The race, however, was dogged by safety car periods resulting from accidents and incidents all across the seven-kilometer circuit, rendering hard-won advantage easily lost. Although consistently quickest in the class throughout his stint, Erdos had also been facing problems of his own with an intermittent electrical fault. This was causing a total loss of power, sometimes for just a few tenths, on other occasions for two or three full seconds. Finally, early into the third hour, the engine died completely.

Erdos was stranded beside the track for a full ten minutes before he was finally able to coax the engine back into life, by which time the lead and six laps had been lost. The fault was rectified by the team’s engineers in the pitlane and Tommy handed over driving duties to Mike Newton, who completed the next hour and a half before handing back to Erdos for the final ninety-minute stint. "I think that Mike really answered his critics by driving a great race and setting the fastest race lap in the car at the weekend. He was consistently lapping with the fastest cars in the class. He did a fantastic job". commented the Brazilian.

Now not only the fastest driver in class, but also one of the fastest overall, Erdos overtook the race leader at one stage to regain a lap of the many lost. From seventh in LMP2 he fought back through to fourth. He was closing on third and the chance of a debut podium for the MG - at the rate of 23 seconds each lap - but time and fuel were running out.