Persistent electronic problems forced Horag Racing into an agonising retirement with the end of the Sebring 12 Hours in sight, even if their late demise did still see them classified in a respectable seventh for their maiden foray in the endurance classic.
A tough race that started badly when a last minute revision to the car on the grid saw the Judd-powered Lola of Didier Theys, Fredy Leinhard and Eric van de Poele forced to begin the event from the pit lane, Theys ran well early on, battling his way up from last to a best of sixth place in class and eighth overall by the end of the second hour, the Belgian holding that place for the next four.
However, by this point the paddling shift system had been hit by a fault, forcing all three drivers to revert to the more time-consuming manual gearbox. Worse was to come though when a problem with the power steering cost them 14 minutes and 11 laps in the pit lane.
Dropping to tenth overall and sixth in class, Horag entered the final hour with a finish on the cards but more terminal electrical problems struck with just 50 minutes remaining, forcing van de Poele to park the car up and admit defeat.
"The dash had been flickering but then everything just went dark,” he said. “I coasted to a stop. I didn't even have radio communication to tell them where I was. We have been chasing an electronics problem all week. None of us had any contact on the track with anyone; there isn't a scratch on the car. It's a shame we couldn't finish; we were able to do some good laps."
Still, despite losing so much time, the trio would still be recognised as seventh in class, something that encouraged the team even if they were upset at not quite being able to finish one of the most challenging races in the world.
"All the problems we had were related to some electronic problem,” said Theys. “We knew with our lack of testing and our budget that we would not be the fastest; our goal was to finish the race. I think if we hadn't had the problem with the power steering system we would have done that and we would have been sixth in class."
