Norry Taylor's 'Le Shark' team coasted to victory after dominating the 1999 24hr race at Mondello Park. They took the lead after five hours and never looked under any real threat. Their former Australian touring car driver, Alan Gow, even found the time to pull into the pits just to wish fellow driver Cameron Ritchie a happy birthday!
Their nearest competition, the ECAS (1) car of Richard Dalton, Gary Byatt and Pete Sparrow, was eliminated in dramatic fashion. Their long struggle to keep pace with the Scots seemed to be paying off toward the end of the race until a broken track rod sent the car off into the gravel. As it happened within the last hour, the 'no towback' rule was brought into play by the course officials, forcing the team to make a desperate attempt to get the car back onto the track themselves. This resulted in immediate disqualification - a bitter reward for all their hard work. In the history of the race, this was the first time that Dalton had not made an appearance on the podium.
The second Shark car of circuit owner Martin Birraine had been very much in contention, and had led briefly until problems saw them in the pits for over half an hour with an engine change. Despite coming back out at the tail end of the grid, Birraine and fellow drivers James Birraine, Damien Faulkener and Jonathon Taylor pulled it all together to finish an incredible 7th.
It must have been hard for the ECAS boys to watch the rescue vehicle go out to tow in the Yellow Peril car of Neil Thompson, Nick Woodward and Christine Savage shortly after, as it had been deemed to be in a dangerous position on the track. Their race had been a catalogue of bad luck - a broken wheel after just half an hour, a blown engine and a broken exhaust. The car only just managed to crawl home as the front suspension arm had broken, leaving the wheel attached only by the track rod and drive shaft.
Broken wheels were to be a factor for other teams on the day. The ECAS (0) suffered a similar problem, but managed to make it back to the pits before they suffered the same fate as Yellow Peril. Mike Cooper's Air Cooled Racing team were another victim of the phenomenon, which some blamed on the use of 145mm tyres, and others on the quality of wheel nuts being used.
Finishing last, and in a fairly poor state of repair, was the Murphedes car of Mick and Paul Murphy and Kevin Baker. They kept the rescue vehicle busy with a total of six tow-backs following a variety of accidents, the worst of which was a roll into the tyre barrier. Despite this they managed to keep the car running to bring it home, and also to scoop the coveted 'Spirit of the Meeting' award.
