An early lead turns sour as Pro Duct hit trouble…

Waking up this morning at 4am was surprisingly easy – its not hard when “your team” is starting on the front row. We arrived early to do a promo shoot for Advan, but soon after I had rushed to the pits to check out the action. Bargwanna and Seton were to start the race.

With the cars on the grid, there was a slight nervous feel in the pits, but the boys didn’t seem too fazed about it all. There wasn’t much talking though – more silence throughout the pits.

With the lights out, both Bargs and Seton looked as if they didn’t get a great start, but with track position and some late braking, they headed into the first corner holding their position. Seton then got the jump on Owen up Mountain straight, and Bargs overtook shortly after.

It all seemed sweet from there. They were slowly pulling out a lead – the Pro Duct cars were easily the fastest of the field in the wet and colder conditions. In fact, Bargwanna seemed to be able to get more out of his car, and quickly passed Seton to take the lead.

But only after a few minutes it seemed, the TMR car driven by Damien White was gaining on them very quickly. As the track was drying it seems the compound of tyres they were using weren’t going to last as long as they hoped they would.

Bargwanna was first into the pits that would put their car out of sequence from the rest of the group, and without the first hour even past, one of the Pro Duct cars were already one lap down.

“The tyres just wouldn’t hold up,” said Glenney, explaining the situation. “If we stayed on them, we might have risked shredding the tyres so it’s better we save them for later in case it rains again.”

Bargwanna set off for his second stint in a row, and Glenney further explained their general strategy.

“The rules state you can drive for three hours on, with a mandatory one hour off to rest. We’ve decided to just play it fair – each tank of fuel should last around one hour, so if you need to pit before an hour has gone, you will do a double stint. If you pit after your hour, you change drivers.”

“Unfortunately, Bob (Pearson) is feeling a little ill this morning, so he might not be able to drive today. So Bargs and I will share the duties.”

Glenney then shuffled off to get his gear on – a good 40 minutes before he jumped in the car. I think he was really eager to drive.

At this point Seton was keeping up, but they too needed to pit soon and change all four tyres. Mark King jumped in the car for the second stint but couldn’t match Seton’s pace.

At one point, the cars were 1m20s behind the leader, but they started to pick up again.

Glenney jumped in for his stint, and started to reel the leaders in. One second, two seconds per lap – the Yellow Pro Duct was picking off it’s competitors one by one.

At the same time, the TV crew came in for an interview with Seton and Bargwanna. One of the crew tried to stick their board of sponsors into the camera view, but failed.

The two cars were getting further apart. King was dropping back, struggling for grip while Glenney at the end moved up into 3rd, before the next driver change and Bargwanna took over.

Then it got really exciting. It was like this: White was first, with Hill in the BMW 335Ci hot on it’s tail. Eric Bana was in third, only a second off the pace of the leaders with Bargwanna in fourth, slowly pulling the actor closer and closer. Then it started raining.

Hill in the BMW was fastest on the track at that point up until it rained. Then, after the water washed the tarmac, a lack of 4WD put him 2s a lap slower than the leader. Bana, with seemingly less wet running experience, fell 3s a lap slower than the leader.

Bargwanna? At one point – a staggering 7s per lap faster. Unbelievable. From one minute behind the leader, it turned into 40s, then 30s, then 20s.

“I could see them!” he would later exclaim in the pits. “They were so close I could see them!”

But then it all went pear-shaped. All of a sudden, he had pulled into the pits, randomly revving the engine. It was no use and he had lost all power.

They would later find out that the turbo had let go. Glenney was pretty devastated, but Bargwanna was fuming – such is his extravagant personality.

“We can look at this positively and say that at least I got 2 hours behind the wheel,” said Glenney. “It’s like God had said – ‘look, you guys are doomed, but I’ll postpone it for a little while so you can have some fun.’”

As it comes close to the six hour mark – Neil Crompton had done a stellar job keeping up the pace in his stint in the Blue car, and the safety car had come out after excessive rains had cause a few accidents. Seton duly jumped in and as I had left, the leader of the pack had pitted and come out behind him, meaning they were no longer a lap down, and in the hunt for the lead.

As Neil puts it – “Put us in the lead lap for the last hour, and we’ll show you what we can do.”

Timothy Luc takes over for the next 6 hours and will report again soon – Narada