Page 169 - Bespoke Issue

As the cars thunder into and through the rst bend they look like one mass of horsepower as they almost rub wheels for position, the atmosphere and energy is intoxicating. As it is national children’s day in Thailand the grand stands are full, the noise of the crowd for this very small grid of cars could compete with any F1 race, I can see the OneLife VIP box above the start straight, affording a commanding view of practically all of the circuit, the outside seats are full and they have a row of cheer leaders dancing at the back of them. I haven’t seen this sort of crowd energy at a race in years and I have never seen a corporate or team hospitality crowd this energetic and enthusiastic at any race - ever.
On the track the action is on, the Jacky Chan cars from the rst and third grid slots are leading the race, but 6 hours is a long race. The OneLife car had dropped a couple of places at the start and the Audi R8 LMS in the hands of pro driver Massimiliano Wiser was all over Gentleman (amateur) OneLife driver Dean Koutsoumidis in car #25, passing him by lap three, but unfazed Koutsoumidis kept his cool and once car #25 was up to full race speed dispatched the cheeky Audi and went to work on the LMP eld taking back his lost places one a time over an epic 30 minutes, pumping in clean lap after lap and every time he passed the start line the we could hear the cheers and whistles of the OneLife gang even over the scream of racing engines.
The rst stop for team APR was for a front puncture at about 40 mins in, then the scheduled driver changes, but as the race went on in the LMP class with the positions mostly changing on pit stops there was an epic battle raging in the GT class between the Audi R8 LMS and Ferrari 488GT3, slugging it out lap after lap. As we joined the OneLife box for lunch the race was almost at the halfway point, with no sign of any waning of enthusiasm from the team box. Then just as we entered garage 15 to check on the timing of the last driver change of the race at around the 4-hour mark of the 6-hour race, disaster struck. Ate Dirk de Jong lost the back end of car #25 in turn 7, recovering only to ip the other way and take both ends off the Ligier, returning to the garage as no driver wants to, on the back of a scooter. Race over for car #25 and
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