16th October 6 hour Ebusu Endurance Race - Alex Labrador (2nd of 4 drivers).

I woke up thinking the fire alarm had gone off… Turned out Miguel was on the phone at reception ringing for 3 minutes. Yeah, I’m such a heavy sleeper they’d use me under train tracks if they could…
So I dashed and splashed in the shower, jumped into my race suit, (yes I said race suit!!) gathered my stuff and went downstairs. The others had left already…
I’d driven the Prelude up the day before – so I’d been elected to drive it to the track, stopping on the way to fill the jerry cans and tank with Hi-Oku.

Simon had been the first to drive and I’d been getting a little nervous as my time to prepare was up, but then Miguel told me, “Get ready, 2 laps and we’ve got a pit stop – you’re on”!
We weren’t wasting any time. The car came in; I helped Simon out and jumped inside. I couldn't get the harness on quick enough then bam!! GO! GO! Fuel stop was fast – and I was off…

I’d only driven the first race, back when we used the spare TEIN suspension because the Aragosta suspension still wasn’t completed from the overhaul. Now getting out there, I could immediately feel the car was a lot more stable. It took me about 4-5 laps to get my bearings on the track and I began to throw it around harder... Looking up at the traqmate I spotted 1.11 as my lap time. That’s about 5 seconds a lap quicker than I did in the 1st race!
I began to settle into the groove of overtaking before corners & throwing the car in, knowing it wouldn’t under steer. Boy, was I having fun…. Don’t know if it’ll appear in the video clips, but I was having so much fun I couldn’t help whooping a few times & I KNOW I had the same concentrated grin inside my helmet that Rossi wore on the outside of his helmet last year... I was racing!!

The car would slide on the Chicane and was frisky on the bottom right sweeper as I began to brake – but despite a little slip, it felt totally stable & wasn’t going to bite. All too soon, my time was up as I began to see the fuel reserve warning light come on... The guys were at the pit calling me in…
Like Miguel had said – the car would take whatever I could throw at it, or it into. This thing’s unbreakable!
I had quite a few miss-shifts and trips to the rev-limiter (Good reason to get Redline Heavy Shockproof in that box!) which lost me split seconds, but I found out after I came in I’d done a mid 1.10 amongst other faster laps.
Felt sorry for Sumi who had been sick and not able to make it. Thanks to him, I’d had the most fun time behind the wheel yet…