The Xero Competition Corvette finally returned to the track last weekend at the legendary Spa Francorchamp circuit. 

After a serious of misfortunes had seen the car withdraw from the first four rounds of the Britcar series, Mitch Millett and Alan Bonner finally had a chance to see how the Corvette would perform against seasoned championship teams.

Mitch Millett has very kindly provided his thoughts on how the weekend went, so read on for his inside take on events.

Starting out for Free Practice on the Friday morning both Alan and I were ready to go. Whilst we would always like more seat time in the car we were ready to found out how competitive the Corvette was going to be in the Britcar field and it was now time to find out. I started the session on wets with a wet track albeit no longer raining. Straight out of the pits I established the car as the the 3rd fastest on track in the wet but with a drying line I pitted and called for a new set of slicks. 
The plan being for me to scrub and warm them up then hand over to Alan to finish the session. Two laps in and I returned to the pits and handed over to Alan who settled in well by the end of the session we were ranked P5. A more than respectable result in our eyes.

Following Free Practice there was very little to be done, with no mechanical issues on the car we were happy to run again. Once again I started out in Qualifying with a warm and dry track. I was noticeably focussed and straight out of the pits we were up to pace and pushing hard, making the most of being the 2nd car out on circuit. Sadly it wasn't to last as I rounded Blanchimont on my second lap the front right bonnet clip gave way leaving the bonnet to fly back cracking the windscreen then disappearing into the distance, taking the left wing and inner wheel arch with it. Rather stunned I coasted to the bus stop, at which point I was reminded by Dave Beecroft that this was a qualifying lap, which left me chasing the timing line to make the most of the lap. 
I pushed on getting a third lap in at which point the session was stopped and the car was black flagged for the missing bodywork. We had however gotten three laps in which was enough to qualify the car and finally left us in P16. A disappointing outcome following the free practice.

Come the following day the team had made a good repair to all the bodywork and whilst a little bruised we were confident that it shouldn't prove to be a hinderance. Starting with a full tank I did the first stint which ran for just over an hour before I got a low fuel warning and had to switch to reserve. I'd made a good push, taking my time in overtaking the cars ahead, picking them off one at a time and ultimately keeping the car out of trouble. As I came into the pits for a fuel stop we were sat in P8. It was a quick pit stop of just over a minute and saw Alan away on his first stint. He quickly settled in with a good pace, lapping slightly quicker than I had done and managed to get his way up to P6 before a late braking mistake into Stavelot saw him slide off the track onto the gravel, damaging the front left corner of the car. In the pits we found damage to the nose, headlight and splitter. All Class 1 cars we required to have two mandatory pit stops of no less than 3 minutes so we duly made this one of them. However the car was in the pits for over 6 minutes undergoing repair and by the time Alan rejoined the track we were down to P25. A strong focus by Alan saw us working our way up the leader board and we made our way up the field to our next stop, seeing me put back in the car. Just as I belted up it rained heavily calling for a quick change to wet tyres. Back on circuit I quickly discovered that she wasn't the car I had finished the first run with. T

here was now significant understeer in the faster corners due to the splitter damage as well as a weaker brake pedal which we later discovered was down to the front left brake duct being broken and no longer cooling the disc or calliper. I realised it was more about bringing her home in one piece than setting any record lap times and with this in mind settled at a pace the car felt comfortable at. After only a few laps a drying line emerged and once again I had to pit to get a new set of slicks. With another 50 litres of fuel on board I managed a long third stint as we hadn't burnt as much fuel in the wet laps and it managed to get us to within 15 minutes of the end of the race at which time I had to pit one last time handing over to Alan who duly brought her home in P16 right back where we started.

Whilst disappointed that we had seen the potential in the car and its pace against the rest of the field we had set out with the goal that merely finishing a 4 Hour race at Spa would be an achievement, particularly given it was our first race out in the car. With that in mind we look forward to greater things and hope to do better at Brands Hatch on the Le Mans weekend. A race which is now 3 Hours