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This year Hector Lester has returned to the British GT Championship with the ‘Christians in Motorsport’ Ferrari.
UCB is still featured on the Ferrari but the main focus this year has been on promoting the excellent work Street Pastors are doing in some of the major towns and cities in the UK.
Each race weekend has seen groups of Street Pastors (usually fairly local to the circuit) walking around the circuit talking to people and handing out literature. This is raising awareness of their work in the local towns and may also encourage new groups to open up in other areas.
For more details on the work of Street Pastors visit www.streetpastors.org.uk
Literature available includes the Street Pastor information booklet, UCB ‘The Word for Today’, UCB Breakthrough, CIM leaflet, New Life Publishing Newspaper and Hope08 booklets. The item that reaches thousands of homes during the year though, is the photo of the car. Each race weekend features a new angle of the car and each picture contains key websites for people to look up when they go home.
www.ucb.co.uk
www.lookingforgod.com
www.hope08.com
www.streetpastors.org.uk
www.christiansinmotorsport.org.uk
Oulton Park: 1st & 7th
Drivers: Hector Lester & Tim Mullen.
Donnington:
Drivers: Hector Lester & Tim Mullen.
The No 12 Ferrari spun in front of Tim Mullen leaving him nowhere to go. Our Ferrari could not be repaired so parts were given to the No 12 to enable it to take part.
(Luke 10 v.25-37)
Photos: http://www.firmvisual-ftp.co.uk/cim/donnington.html
Snetterton:
Drivers: Hector Lester & Stephane Daoudi.
This was the first weekend in the British GT Championship where there was one two hour race instead of two one hour races. We were doing well until a fire during the pit stop meant the marshals wouldn’t let us continue.
Photos: http://www.firmvisual-ftp.co.uk/cim/snetterton.html
(Courtesy of Gordon Dawkins of Graphic Images (UK) Ltd)
Brands Hatch: 2nd & 3rd
Drivers: Hector Lester & Allan Simonsen.
An excellent spot on Paddock Hill meant we were right in amongst the public and an enthusiastic set of Street Pastors made the most our two podiums. We also received lots of encouragement from other Christians at this event.
Photos: http://www.firmvisual-ftp.co.uk/cim/brandshatch.html
Silverstone: 1st
Drivers: Hector Lester & Tim Mullen.
The second of the two hour races in the championship saw a storming drive from Tim to take the lead with about five minutes to go. The win here meant Hector was only six points off the championship lead.
Photos: http://www.firmvisual-ftp.co.uk/cim/silverstone.html
Thruxton: 5th & 10th
Drivers: Hector Lester & Allan Simonsen.
This is a circuit Hector has never raced on before. He did well quickly learning the circuit and improving throughout the weekend. Tyres here were always going to play an important part in the result. In the first race we continued on the same set of tyres and took the flag fifth. For the second race we decided to change and the pit was a hive of activity on Sunday morning as the team practised their tyre change. Allan brought the car into the pits in a strong second place and the pit stop went well . . . until the car refused to restart! After a push start which lost us 52 seconds Hector had to push hard and was setting very competitive times and deserved more than the 10th place he came away with.
We met with several Christians from other series within this event which was encouraging. Our Sunday Service was well publicised over the commentary system.
Photos: http://www.firmvisual-ftp.co.uk/cim/thruxton.html
Croft: 1st & 1st
Drivers: Hector Lester & Allan Simonsen.
Wow! What a weekend!
The Street Pastors were unable to attend this weekend so it was down to the two of us to man the stand and talk to the people who were at this event.
Croft is a great circuit and the people very friendly. We had support from even more Christians this weekend, Christians of all ages. There was also a boy who is going to use CiM for his RE homework . . . ! Although our numbers were few for the Sunday Service we received apologies from people who were unable to be there.
And out on track Hector and Allan got the job done with two wins. Starting in 12th for the first race meant an exciting race as Allan drove through the field in his stint. The second race was very satisfying, although we were worried as Allan’s lead was reduced to nothing when the safety car came out, especially as he’d used the best of the tyres to build up the gap. An excellent restart meant he was able to recover some of his lead which he extended during his remaining laps before handing over to Hector. Concern over whether it would be enough and how long Hector could hang on turned out to be irrelevant as Hector drove his race of the season in extending the gap to win by a huge margin. Hector commented: “…do you know what I did differently? I ignored my mirror and drove my own race” to which Allan added “… there was nothing to see in your mirror!”. Whilst Allan accepted Hectors “I feel a little embarrassed to be here” comments after the Saturday race he put the Sunday win down to a good joint effort, commenting that it was Hectors “…best race of the season”. Hector is now nine points behind the championship lead with just the two races at Rockingham to go.
Photos: http://www.firmvisual-ftp.co.uk/cim/croft.html
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