It was all a case of déja vu for Thomas Erdos at the end of July when he and regular co-driver Mike Newton headed out to Belgium to be reunited with the Saleen S7-R that they campaigned in last year’s FIA GT Championship. This was to be a one-off appearance in this season’s GT championship to compete in the Spa 24 Hours; widely acknowledged to be one of the toughest endurance races on the GT calendar. .

In 2005 the Saleens have been campaigned by Graham Nash Motorsport in the FIA GT Championship, so the reunion for Tommy was not just one of car, but also of team principal. Throughout the nineteen-nineties Tommy was most closely associated with the Marcos marque, having raced LM600s for Team Marcos at Le Mans and in the British GT Championship in 1995, and Graham Nash had managed not only the factory squad, but also his own team of Marcos LM600s through to 2000. On this occasion, however, the car had been sent over to RML’s Wellingborough workshops just ten days before the race for a quick re-build – as much as time would allow anyway – and Phil Barker, Team Manager at RML, would oversee the Saleen for Spa.

In the end, it turned out to be something of a triumph for the team. The Saleen has been under intense pressure this season, with new cars entering the competition from Maserati and Aston Martin, and it struggled last year to remain competitive with the Ferrari 550s.