This article is a compendium of reports from various teams taking part in the 2009 24hr 2CV race, detailing their experiences (both good and bad!), mishaps, catastrophies, and amusing anecdotes.

First up is a report from Mary Lindsay of Team 77, Inworth Racing Extravaganza:

Dramas included an engine change because we lost compression on one cylinder; starter motor change; alternator wire fell off - no charge for the last 2 hours.  Wild Thing was kept going only by the proximity of the nearest opposition and the frantic arm waving from the pit wall. (Both driver and car too frightened to come in!)

Inadvertent discharge of the fire extinguisher into one of our driver’s nether regions necessitating replacement of the fire extinguisher and driver’s underwear.
Broken fan pulley.
Final six hours with a wobbly front wheel bearing, Mary said it made the washer bottle shake.
Terrific dice with Team Badgeroo, our neighbours in pit number 4 during the closing stages – thanks to them for the company and the excitement.
One driver seemed concerned mainly about male chickens although we might have misunderstood him.
Barry is in denial about his love for carburettors.

Crisis Racing (car number 40) ran quite well in the early part of the race, with only the occasional problems during otherwise routine pitstops, such as the incoming driver spinning on the in-lap, or the outgoing driver needing a 'comfort break' and having to cross his legs during his stint! The team managed to get up to 10th place before midnight.

A leaky gearbox and shock absorber was discovered during the night, but the morning brought more serious issues. With Andrew Maude (in 15th place at this point) reporting a loss of power, the car was brought in at 10:30am for an engine change. After quite a polished pit-stop (12-14 minutes), the car was sent back out onto the track with Simon Gue at the wheel. The replacement engine wasn't to last long unfortunately, and the car was back in the pits for another engine change at 13:14, this time on the back of a recovery vehicle - the car had stopped out on the track, and this would cost the team a 5 lap penalty, dropping them to 18th.

Unbelievably, at about 14:25 the car stopped AGAIN on the track, but this time at the top of the straight. The car was pushed in to the pit garage and the 3rd engine change took place. The team had borrowed an engine from Marc Fenner, who had also helped with the first engine change. The previous engine had seized, possibly as a result of overheating because of a broken fan.

After nearly 38 minutes in the pits, the car was back on track again with Nick Roads at the wheel. The oil light was not working, so the car was brought in to replace the sender. About half an hour later the car was called in again with a lack of power from the engine. Timing was checked as a precaution, and after 22 minutes, Nick Roads was once again on his way, with the car now down to 22nd.

The next stop was a driver change at 16:30, but the throttle cable had snapped and needed replacing, and the oil was topped up. Fortunately nothing went wrong in the last hour before the chequered flag, and the beleaguered Crisis Team finished the race in 22nd place, with a total of 18 pit stops.

Grease Monkey Racing's Glen Finn reports on the number 46 entry's race:

As a new comer to 2cv racing I was anxious as to what it was all about and how an endurance race worked. I logged onto the 2cv forum daily looking for any info on cars / races etc and was really excited about my first endurance race / first race at Snetterton and first time in a 2cv (Not so excited about the 2cv initialy!)

'Roo' from car number 93, the Flat Twin Racing team, reports:

We had 10 engine changes during the race. Mostly bent valves, but later on we had oil leaks and stuff as the engines we built up from the bits of the others went on track.
JB Doors lent us one for the last few hours. This one was quite fast and allowed the drivers a bit of fun and a chance for me and Chris (the mechanics) to watch a bit of racing.
Last few engine changes were way under 10 mins!
It was just a big joke after the first 3 engines died!
The fog was very welcome in our garage!
Roo

Derek Coghill of Rambo, writes:

Much hilarity was derived from drivers standing on the scrutineers' scales. This put a temporary end to petrol-related jokes from last year.

We ran out of petrol for the second year in a row, but we let Willie off with it this time (after a brief bit of slagging) because it happened far earlier than expected. It did affect what passed for our strategy though; we returned to scales jokes.

To my great surprise, I set the qualifying time and almost had the fastest race lap but J-P eclipsed this late on. We had cracks in the rear arms (Sean welded them up) and then the engine eventually expired; the car finished the race with my "old faithful" engine taking part in its third season and fourth 24hr race.

I hade huge amounts of fun slipstreaming Richard Hollis in the middle of the night; both teams improved their fastest laps on one particularly inspired tour. More slipstreaming with Christian's car later on, but I was getting tired by that point and decided to come in.

We spent most of the race in 16th place.

A graphic designer friend (my team manager at the last Mondello - now living in Finland) created the t-shirts for me. (see left)

This report comes courtesy of Mick Storey from the Green Electrician team:

The key to success at Snetterton is intense preparation and immaculate organisation. On the eve of final testing, I phone the superstar in charge of all things mechanical. "How's the engine?". A barely intelligible Pearson responds in the Brummie-esque accent, "Well mate - finished it, after tea, its all bolted together and it seems to keep the oil in". I'm left to wonder whether Schumacher measured the potential of his engines by their oil retention ability.

Never mind, it would get better. I phoned up the team during the first test session "How's the car going?". Again, the positive response, "Not sure, it's still on the M40". Its true to say visions of the podium were not at forefront of ones mind.

Our team was epic; Simon Pearson, Paul Taylor, Matt Riley and Mick Storey. Every one has a degree in cock-ups and a Gold Star in forgetfulness. Our team sponsor "The Green Electrician" made sure we wanted for nothing. Possibly deodorant, but nothing else. The car was resplendent in the colours of our proud sponsor, or it would have been if the sprayer hadn’t packed up the previous week. Instead it was the same red and white it had been when it rolled through the field a couple of years earlier.

Testing saw complete agreement in every area. "The arse comes out, please put three psi in the back tyres". "OK, weve altered the shocks". "What about the tyres?". "Yes you’ve got 4, probably". The car was faster in the dark than daylight - probably as you couldn’t see far enough ahead to scare yourself. We qualified 12th.

Race order was decided by several factors, who was fastest, and then a desire not to go after Paul. The theory is, if you crash with a full bladder, it may burst and you will die, so Paul is happy to convert to commode mode during the race. This meant Paul would go last, so it was poor Matt who was in the potential absorbtion mode.

Matt took the start and set a scorching pace, getting up to 6th place with an excess of slipstreaming. This went well until the brakes overheated and the first commode session occurred. Simon took second followed by Mick. Due to great skill and amazing organisation (nothing actually springs to mind on that score yet) by 11pm we were in the lead. Unfortunately, this led to a big stiffy moment and the wayward appendage blocked Mick's view and so he went straight off the track. However, 30 minutes later as the car gasped for fuel, team Green Electrician pitted in the lead. As Mick was interviewed before a worldwide audience of thousands, he lied that it was amazing organisation and preparation that had got them to this inevitable lead.

Mick took the car for the glory run to the finish, two hours to go, in 3rd place – the podium beckoned. It sounds pathetic, but the carrot induced by the podium is phenomenal. The instructions were, don’t overheat the engine, and don’t break the steering, and you may get away with keeping your testicles -  no pressure. Keep off the kerbs, no slipstreaming, this was going to be a long two hours. Then, as the "P2" sign was handed out, this was biologically exciting. Next lap, it was P2, -36 seconds, then P2, -34 seconds. This was not good.

Ainslie was behind, not a comfortable feeling in any sense. I was doomed. I had a strategy, let him past, and get in the slipstream then death or glory on the last lap. The laps ticked away, he was 9 seconds behind, then -1 lap, -2 laps, his engine had blown up. I was unfeasibly happy. So we made it, second place – preparation is the key, this just wasn’t a good example.

Kars, from the Flying Dutchmen team, writes:

For the Flying Dutchmen 2cv Racing team (car number 79), the 24 hrs of Snetterton was the first race after a year of hard work. As we didn’t have a lot of time to test the car we were very curious how fast the car was and how it would do the curves. After having the 20th position in the qualification we were impressed by the power the other teams had. You guys go fast! After some great advices and tips from a lot of teams we decided at the eleventh hour to change the carb settings and air filter to Paul’s (Robertson) specs, better fitting to the Snetterton circuit and to save fuel.

The race started very well and until the misty bit we only had to refuel and change drivers. This stability resulted in the move from the 20th position upwards to even 11th! During the night we had to reduce the sound during a pit stop as we were a bit to present…we heard. The curves went great, but we kept the problem most cars ran quite a bit faster than we did. All went by the plan till around 10:30 in the morning when a good friend, who bought me lots of beer afterwards, and races in the team which name has to do something with new technical thingies, knocked me quite brutally out of Sear corner where I bent my rear arm. Driving over a mile on 3 wheels to the pit box, the team fixed the problem in about 12 minutes but nevertheless we lost 2 positions and 12 laps with it.

Racing 13th on Sunday early afternoon and both Tète Rouge 2 and Stingray gaining about 4 sec a lap on us racing 2 laps behind, we really had to calculate well to keep the 13th position. We managed to race the last 5 ¾ hours with only 1 planned pit stop and a short "Splash and Dash". In between we suffered some clutch problems for a while, lost a fog light while kissing Hollis’ back (sorry for that) and in the last half an hour the fan had exploded, but we didn’t need an extra stop for that. A bit sour for Tète Rouge 2 as they had provided us the poorer carb settings, because as they and also team Stingray had to fill up again in the last hour we could defend the 13th position….a result we rookies are very happy with! Thanks again to all of you for a great weekend. We hope to see you in Spa and we are looking forward to be back next year in Snetterton and ……!

Team Fine Print #97 -  24hr Enduro report '09:

Friday testing went well, setting some good times with the car straight out of the truck, repaired after Oulton, using the same engine, which seemed to have enjoyed its' bit of rough treatment.

After testing, we had three hours to fit a fresh steering rack, gearbox and Sammie Fritchley engine - no probs, we thought. But nothing seemed to quite fit the way it should and we eventually got one driver out in the last minutes of first practice. We needn’t have bothered as the scrute took a dislike to our comedy diffuser and scrubbed that time. Just what we needed at a time of considerable stress. Why he did that, we don't know - he knew that we would not come to the start line with it in place and we don’t think we had been protested.

In the second session, still with an untraceable misfire, we got two of the drivers out to do their three laps each, then it died. At 22.40, one of the guys decided, after checking all possible causes, that it could only be the starter switch. A quick feel found two wires shorting at random. Once we fixed that, the other two drivers got their qualy laps in - just.

In the warm-up, the car seemed to be running OK, and we felt reasonably optimistic of hitting our target of a top 10 finish, subject to Lady Luck smiling at us. And did she just! For example, a little while before the start, at a random suggestion, we jacked up the car to check the wheel bearings, and found that the nut holding a rear arm was very loose.

Starting off 19th, our local driver, Carl Breeze, soon found that after all the practice hassles, the car was actually going quite well. In fact, as the last of the late brakers, he was lapping faster than most, and soon pulled the car up into the top six, where it ran for most of the race. At times we led the race and had moral fastest lap. The 42 car only took it from us with some demon drafting.

Throughout, Lady Luck kept on smiling. At one fuel stop, a mechanic happened to look down at the gearbox and was alarmed to realise that all the bolts holding the drive shaft to the gearbox were missing. We’ve no idea how long it had been running like that. Another time, we were flagged in with a dragging shock. But, it was only 15 minutes before a scheduled fuel stop and it turned out to be a broken front bracket, which was fixed while the fuel was going in.

Team patron Martin Harrold was off-colour and way off the pace and didn't drive much. But in his session he had a memorable moment. Coming past the pits the safety car suddenly shot out in front of him. Having been briefed to wait for the green light to flash before pulling past, he sat and waited, and waited. It was only going through the Esses that he realised that it was not going to flash as he was leading the race!

Like others, we had boiling brakes, so the pedal was long or non-existent for much of the time. We piled wet cloths from the fridge onto the callipers every time it came in. And we questioned why our traditionally mid-field car was going so fast. Yes, we had a very good engine from Sammie, but over the previous few weeks, we'd done a lot of little things to the car that we had either thought about ourselves or had been alerted to by Pete Sparrow, always very generous with advice, and by Ainslie when he drove the car at Mallory. Some of it was the 'bleeding obvious' - to everyone but us, other things were more subtle, but they seem to have added up. Carl Breeze was blindingly quick with Snet being his home circuit and that helped - but he still needed a quick car.

After 10 years of trying, it was amazing to find ourselves running 5th near the end. And in the history of the team, we’ve never had to tell a driver to slow, but we had a fragile exhaust, which would not be helped by a grounding on the kerbs. Carl drove the last session and kept on turning in very fast laps and the exhaust held together. Gadget losing an engine helped us to 4th and a lucky safety car and fading brakes on the car in front got us up to 3rd. The tension amongst the pit crew and the other drivers in the pit in the last half-hour was simply unbearable, but when it crossed the line to give us the bottom step on the podium, we were all elated. And we still are! Thanks to everyone for making it a great race, and to Lady Luck for smiling at us.