It’s 24 hours and a bit French. Every road to Le Mans starts somewhere

BY CERIS MAIR JAMES / EDITED BY MARK KHOO

My name is Ceris Mair James. By day I work in Welsh television production. I also run a textile design business. But my other passion is motorsports and I’m the representative of the Wales Hub of FIA Girls on Track whose mission is to create clear pathways for girls and women to not only enter motorsport but to truly thrive within it.

In July 2025, I was part of a Girls on Track delegation invited to a special reception at 10 Downing Street to celebrate 75 years of Formula One. But my passion lies in GT racing and it’s my dream to race at Le Mans one day.

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

Whilst doomscrolling on the evening of Saturday 25th July, I came across a Facebook post in the British Women’s Racing Drivers Club forum from Maria, the team owner of Blueberry Tarts.

She was desperately looking for a driver to fill a space in her all-female team after one of the drivers had to drop out. Initially I didn’t jump on the opportunity as I had only recently gained my ARDS Licence and assumed they would be looking for someone with much more experience.

By Sunday nobody had responded, so I took the chance and emailed Maria. A reply came 20 minutes later. On Sunday 9th August (two weeks prior to the race) I met Maria at her home to drive her road-going Citroën 2CV having never driven one before.

With a suspicion that the 2CV wouldn’t be like a normal manual car I found a YouTube video explaining the car’s idiosyncratic gear box. Although I missed second gear a few times, I quickly got accustomed to it and Maria and Esther, the pit boss and lead mechanic allowed me to sign-up to the five female driver squad.

RACE PREPARATIONS

Now I’ve been enrolled into the team, I set-up my sim racing rig in the living room and used rFactor 2 with a 2CV mod to learn Snetterton in the week and a half that I have before the race.

It’s Thursday 20th August and I have to travel six hours from South Wales to Snetterton.  A circuit I’ve never been to before, let alone driven in the real.

Whilst enroute, I’m contacted by Team Langoustine who’ve seen my post calling for sponsorship on LinkedIn. After a flurry of emails and text messages, the sponsorship is agreed and stickers are being couriered over to the circuit. Now I’m not just a Blueberry Tart, I’m also a Hardcore Prawn.

RHUBARB?  I THOUGHT WE ARE BLUEBERRY?

The Blueberry Tarts car is number 35 and is affectionately called ‘Rhubarb’ by the team.

It has a deep purple and deep turquoise two-tone paint job. For the race it was covered in reflective stickers to help with visibility during the night racing and festooned with coloured LED lights on the roof to make Rhubarb distinctive and easier to identify amongst the other cars on track at night.

The last-minute touch was applying Team Langoustine’s Steve McKing-Prawn to both rear wheel spats.

FRIDAY TESTING

Friday morning was supposed to give each driver a 20-minute test stint in dry daylight conditions but unfortunately, things didn’t go quite to plan.

The second driver felt the car wasn’t performing properly and an engine change was carried out.

Once I got out of the pit lane, I made it no further than the first turn and then had to be towed back to the garage. My test stint was basically over before it had started.

After a second engine change, I eventually got around 15 minutes in free practice before Friday night’s qualifying.

NIGHT SWIMMING

For Friday night qualifying, all five drivers had to complete three laps in the dark to prove they were competent to race at night. My free practice and qualifying were on a completely new circuit, in a car I’d barely driven, in the dark and now in torrential rain! I just had to embrace it and remember what my driving coach had taught me.

RACE DAY

Saturday morning brought another daytime qualifying session, with three mandatory laps for each driver, followed by a warm-up session. We started the BRSCC Classic 2CV Racing Club 24 Hours of Deux Chevaux – Snetterton at 5pm. Only three laps into the race, Rhubarb had to come back in for another engine change. The team put the original engine back in — the one that had been in the car at the start of testing. My first stint was at around 9pm and lasted two hours. This was my first official circuit race since receiving my ARDS licence, so I was nervous enough before even getting into the car. Then it got dark!

I had several safety car situations during the stint. It was my first ever experience of a safety car in a race and I found it quite overwhelming. I was trying to catch the safety car but the 2CV isn’t exactly fast. In contrast, it felt painfully slow compared to the safety car and I was worried that I wasn’t doing things correctly and feeling very alone in the driver’s seat.

At the end of my stint, I was absolutely exhausted. After the adrenalin wore off, that’s when the mental battle really started. The imposter syndrome kicked in and I remember thinking: “What am I doing here?”

A few drivers from other teams came over to give me some encouragement. It was kind and lovely, but at the same time I felt embarrassed that I was clearly the novice.

ROCKING THE SECOND STINT

My second stint was around 3am. Maximum stint times were dictated by how much fuel we could carry with every driver change involving a refuelling stop. That gave me a three-hour break, but we had to be ready an hour before our scheduled stint in case an emergency driver change was needed. This time I settled into a rhythm much more quickly. As the night started disappearing and daylight came back, my lap times were improving quite dramatically. I was experimenting with different braking zones and lines to try and improve the lap. I did have one spin while experimenting, but I recovered it without anything major happening and didn’t lose much time.

THE FINAL HOURS

At some point before my third and final stint, the team had to do another engine change that took only eight minutes. By the final four hours, we knew we had to nurse the engine rather than push for outright pace. It was running too lean, so we had to keep a close eye on the Lambda sensor and listen carefully to how the engine was behaving. My final stint was scheduled for around 1pm, with about four hours of the race remaining. By then I was in a completely different place mentally.  With more confidence I could focus on keeping Rhubarb running to hand over to the final driver in the team and the chequered flag.

THE CHEQUERED FLAG

After 24 hours, we did it! Endurance racing is all about going the distance and getting the car over the line.

With three engine changes to deal with, two last minute changes to the driver line-up and most of us being new to the 2CV, we still got to the end and finished 19th overall. And then we found out we’d also won Best Presented Car – awarded by the 2CV Racing Club. I’d like to give a big thank you to the garage and support crew of Blueberry Tarts for their determination, decisiveness and esprit de corp from the run-up in the weeks prior to the 24th hour of the race in support of their drivers. There was also an incredible amount of camaraderie from all the other teams in the paddock.

THANK YOU TEAM LANGOUSTINE

Team Langoustine’s support helped cover part of the entry fee and my travel costs to Snetterton. I’m genuinely very thankful for the financial support, but also for the fact that Team Langoustine were there in person enjoying the racing with us.It was a great weekend of motorsport and it felt like everyone was there because we all genuinely love racing. The partnership feels more than conventional sponsorship: it’s motorsport fans supporting motorsport fans. 

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