Bute Motorsport GT Cup, Donington Park – Quick Race 3 Report
Johnston Hangs On

Having spun out of the lead in the day’s earlier encounter, Derek Johnston proved that he had learnt from his mistake and held on to take the win in his Ferrari 458 Challenge in the third and final race at Donington Park on Sunday afternoon while under concerted pressure from the Mosler of Martin Short.

The weather was as bad as it had been all day in the run up to the race, prompting JMH Automotive to withdraw the Race 2 winning Nissan rather than risk a crash at a time when spares for the new car are still in short supply. This had the effect of promoting the Group 2 Porsche 997 GT3 of Nick Whale to pole on account of son Harry’s fastest lap (second only to Benji Hetherington’s) in Race 2, and he lined up alongside Short’s Mosler Super GT. However, the rain actually eased up as the grid moved off for the two pace laps and was barely falling as the lights turned green.

Whale did a great job of defending his lead as the top three went round Redgate nose-to-tail, but Johnston took second from Short out of Hollywood and repeated his Race 2 feat of taking the lead at the approach to the chicane at the end of Lap 1. What he didn’t do was spin out of contention on the next lap and the Ferrari enjoyed an almost four second lead at the end of the second lap. But Short had by this point passed Whale’s Porsche and the veteran driver began the process of closing the gap to the Ferrari.

It soon became apparent that a drying line was beginning to emerge on the two-mile National Circuit and the two leaders traded fastest times on virtually every lap. With five minutes to go, it looked like the Ferrari had done enough to secure the win, but the rain returned and Short sensed one last opportunity to go for the win. The gap came down in big chunks over the final three laps but Johnston was determined to hang on and crossed the line after 18 laps to take the win by less than a second.

Kevin Riley had another eventful race in his own Mosler and was also progressing well as the track got quicker. The final few laps involved the local driver hunting down Whale’s Porsche for third overall and the gap between the two was just half a second at the start of Lap 18. Unfortunately, Riley tried too hard and spun the Mosler, but eventually came home without damage and had done enough to be classified third in Group 1.

Nick Whale cemented the second Group 2 victory of the day for the In2Racing Porsche and was a long way clear of Peter Smallwood’s Porsche by the end.

This had been a very encouraging debut weekend for the Parr Motorsport driver and he left the circuit clutching three trophies for his trouble. David Witt took his Chevron GR8 to third in the group for the third time after another trouble-free run in the small car.

Lee Mowle made it a clean sweep of the Group 3 prizes by taking his third win of the weekend in the #90 Ginetta, an excellent fourth overall.

Further back, Colin Broster found his ABG Porsche to be much more compliant than he had earlier in the day and took the yellow and red car to second in the group, 15 seconds clear of Chris Bentley’s CTR Alfatune 996.

The next round of the GT Cup takes place at Silverstone on the weekend of May 12th and 13th, with 25 cars already confirmed.

MH