Race Report – Silverstone 24 Hours Car 564 – Citroën C1
2025 BRSCC SILVERSTONE 24 HOURS 2 May 2025 – 4 May 2025
Hi everyone, and welcome to my race report from an unforgettable weekend at the Silverstone 24 Hours in a Citroën C1 – the BRSCC 24 Hour.
Should you do it? Would I do it again? Read on to find out.
Despite the lack of power, these little cars don’t lack character or fun—and this has genuinely been one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve ever had in a car.
This report focuses mainly on my stints, with some insight into key terms and moments. If I use racing terminology, I’ll do my best to explain it:
- FCY (Full Course Yellow): Used to neutralize the field without bunching the pack up. All cars slow to 80 km/h and maintain that speed until the track goes green.
- SC (Safety Car): Traditional safety car procedure that bunches the field together.
Team & Setup
I raced with Routec International Racing, a family-run team fielding two cars for the weekend. The atmosphere was incredible—genuine passion and a love for motorsport were clear. Their second car featured a father and his two sons, which made it all the more special.
I arrived at Silverstone around midday Friday. Both cars were in final prep mode—mainly getting spotlights and LEDs installed in time for scrutineering at 16:30. We had our driver briefing at 16:00 under race control, where the Clerk of the Course outlined expectations, format, and driver standards.
Qualifying & Night Practice Silverstone 24 Hours Citroen C1 2025
Qualifying came quickly, with each driver needing to set three timed laps. I was third out, but unfortunately, all my flying laps were under a FCY due to a car in the gravel. When the track finally went green, I was quicker than drivers 1 and 2 on the delta by over a second, but I had to pit to allow Driver 4 his laps. This put us at a disadvantage and ultimately saw us qualify P25 out of 42—not reflective of our true pace.
Later, in night practice, the same pattern followed. More FCYs hit during my stint, though I did get one clear lap, putting us P17. Still, hard to find rhythm. That said—Silverstone at night is something else! Flat through Copse in the dark? Unreal.
Silverstone 24 Hours Citroen C1 2025 Race Day – Saturday 3rd May 2025
After a restful night at Whittlebury Hall (lovely hotel, great breakfast!), I was back at the track by noon. The race was set to start at 17:40. I spent the early afternoon loading and reviewing data from the AIM Solo 2—lap times, braking zones, apex speeds, etc. This tool helped me and the team understand where time was being gained or lost. It is extremely powerful in that you can review your data to see where you are gaining and loosing time. And also because we are a team of 4, we could see where the others drivers were quicker and slower than each other. This mean we could feed into each other on what was working for us to make us quicker in each sector. The sharing of data is very powerful and continued to bring our lap times down.
Meanwhile, the sister car required a gearbox change, and hats off to the mechanics—they got it rebuilt and race-ready in time.
Race Start
At 17:10, Driver 1 took the car to assembly. After one formation lap behind the safety car, we were racing by 17:40.
Driver 1 kept it clean and handed over after 2 hours. Driver 2 pushed us up to P11 with a solid stint. In this race, we fuel every ~2 hours but only change the front tyres every 4 hours.
My First Stint (22:00)
My first go was under the lights—but right before heading out, we received a 22-second stop-and-go penalty for a yellow flag infringement. I went out, did one flying lap, served the penalty, and got to work from P24.
Despite limited tow, I pushed hard with lap times around 3:00–3:03, mostly in the 3:01s. We clawed back to P11, matching pace with some top teams on pace with the BTCC lads and girls in the euro car parts car
Then disaster. My dashboard and headlights failed. I was black-flagged (black and orange mechanical warning), called in, and the car was pushed to the garage this meant a wiring issue had to be found costing us 4-5 laps. I swapped with Driver 4, who unfortunately ran into a severe misfire, traced to an injector failure. That set us back by an hour—about 20–24 laps lost.
Low Point
I’ll be honest—this was my emotional low. I had sunk everything into this race financially. My qualifying and practice laps were under FCY, and my first stint got cut short. I didn’t even know if the car would be fixed. I crashed in my car in the paddock for a nap, constantly refreshing TSL Timing to check if we were back out.
Eventually, we were. Hats off to the team
Silverstone 24 Hours Citroen C1 2025 Race Day – Back on Track – Sunday Morning
I returned to the pits around 02:30 to catch up with the other drivers. We agreed to shorten our third stints so everyone could get solid seat time now that we were out of contention.
I wasn’t back in the car until 06:50, so I filled up on porridge and caffeine.
In this stint, I was mostly running alone again—anyone I caught, I passed. We did have an odd issue: a bungee cord got caught under the handbrake, pulling it slightly up and hurting our straight-line speed. Still, I ran top-10 pace, with strong, consistent laps.
A safety car came out around 09:30. On the restart, I had my favorite moment of the race—several laps of clean, wheel-to-wheel racing with cars around me (even if not for position). That’s why we do this.
Later, I felt fuel surge on the way into Brooklands—got lucky and coasted straight into the pits.
Final Stint – The Chequered Flag (16:10)
I had the honour of taking the final stint and bringing the car home. No issues this time—no electricals, no handbrake drama, just solid pace.
Laps were mostly in the 3:00–3:01 range. I was on for a 2:59 lap on the final tour, but caught the race leaders through Luffield as they slowed for the flag. I crossed the line with a best of 3:00.183—and took the chequered flag.
What a moment.
Silverstone 24 Hours Citroen C1 2025Summary & Reflection
This weekend was genuinely one of the best experiences of my life. Routec were fantastic to race with—a team of passionate, like-minded motorsport enthusiasts. A true racing family. The whole family were there. Mother, Father and two sons. Absolutley fantastic and just great people.
Would I do it again?
Absolutely. I’d do it next weekend if I could.
Should you do it?
Yes—but be prepared: it’s expensive, unpredictable, and seat time isn’t guaranteed. Reliability plays a massive part, and even the top teams suffer issues. For someone like me—a firefighter, father of three, solo income earner—it’s a tough pill to swallow if things go wrong.
But in terms of fun? It’s unbeatable.
You drive the C1s completely differently to a powerful car—you use momentum, manipulate the balance, and sometimes even brake just to load up the front tyres. You drive them on the edge, and
it’s incredible.
Some over takes from 24 hours back in early may 2025 in a Citroen C1 follow a safety car restart.
Related links
2025 BRSCC SILVERSTONE 24 HOURS
City car drivers doing 24-hour race at Silverstone – BBC News