our side for race two. The heavens opened on Donington which led to some very tricky conditions. Mark had to try his hardest to convince Henry to actually race, after his 14 year racing break it is no small feat to jump back into a Group C car in the rain!
Mark started the race and ended up handing over to Henry earlier than agreed due to a car in the gravel trap. Henry braved the weather and handled the restart leading the pack on cold slicks. He did an amazing job throughout the stint, keeping the car on the tarmac in itself was no easy task. He battled through the rain and incredibly brought the car home to a class win. For what was originally intended to be a shakedown and set up tweaks this was a truly enjoyable weekend for all. It also built confidence in the car before its big test at Spa…