Fuel allowance compensation for class move
Cor Euser Racing had entered the BMW E46 M3 in the A3 class, but being the only car there, it was moved to the much stronger SP3-GT4 class. Clearly suffering an on-track lack of speed against the faster GT4 cars, the car was given a larger fuel allowance during any eventual Code-60 than its class competitors. The team’s strategy was adjusted accordingly, but would of course need quite some luck with Code-60 being called at times where the extra fuel allowance could be exploited.
Drivers at 24H COTA were Cor Euser himself and 24H world record holder Jim Briody (USA) – this would be his 90th 24H (or longer) race! Not only has he raced a lot, his finishing statistics coming into this race would impress anyone: 23 wins and 49 podiums in 89 races!! Joining them this time were the Ducate family; father Wayne and sons David and Chapman, all very fast and experiences US drivers – this was looking good!
Spending the free practice sessions to get familiar with the car and the track, studying data and getting faster and more confident lap by lap, things are looking good for the start of the race. Jim takes the start and keeps it clean for two hours and brings the car back in P5 of 6.. Then it’s Wayne’s turn, all is well, and he brings the car back after two hours in P4. Then David, all is still well, and after his two hour stint we are still P4, on the same lap as P3, only one lap behind P2 and only two laps behind P1! Then Chapman, who unfortunately have to pit after 30 minutes with a broken gearbox…:-(
Changing the gearbox takes quite some time so we are now basically out of the running for a podium. Nevertheless, and in the 24H spirit of #nevergiveup, we get going again, but the gremlin that ate the first gearbox hasn’t stopped chewing so we keep struggling with getting the car change gears in a smooth and non-destructive manner. In consultation with the drivers, we eventually decide to park the car to avoid more damage. Game over.
Before the gearbox gremlin attacked, the car was great; here is Chapman having a few good laps:
Sharing the pitbox with Manthey Racing was rather cool:
Rubbing shoulders with slightly newer models…
Packed up and ready to go directly to Dubai 24h!
Pat and Jim getting ready for his 90th 24H+ race = a world record!
When in Texas…
Texan steakhouses can definitely be recommended!
The re-start was done by Cor, and in the tricky conditions he was the only one in the entire 48 car field that could match the lap-times of the Mercedes-AMGs! Peter’s morning stint also went really well, and when Cor took over the car again for the 3rd stint on Sunday, we were glued to the timing screens watching him make everybody look like they were beginners. Consequently, we were again climbing in rankings and were now in a group of GT4s fighting for P3-P8.
The track dried up so when Cor came in, we gave Antonio slicks and sent him out to continue the charge. Unfortunately, the weather turned to more rain, so we had to look at his lap-times getting slower and slower – until we suddenly saw “Car 70 stopped in Turn 15” and immediately thereafter a Code-60. Oh no! Fortunately, the car had not been involved in a big accident; instead a huge body part from another car had jammed itself into the rear wheel-arch and eventually managed to destroy the gearbox – game over.
Creventic recounted the race in a single sentence: “The Cor Euser Racing BMW 120D (#71, Cor Euser / Jim Briody / Carel Krieger / Stan van Oord) came out on top in A2, despite running last in-class after early delays”. So, what happened and how was it possible to win with such a bad start?
A good start saw Herbie climb from 37th to 26th overall, but after ca. 2 hours the turbo gave up. Luckily a spare was at hand and the team got the car back out really quick, but inevitably places were lost so Herbie had to start all over from P36. During the night it was steady going, but not for the class competitors! No less than three of them either retired or lost so much ground they could never catch Herbie again.
brilliant crew, but a technical issue meant we had to retire the car after only three hours of racing.
Cor Euser brought his Lotus Evora GT4 to the 24HDubai with high expectations. 
The 2015 season finale in Brno had shown that the pace and durability was there, and only a small electrical gremlin had gotten in the way of a fantastic end of year result. Having secured a fine driver line-up with Vic Rice (USA), Dom Bastien (USA), Richard Verburg (NLD) and Einar Thorsen (NOR), his premier mechanics crew Eloy Garcia Castillo, John Kristof, John Meijers, John Reedijk and Khan Shah, and filled the shipping container with essential spare parts, what could go wrong?
Our first unscheduled stop came towards the end of his stint and was caused by a failure in the gearbox system, but was quickly fixed. 
Next driver was Dom Bastien who drove into the long Dubai night and being inexperienced with night driving and new to both car and track, put safety over bravery and brought the car back in one piece. Then Richard Verburg took over and we could witness an outstanding performance where laptimes were very close to Cor’s daylight times and we climbed on the ranking getting back into contention. Then it was Vic Rice’s first turn in the Lotus. He and Richard were actually double-starting on a Speelover Porsche so Vic had already driven a daylight stint there. Again we could see how it matters to have experienced night-drivers as fast-Vic was continuing the climb up the rankings.
