Oschersleben, Germany was the venue for the third round of the European Endurance Legends Championship. Cormac Conroy was back in action with ‘Team Classic Racer Nice’ onboard the French team’s P&M Kawasaki. He was joined by teammates Patrick Banfield and George Hogton-Rusling.

The team traveled to Germany, confident that they could get another good result following their win at Donnington. The feature events of German Speed Week are the Endurance World Championship 8-hour race and the European Endurance Legends Championship 4-hour race.

Cormac and the team used the free practice time to familiarise themselves with the track. During first qualifying in the afternoon Cormac was on the track when the bike suffered a gearbox failure. The team worked late into the night rebuilding the engine. The work was completed just in time for morning warm up which was the last chance to test the bike before the race started at 16:00. They were now on the back foot, having missed a lot of track time and most of the qualifying sessions.

The team sat down to discuss race strategy and figure out what options they had. It was decided that Cormac would start the race with the maximum fuel load and try make it to the one-hour mark, a tall order in the intense heat. George would then take over at the first pit stop to complete the next hour, followed by Patrick. That would take them past the half way mark, where they could re-assess the situation.

At 16:00 the National Flag dropped, and the race was on. A rapid start from Cormac saw him progress from 38th on the grid to 12th by lap five. Unfortunately, the plan fell apart just three laps later when the clutch failed: a legacy issue from the gearbox failure the day before. Cormac managed to get the bike back to the garage and the team immediately started to work on the repairs. In total over an hour was lost in the pits but the bike was up and running again, although they were now in last place.

George took to the track and continued the press for the next hour before Patrick took over for the final stint. They fought hard to finish the race, sadly scoring no Championship points in the end. Although disappointed with the result, the team were happy with the outstanding effort, commitment and the ‘never-give-up’ attitude of every member.

The highlight of the weekend was still ahead of them however, as there was a non-championship one-hour endurance race still to come. Cormac and Patrick were entered for the event in the hope they could salvage something from the weekend. The plan was simple: Cormac would do the first 30 minutes with a full fuel load and a quick pit stop from Patrick would complete the race without the need to refuel. After a flawless race and a perfect pit stop, they crossed the line in 1st place, very happy to finish the weekend standing on the top step of the podium.

Cormac Conroy races with these EBC Brakes products: