Who won in the wet?

The sixth annual Insurance Endurance race in association with Broker2Broker and Insurance Times took place at Daytona Milton Keynes on 11 and 12 September.

The 2007 champion, Lamp Insurance, could only take sixth place in the Thursday evening qualifying session, with the team from Sagicor grabbing pole position on one of its last attempts, nearly a second ahead of the rest of the field.

The next morning, the weather promised to deliver the sunshine that has so far been lacking this year. About 200 insurance industry professionals arrived for the race and the grid roared away from the lights at 10am for the eight-hour endurance event.

Heath Lambert Racing led for most of the race, keeping Lamp Insurance, Layton Blackham, Sagicor and Kitson & Trotman at bay.

The F1 Pit Stop Challenge was full of exciting and tense moments throughout the morning practice. However, all the teams sharpened their game during the competitive trial in the afternoon, with the team from CDL taking the spoils for 2008 with an impressive time of just over 21 seconds to change all four wheels on the Jordan Formula One car.

After just over six hours of close racing, heavy rain began to fall and the race had to be stopped for safety reasons. Several parts of the circuit were under nearly 18 inches of water and the race had to be declared a result.

The officials had a tough job taking into account all the driver changes that had been completed at the time of the race declaration.

Heath Lambert, which had been in the lead at the time of the downpour, was demoted to second place because it had not completed as many driver changes as its rivals.

Finally, the winner was declared to be Lamp Insurance, which retained its title by two laps.

Layton Blackham was in third place, six laps behind Heath Lambert

Event sponsor Broker2Broker managed a commendable 15th place on its first outing in the event.

Despite the weather conditions, the lap times were still impressive. The team from Smart & Cook, which came fifth overall, picked up the Fastest Lap award in 1 minute, 14.17 seconds, just over 0.1 seconds ahead of its nearest rival.

Thanks are due to sponsors Broker2Broker and Insurance Times whose event support proved invaluable.