The team failed to finish the two 10-hour days of racing, but it was a much improved effort on its last race in September of last year, in which the car only made it through one and a half laps.

With a new motor, team captain Mark Cottrell said the car was running well before the wheel studs on a rear wheel gave away.

“Unfortunately an hour from the end the wheel studs broke and the car spun two and a half times,” he said.

“We started the race and had good pace. Our new motor was very strong and we were doing competitive lap times.

“We were running as high as 11^th before we started encountering brake shuddering, which took us out for 30 minutes. That dropped us down to 25^th and then over the two days we climbed back up to 17^th.

“We wanted to get to the finish, but this was something that was unexpected.”

Cottrell said there were pleasing signs before the next endurance race in September.

“We are encouraged and we have a list of things to go over and fix before our September race,” he said.

“I firmly believe we could challenge it with the faster cars if we didn’t have those issues.

“It was a good weekend and the car was running well for most of the time and hopefully we can give it a red hot crack next time.”