LE CASTELLET, France (3 September 2024) — Just one week after earning three podium finishes at the Silverstone Festival, we've followed up on our success winning both of our races at the 2024 Peter Auto Dix Mille Tours at Paul Ricard Circuit in France!
Our team arrived at the famous 3.63-mile (5.842-km) circuit on Thursday with the 1965 Porsche 911 SWB dubbed “The Queen of Diamonds,” and the one-and-only DFV-powered Chevron B27S, competing in the 2.0L Cup and Classic Endurance Racing II categories respectively.
Three days of beautiful weather combined with 10 different racing categories in the stunning French village of Le Castellet made the 2024 Dix Mille Tours one of the most enjoyable events of the year so far!
Once again the championship-leading duo of Porsche-master Olly Bryant and team-founder Kyle Tilley would be sharing driving privileges in the 911, while Tilley would be taming the Chevron solo.
Things kicked off on Friday in promising fashion as Tilley and the Chevron topped the leaderboards in Classic Endurance Racing II Private Practice, gapping second place by nearly half a second. This success carried into Saturday as Tilley gained another two seconds on his best time to take pole position for Sunday’s race.
Saturday also meant it was time for 2.0L Cup sessions to begin. The 28-car field hit the track Saturday morning for a half-hour practice session, in which Tilley and Bryant put The Queen of Diamonds third on the leaderboard, a result that the pair repeated in Saturday evening’s Qualifying session.
Sunday was our race day, kicking off with the one-hour Classic Endurance Racing II race first thing in the morning. Tilley got off to a flawless start, leading the entire race before taking his mandatory pit stop, but once the pit cycle was completed the Chevron was once again ahead of the field, and Tilley finished the race in first place having lapped all but four of his 28 competitors.
The 90-minute 2.0L Cup race kicked off at 5:55 PM and sped towards the sunset. After starting third on the grid, Tilley had an eventful stint, dropping down to eleventh early on after taking avoiding action when a competitor spun. A charge back through the field, he handed the car to Bryant halfway through the race inside the top five.
After the duos Elite-class pit stop penalty (40 seconds) when Bryant finally got on track he found himself in 17th place, but that would be no issue for the two-time 2.0L Cup champion.
It wasn’t long until Bryant put the No. 60 back inside the top five with no signs of slowing down. Pushing hard for the final laps of the race, Bryant found himself just behind the leader as the timer hit zero and the white flag waved. Tenacity and persistence paid off, and a small mistake from the leading car meant Bryant was able to take advantage and make the final lap pass to win by just over a second.
“Fantastic to have another win in the 2.0L Cup!” said Bryant. “We started P3 on the grid, didn’t quite optimize qualifying, but Kyle got stuck in at the start and had a pretty good battle.
“He got jumbled down in the order with some pretty interesting driving from some of the competitors, but he kept his cool and brought the car in in fifth place, then I pushed as hard as I could to get past our main championship rivals and the team kept me informed of the gap.“
“It took me a bit to get past some of the cars but we got into P2 with about 15 minutes to go, and then I just set about chasing down the leader. I closed within striking distance on the final lap and he made a mistake on turn three and I managed to sneak through. Overall another great weekend, Kyle was faultless. Great to extend our lead and come away with another win before the final round at Estoril!”
Tilley was also satisfied with the weekend’s two-win outcome.
“What an incredible weekend!” Tilley said. “And for it to come right after another successful weekend at Silverstone just feels amazing.”
“The guys at the workshop did an incredible job on these two cars. The Chevron was faultless and a testament to the hard work back at base; with the DFV it’s nearly unstoppable in the Classic Endurance Racing II grid.”
“And of course, I can’t thank Olly enough for putting in one of the best drives I’ve seen all year to earn us the win in the 2.0L Cup! Last year we debuted the car here and had second place on the grid but weren’t able to finish the race so it feels great to come back out and redeem ourselves. We’re in a really good spot now for the championship and just need to put it together next month at Estoril!”
Tilley and Bryant hold a commanding championship lead going into the final round at the Peter Auto Estoril Classics on October 4-6. For more information about Peter Auto, the 2.0L Cup, or Era Motorsport, follow the links below!
Peter Auto: https://www.peterauto.fr/en/
2.0L Cup: https://www.2litrecup.com/
Era Motorsport: https://www.eramotorsport.com/
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