FIA GT3, Silverstone – Race One Report
The Morgan Roars To Victory

Dimitri Enjalbert and Johan-Boris Scheier overcame a very strong challenge from the #26 Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS to take a well-deserved first victory in GT3 for the Morgan Aero Super Sport at Silverstone – the marque’s first class win in International racing since Le Mans 1962. Christopher Haase almost delivered Audi a debut win, but retired from the lead with transmission problems just five laps from the end.

36 cars took the start on a fine Saturday afternoon; only the #8 Kessel Racing Ferrari F430 Scuderia of Stefano Gattuso and Andrea Palma absent from the grid.

Enjalbert proudly lead the field in the #100 Morgan around the Grand Prix Circuit behind the Wiesmann safety car, but it was Thomas Accary in the #3 Hexis Racing DBRS9 who read the lights perfectly and the Silver Aston had the lead as the cars crossed the line to start the race.    

But the Morgan driver was not phased by this at all and was back ahead by the time the cars arrived at Becketts for the first time. Behind the lead pair, all the cars had made it around the first corner, but the third and fourth placed Audis had swapped places; Christopher Mies getting the better of Nicolas Armindo in the opening moments.

The leader put his foot down to make sure he put air between himself and his pursuers, crossing the line 1.420s ahead of Accary at the end of the opening lap.

Gael Lesoudier was similarly starting to make progress in the #101 sister car – up to fifth out of Club – but immediately undid his good work with an unforced spin at Abbey; with calamitous consequences for his race prospects. Fifth to last in one fell swoop.

The race’s first retirement came on lap three when the Ford GT of Christoffer Nygaard wobbled on the exit of Becketts. James Gornall, following close behind in the #10 Brixia Aston Martin, was unable to avoid tapping the blue car and as the Ford span the two cars had a nose-to-nose thump. The Ford recovered, but the Aston had oil spraying out of the bonnet and pitted to retire.

Chris Niarchos, having started the #55 CRS Racing Ferrari in 21st place, was already up to 11th by lap five and pressing Bradley Ellis’s Jaguar for tenth.

By this point in the race, the top four had broken away from the rest and were several seconds clear of fifth; the Morgan’s lead now stuck at about a second over the Aston.

Aside from the top four, the most significant battle was for seventh, with seven cars almost nose to tail; in the midst of which Niarchos was now in the top ten, and Bradley Ellis found himself having to defend from Csaba Walter in the #24 BMW Alpina.

On lap 11, Nicolas Armindo got things horribly wrong as he challenged for third; the #32 Audi narrowly missing a collision with the second and third placed cars as it sailed across the grass after completely missing his braking point. It looked as though he may have been suffering from brake problems, but he later held his hands up to an error. The car recovered and resumed the chase, still in fourth but now several seconds adrift of third.

David Ashburn was another to be making progress in the race, as his #22 Trackspeed Porsche was now up to 17th, having started in 24th.

The pit window opened after 23 minutes and the driver changes began immediately; the first stopper being Jaromir Jirik in the #18 Muehlner Porsche, to hand over to the rapid Tim Bergmeister.

The rest of the stops happened thick and fast, with the lead cars being among the final stoppers at around the 33 minute mark.

While this was happening, the #37 Zakspeed Viper hit the Priory barriers hard on lap 15 and was out; a post-race glimpse of the damage suggesting that this car would not be taking any further part in the meeting.

Two cars fell foul of the stewards at the stops – the #55 CRS Ferrari, which incurred a one-second stop/go, and the #36 Zakspeed Viper which would have to stay still for four seconds.

Chris Goodwin made his penalty stop at the same time as the leaders made their driver-changes; but shortly afterwards the car was shown a black flag. Malcolm Swetnam went straight to the stewards office to protest, but was told that the black flag was for overtaking under yellow flags. Goodwin thus pitted and retired. Only later did it emerge that a mistake had been made and that the penalty had been awarded erroneously. As things transpired, this fiasco almost certainly cost the team a top-ten finish and rendered Chris Niarchos’ good work in his first GT3 race meaningless.

Christopher Haase was now in the #26 Audi and clearly much quicker than those cars around him. He quickly took second from Julien Rodrigues and was just 3.760 second behind leader Johan-Boris Scheier with 25 minutes to go.

Scheier is a very useful driver, but it was clear that the Morgan had long since had the best of its tyres; the rear-end of the #100 Aero Super Sport clearly wanting to go in a different direction to that of the front end. The gap started to reduce rapidly.

Having dropped to the rear of the race earlier, the #101 Morgan was mounting an extraordinary recovery. Gael Lesoudier had the car up into the top 20 by the time he pitted, and Maxime Martin continued the good work and the car was soon into the top ten.

At the front, Scheier resisted for several laps, but the inevitable happened when Haase made a straightforward pass under braking at Priory. The Frenchman was clearly doing his utmost to stay with the German afterwards, but the gap could not be closed. Things were looking good for an unexpected debut Audi win.

Phil Quaife now found the mirrors of his #56 CRS Ferrari full of Morgan; forcefully closing the door on the #100 at Copse with a quarter of an hour remaining – but the positions changed on the next lap.

The fight for fifth saw Diego Alessi in the #17 Corvette leading Florien Gruber in the #28 Ford GT and Tim Bergmeister in the #18 Porsche; all three cars nose to tail. Alessi defended well, but was clearly struggling for grip and holding up his pursuers; allowing Martin to close on this trio at the rate of four seconds a lap.

But the focus switched suddenly back to the front of the field; Haase was slowing rapidly.

The lead lost, the #32 Audi limped back to the pits where it retired with transmission problems. Scheier now had the lead back again, and with a comfortable advantage over Rodrigues.

The battle for fifth (which had now become the battle for fourth, with the Audi’s demise) was resolved with eight minutes to go, when the Ford and Porsche muscled their way past the Corvette. But Alessi couldn’t relax, as he now had another trio of cars on his tail – the #100 Morgan, Claudia Huertgen’s #24 BMW and Dino Lunardi’s #2 Ford.

The BMW looked as though it might grab position from the Morgan; but, as Martin took Alessi with three to go, the Ford saw a gap and demoted the Alpina. Alessi lost ground to both cars on the last lap, finishing ninth.

At the front, Johan-Boris Scheier completed an unhurried last lap to take an emotional win for AutoGT Racing by 10.502 seconds, with the podium being completed by The #3 Hexis Aston and the #32 Audi.

Had the #101 Morgan not had its spin at the start of the race, it was clear that the team could have recorded a 1-2 finish. As it was, the fightback to sixth was hugely impressive.

After its #55 woes, CRS looked as though they would have a top-ten finish for the #56 as compensation; but fuel-starvation problems dropped the Scuderia from tenth to 17th on the last lap. Phil Quaife and Robert Hissom still took the Ferrari Cup for the race.

With no success ballast being applied until the Adria meeting, things were looking good for another strong performance from the Morgans on Sunday.

MH