12 Hours Le Brno 2007 LeBrno, F1, formule 1, okruhy

12 Hours Le Brno 2007

J.Beneš,text i foto | 31.3.07 | J. Beneš

Brno

Well, it is over now. The thirteenth event capped the seventh year of the amateur endurance race series on circuits, organized by the Brno ARC. For those uninformed, it is in fact the only possibility to taste the atmosphere of a real car racing, without the need of super licence and million's sponsors. Now, there are even teams, which are able to rent a driver's position to the potential racers, which deals with the worries of the preparation of the car or its potential damage.

This year's winter with its temperatures and the amount of snow promised, that the drivers might not search the surroundings of their houses with the avalanche sticks to find their cars and prepare them for the race, as it happened before the spring race in Most last year. However, there must have been some weird turbulences over Blanensko, as the pile of various parts brought there on Friday evening, to the box number fifteen, did not resemble anything. When one of the participants discovered a sleeping slow-worm and a fallen crucifix, the marry group decided to assemble an Alfa Romeo. The overnight shift was successful and a "honey" Alfa 75 went on the circuit like the wind. This anecdote proves that you do not have to worry about the preparation and still enjoy yourself a lot. The joyous triumph was only a little spoiled by the driver finishing the race, who, probably totally confused from the sleepless nights and overall exhaustion, kept ignoring the marshals chasing him on the final straight with the STOP/GO sign with the number fifteen on it. This exhausted poor fellow probably did not have a clue what car he was actually driving let alone its number. The embarrassing story ended when the car was infamously pulled over by the Safety Car and disqualified. The fact, that it happened thirty minutes before the end, with the heroic Alfa lapping around the fifth place in its class only highlights the absurdity of the situation. Hopefully they get better next time.There were again some thirty-five cars in the race, split into four categories this time. The organizers prepared another category for this season, 2600 to 3600 ccm, so that also owners of M3s and Porsches could spin their wheels. Otherwise the rules remained pretty much the same, except for a couple of unimportant changes, like the possibility of removing the interior, including the seats and wider range of possible adjustments of the components. Only the driver's seat and the instrument panel must remain. You can find a detailed rules for the race, including the German version, on the www.arcbrno.czThe event followed already many times proved scenario and again without any major problems. A group of Germans from Ingolstadt became regular participants, their number growing slowly bigger, and one of them, Thomas Felbermayr with BMW/AUDI became, together with his team, the overall winner, taking an amazing 262 laps in twelve hours. He also set the best lap time at 2.29,503 min, which means an average speed of 130.103 kmh.Well, the magic number thirteen did not show its dark side, quite the opposite, it proved the right direction of our heading. The next event will be the six-hour race in Most on 30 August 2007, where the amateur drivers will race again for the cups of victory. There was some rumour about a June trip to Hungaroring, but that is just speculation yet. Therefore the event before the holidays is going to be a trip, organized by the ARC, to the famous Twenty-four Hours of Le Mans. This year's duel between Audi and Peugeot, together with the 75th anniversary will definitely be phenomenal.