Following on from a great performance in 2022 with the SZ Motorsport team, which was unfortunately cut short due to a mechanical issue in the later stages of the race, MPS were delighted to be invited back by the team to take on the historic race once again.
(Read about 2022’s efforts here)
Once again acting in a Race and Strategy Engineering role, MPS would be implementing strategy calls using our own developed strategy tools. using the latest tech to call the shots with this pre-1965 tech racer.
The Ford GT40 was legendary back in its day and it remains it still until this day, with the model being the must have car if you want to stand any chance of winning the iconic Masters Historic Event.
With the team fielding the exact same driver line up that gave a very competitive showing in 2022, confidence and expectations were high as the team took on somewhat weather affected practice and qualifying sessions, giving them a respectable start position for the 6 hour competition.
The car’s owner/entrant Craig Davies once again took the wheel for the start and picked up where he left off in 2022, avoiding any racing incidents and staying in contention with the main pack of drivers. With the MPS strategy software tools running in the background, Craig continued circulating until it was time for MPS and the SZ Motorsport crew to call him for the first of their planned pit stops.
Executed beautifully, the team swapped Craig for their GT40 driving specialist Andy Newall quickly and Andy found himself driving straight onto one of the four fuel pumps at the end of the Spa Francorchamps pit lane to fill the Ford racer with its regulated amount of fuel.
The team once again found themselves making up a significant amount of time in relation to their competitors with this pit stop and Andy found himself running in the Top 5 once the various pit strategies had played out at the beginning of his stint.
Shortly after however, disaster struck and what can only be presumed to be down to errant on track debris contacting the part, Andy and the team found themselves with a ruptured brake line and the team found themselves making an unplanned pit stop. A temporary repair was attempted but shortly after the team found themselves retiring the car on safety grounds.
MPS and the SZ Motorsport team found themselves once again returning to the UK on the Eurotunnel with thoughts of what might have been – with the team’s performance already operating at a top 5 level and their race strategy set to only get stronger as the race played out.
Still, MPS hope to get invited back to compete again once more in the future and we come away from Belgium with another refined, tried & tested software tool that we can offer in confidence to our customers.