Glynn Allen Blogspot: Mugello Sixties Endurance & Pre 63GT Race April 2014.

Sixties Endurance 2 hr Race Mugello Italy.

25/26/27th April 2014

This was our first race with the Sixties endurance series organised by Peter Auto and was the first round of four and the first major race since the complete engine rebuild by Chris Adams at FourAshes.

The weather was bright and dry with the track temperature showing 30'C.

Most of the cars in the race were from the sixties many from 1964-66, so our expectations entering a 1951 Aston Martin DB2 lightweight were not high.

The Team:-

Drivers : Tim Stamper & Glynn Allen

Race Mechanic:- Darren

Engine build:- Chris Adams Four Ashes see link for more details.

Pit crew:- Jonathan, Susan, Liz

Free Practice:-

This was a 40 mins session we managed 35 out of 43 cars with a time set by Tim Stamper of 2.41.519 which was over 6 secs quicker than my best time.I tried to think of possible excuses e.g. I went out first heavy fuel, I am 5 stone heavier. Tim happens to be a fast driver and was happy with the car straight away.

Qualifying:- 40mins.

Weather warm and dry with some cloud.

I drove first with a best lap of 2.46.751

Grid = 43.

Position = 39

Fastest lap = 2.46.751

Maximum Speed = 189.8 kph

This was much slower than in our free practice session and the car would not accelerate normally. Tim was unable to improve on the time as the fuel filter was becoming more blocked with each passing lap.

We found the fuel was contaminated after qualifying and Darren our superb race mechanic drained the fuel tank and lines and then replaces the filter.

We switched from the local super unleaded fuel which caused the problem to the race fuel provided by Sunoco, which we used for the race.

The Race:- 2 hrs

1st Driver Glynn Allen

2nd Driver Tim Stamper.

Grid = 41 cars

Qualifying position = 39

Best Lap = 2.36.904

Ideal lap = 2.36.558

Max Speed = 194.2

Results:-

2nd overall in General classification in the Pre 63GT Race.

1st in Class.

9th overall on performance of index in the Sixties endurance race.

We were very surprised to be on the podium in a race for much younger and faster cars, but we kept it on the black stuff and had consistent lap times over the 2 hrs of the race.

The Morgan Plus 4 Supersport was first and the Ferrari 250 SWB was third.

2nd overall Pre63GT Tim Stamper & Glynn Allen

General Paddock Pictures

Tim in park ferme after the race

Engine rebuilt by aston specialist Chris Adams from Four Ashes

The engine rebuild included a new 2.6L block which had to be made and was the first one produced since the 1950's, a number previous issues with the engine were sorted out by FourAshes Aston specialists. For more details see link.