Managing Director of Hughes Safety Showers and former British Touring Car Racer Tony Hughes took a hard earned podium place in the latest round of the International Endurance Series powered by Hankook, the 24Hour Barcelona.
Left: On track in the 24H Hankook in Barcelona
The circuit is the same track used by the Formula One World Championship for the Spanish Grand Prix, won this year by Nico Rosberg.
Hughes, owner of Hughes Safety Showers, was racing at the Catalan venue for the first time and had moved Team, this time joining Colin White alongside Martin Thomas in a Ginetta G55 GT4 run by White’s Team, CWS 4×4.
The CWS trio were forced to get used to the circuit in less than ideal conditions as wet weather affected Free Practice for the 24Hr enduro. Rain also affected Qualifying, as the quicker classes qualified separately, a drying track meant that drivers in the later session were posting quicker times than the quicker cars, the fellow SP3 Class Porsche 997 GT4 of APO Sport set a pole time six seconds faster than the Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 of Car Collection Motorsport, for instance.
Good progress was made early in the Race as within the first hour they were running second in class just thirty seconds off the class leading Porsche, a mix up at the first fuel stop meant they fuelled a little shorter than expected but they made up for it quickly on track.
As time went on and the race settled down they comfortably settled themselves in to the top three, running second for several hours in the night and even topping the board, leading their class for a while, whilst running eleventh overall out of the 74 starters.
They weren’t without their problems however, the Ginetta had an alternator fail, meaning [with Hughes at the wheel] they had to run with reduced lighting, fans and no radio until the alternator could be replaced. Later in the race with Martin Thomas at the wheel, the G55 was also ‘rammed’ by the Race leading Mercedes SLS AMG of RAM racing, breaking a part on the rear suspension.
Despite this they settled into 3rd place once more, around the 14th hour and that’s where they remained for the last 10 hours of the race, nursing the car home with a generous cushion in front of the 4th place car, finishing comfortably on the third step of the rostrum, behind the APO Sport Porsche and the Lotus Evora GT4 of Cor Euser Racing.
Explained Hughes (celebrating above right):
“I loved the circuit and the car was absolutely superb until we suffered the suspension damage, it never really handled the same after that.
“It’s also great that I now [with dropped scores applied] head the SP3 [GT4] Driver’s Standings in the 24 Hour FIA affiliated Series”.
The next, and final round of the Series is the 12Hour Brno, in the Czech Republic on the 9-10 October.