As mentioned in the previous news item, Rob finally got the chance to race in Britcar's feature race, the Britcar 500. Following Alan Bonner's, Lunar Racing regular driver alongside Cassey Watson, move to Xero Competition there was a spare seat in the Lunar MG. Eddie Farrow, Lunar Racing team boss stated "We wanted to bring someone in with endurance experience, that would be a good match for Cassey and really help us cement our position in the top three of the Production Championship. We knew Rob through his work with Britcar on a technical basis and thought he would be the perfect fit. Luckily he accepted our offer!!".

"I was so pleased the drive came off with Lunar" Hedley commented "as it was real touch and go. I think it was confirmed about 2 days before that it was definitely on." Hedley and Watson would be joined for the 500 by Porsche Open racers Peter Fairbairn and Paul Mclean for the 6 hour race. This would present a new set of challenges as Hedley, Mclean and Fairbairn hadn't even driven the car prior to qualifying and none of the driver had raced at night. "I suppose I had got the most experience of night racing and that was 2 or 3 laps in the safety car during night qualifying in last years 24 hour race" said Rob "We really were up against it in the 2 qualifying sessions due to our lack of track time and the lack of horse power compared to the other runners in our class. Eddie summed it up perfectly when he said that other teams were spending more on their tyres for the 6 hour race than they could afford to spend on their engine". Qualifying went off with only a small hitch in night qualifying when a power steering hose broke free of its mounting and touched the exhaust manifold. This melted the hose and sprayed oil all over the exhaust. This was quickly fixed by the ever enthusiastic students and the car was sent out with Cassey at the wheel so she could do obligatory 3 laps. The Lunar Racing MG would be starting from 41st out of 42 cars but there was a long way to go until the checkered flag.

The race started with Pete Fairbairn at the wheel and was turning in some quick laps until a return of the power steering hose problem and Pete had to return to the pits with oil smoke billowing out the back of the car. "When I saw the car coming down the pit lane trailing grey smoke I thought 'that's weekend over'" commented Rob. Fortunately this was quickly fixed and Hedley took the wheel for the next stint. This would take the car from day through dusk to night and Hedley set about chasing the competition. "The team had placed some strips of tape over the side mirrors to cut down the glare, unfortunately that didn't really help during the day and after several close calls with quicker cars I decided to pull the car in and have it removed. Unfortunately the team miscalculated the required 90 seconds in the pits and the car was sent out half a second too soon. The penalty for this was a 2 lap penalty which dropped us from 2nd in class to 4th" Hedley commented " I just set off after the 3rd place Honda trying to gain back the laps we had lost in both problematic pit stops". An excellent hour and 50 minute stint resulted in the quickest time of the weekend and the quickest the car has ever been round the full grand prix circuit at Silverstone of 2:21.502. Rob also managed to lap the 3rd place Honda 4 times putting the Lunar Racing MG back on the same lap. Toward the end of Rob's session as night closed in, the rain also fell but only at the far end of the circuit making the conditions tricky to judge. "It was quite hard right at the end of the stint when it started raining on just one part of the circuit. Every lap you were guessing the level of grip on every corner as you didn't know if it hard started raining there or not" stated Rob on the changing conditions. " I held on for about another 5 laps on slicks to take us up to the required pit window. Although it was very slippy, the Lunar Racing MG is so well set up I was overtaking BMWs and Porsches who had slowed due to the rain. It was great fun, I even had a 45 degree drift through Bridge corner inside a BMW 1 Series, but don't tell the team!!!" Eddie Farrow commenting following Hedley's drive "I was amazed how consistent Rob was throughout a nearly 2 hour stint. The majority of his laps were within a few tenths of a second of each other and the only time he didn't achieve this was when he encountered traffic at the wrong points or when it started raining at the end of his session. Not only was Rob consistent but he was also quick with the majority of his laps being in the 2:22 bracket throughout".

Hedley then handed the car over to the quick Paul Mclean in tricky changeable conditions. Lunar Racing gambled on the track drying and sent Paul out on new slicks, unfortunately this did not pay off as the heaven opened up just 2 or 3 laps into Mclean's session. Paul did a fantastic job keeping the car on the track and in the race in horrendous conditions. Paul then handed over to Cassey Watson, Lunar Racing young female hot shoe, for the final session. Cassey, as ever, drove a faultless drive in slightly drying conditions and posted a fantastic 2:27.528 on slicks. Following a last minute splash and dash pit stop for fuel and a further 2 lap penalty as it was within the last 20 minutes of the race, the team finished 32nd out of 42 cars and 4th in class. A very good result for a first attempt at such a long distance.

Hedley commented after the race "I was very impressed with Lunar Racing. Having raced for many teams in my career, not many can match the enthusiasm and commitment of Lunar Racing. I was absolutely amazed how well the car handled. With a few tweeks following qualifying it was almost perfect. The only thing Lunar suffer with is a lack of horse power and that takes money, lots of money. Being an education body they do not have the budget to throw at the engine which means we suffer against the better funded teams. However if they can get a car to handle so well without a huge budget imagine what they could do with some more money".