As dusk descended on the Francorchamps circuit, Aston Martin Racing’s DBR9s were involved in an intriguing battle for the leading places in the 2005 Proximus 24 Hours of Spa.
Aston Martin’s two DBR9 entries, currently piloted by David Brabham and Peter Kox occupy the third and fourth positions, just behind the two leading Vitaphone Maserati MC12s, six hours into the famous endurance race.
Aston Martin Racing Team Principal, George Howard-Chappell commented: “Both cars have settled into a good steady rhythm, catching the lead cars. We’re happy to be in third and fourth at the moment, but there is still a very long way to go.”
Earlier, with almost four hours of the 24 elapsed, Marc Goossens completed his double stint at the wheel of car 29 and was replaced by Pedro Lamy. In car 28 Stephane Sarrazin took over from Darren Turner and shortly afterwards completed a fine overtaking manoeuvre to pass the Corvette C5R and regain third place. Sarrazin then went on to set the fastest lap of the day thus far at 2:17.017.
Fresh from completing a double stint in car 28, Darren said: “We’ve had to make a few more pit stops than the Maserati’s, but I think we’re pegging them back.
“There’s a long way to go yet – we’ll try and work through the night to close the gap and see what happens.”
At the six-hour mark, David Brabham and Peter Kox returned for their second stints and sought to build on the progress made by Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy as the race entered the final hours of Saturday evening.