Ryan McLeod’s MARC Focus V8 team is currently in the midst of an ambitious program that sees it competing in 24 hour races on consecutive weekends.
The three-car team has arrived at Spain’s Circuit de Catalunya for the Barcelona 24 Hour just days after seeing the chequered flag at the Zolder 24 Hours in Belgium.
A 12-strong crew of Australian mechanics are in Europe for the project, which comes after earlier 12 hour outings for the cars at Bathurst in February and Zandvoort in May.
Its highest placed car, driven by all-Australian crew Jake Camilleri, Malcolm Niall, Brett Niall and Clint Harvey finished fifth outright at Zolder.
Its other entries of Michael Benton/Hadrian Morrall/Kris Van Kelst/Stienes Longin and Keith Kassulke/James Kaye/Kevin Veltman/Daniel Lloyd were 12th and 16th respectively, with the latter having lost time with a gearbox failure.
Team owner McLeod says that doing the back-to-back races is a major logistical challenge.
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“We stayed behind at Zolder on Monday and Tuesday to work on the cars and fit a lot of pre-prepared parts before heading to Barcelona,” McLeod told Speedcafe.com.
“One of the cars has had an engine change because we hadn’t done one since we built it but, apart from the gearbox issue, the cars pretty much ran faultlessly at Zolder, which helps.
“It’s crazy enough to do one 24 hour race, but to do two with three cars in each is logistically very challenging.
“It’s a big effort and it’s turning plenty of heads over here, the fact that we’re doing the double in a remote location with cars that we’ve built ourselves.
“We’ve got a fantastic crew of guys here who have made it possible.
“It’s gone well so far and the cars were built for these races, but the true test will be how we go this weekend.
“The competition will be much more intense, so we’ll be focussed on the SP2 Class, which will be pretty hard fought.”
The Camilleri/Niall/Niall/Harvey combination remains in place for Barcelona, while the remaining cars will see Kassulke/Kim Holmgard/Nigel Farmer/Max Twigg and Benton/Morrall/Kaye/Kasper Jensen/Beric Lynton behind the wheel.
Unlike Zolder, the Spanish race allows GT3 specification entries, with a quartet of Mercedes SLSs, two Ferrari 458s, an Audi R8, Lamborghini Gallardo and BMW Z4 set to battle it out of overall honours.
The main opposition for the Australians in SP2 will come form a trio of 6.2 litre Chevrolet V8 powered BMW 1 Series coupes which, like the Focus V8s, feature a purpose-built chassis.
McLeod has meanwhile confirmed that construction of two new MARC V8s are underway in Queensland and will almost certainly sport Focus bodywork.
The MARC crew is planning to compete in both the January 8-10 Dubai 24 Hours and February 6-8 Bathurst 12 Hour next year.
The close proximity of the events has been a key motivator to build the additional cars.
“We’ll definitely run two cars in the Bathurst 12 Hour next year and are trying for three,” explained McLeod.
“At the moment we’re looking at the option of airfreighting one of two cars back for Bathurst from Dubai, but our preference is to build another new car.”
Three MARC V8s appeared on the Bathurst 12 Hour entry list published by race organisers last month.
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