Robin Donovan of Potters Bar's Green Belt Motor Club, made his 12th attempt at the world famous Le Mans 24-hour race at the weekend.

Sadly it ended in his car's retirement at just over half-distance.

His Sony Playstation-sponsored Porsche 911 GT2 was hurtling through the pitch darkness on the fearsomely-fast Mulsanne Straight at 2.40am on Sunday when a major transmission failure resulted in it coasting to a stop.

Frantic radio conversations between the Larbre Competition team's technicians and Robin's co-driver Carl Rosenblad, who was at the wheel at the time, could not resolve the problem. Team sources later suggested that a drive shaft failure was probably the cause.

This was a galling experience for Robin. Earlier in the race, he had watched from the pits as his other co-driver Jean-Pierre Jarier, a former Grand Prix star, put up a superb performance.

He took the 480 BPH car into the lead in the fiercely-contested GT2 class, in the first hour of the classic endurance race.

Later, an eight-litre engined Chrysler Viper, and another Porsche 911 drew ahead in the GT2 class -- but Robin's jet black car still performed like clockwork.

His two driving stints, for one hour on Saturday afternoon and for two hours during mid-evening, were completely trouble-free.

"There were no dramas -- just a lot of hard work," was how he summed up his three hours at the wheel.

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