FIA GT3, Silverstone – Race Two Report
Two Out Of Two For AutoGT

(Images to follow)

French squad AutoGT racing rounded off a very good weekend on Sunday with victory for the #101 Morgan Aero Super Sport in the second race, to add to the sister car’s victory on Saturday.

The #37 Zakspeed Viper was out of this event with a very twisted chassis after crashing in the first race, but the #8 Kessel racing Ferrari was back in after replacing the gearbox which had prevented it from racing the previous day. 37 cars would thus be taking the start.

Diego Alessi made a very good start in the #17 Marc Sourd Racing Corvette, deposing Sean Edwards‘ Mühlner Porsche from second by the time the pack reached Maggotts. Dino Lunardi then further demoted the Porsche by squeezing the #2 Matech Ford GT through at Stowe. The Englishman responded and harassed the Ford until, on lap two, the two cars touched at Woodcote and Edwards was through; Lunardi dropping to 12th. On his next lap, Edwards set the race’s fastest lap, 1:51.363 – a time that would not be beaten by the GT2 runners in the feature race later that day.

Maxime Martin went one better than Dimitri Enjalbert had done the previous day, by hanging on to his pole position at the start. The Morgan driver quickly built up a one-second lead, but Alessi was not letting the Frenchman’s advantage increase beyond that.

As ever in such a large field, several scraps were taking place throughout the field. Johan-Boris Scheier in the #100 Morgan was fighting over seventh place with Julien Rodrigues’ #3 Hexis Aston; Christopher Haase was beginning to pick up places after qualifying only 16th in the #26 Phoenix Audi – up to tenth by lap five; Tim Sugden was progressing through the field in the #22 Trackspeed Porsche after starting from the pitlane; and both CRS Ferraris were progressing well – Phil Quaife and Chris Goodwin keeping the 430 Scuderias in contention.

Sascha Bert meanwhile was up to fifth by lap four, having started in tenth, but the gorgeous #36 Viper was coming under ever-closer scrutiny from Thomas Mutsch in the #1 Matech Ford; and by lap eight the gap was just 0.2s.

The two Gold-rated German Drivers in the big muscle cars made for great entertainment as they battled round the five kilometre track for lap after lap; but Mutsch’s patience expired on lap 16 with an optimistic lunge down the inside at Stowe that ended with a mighty impact and the sight of the two cars spinning off track – the Viper out on the spot with a broken front right wheel, and the Ford damaged enough to retire four laps later. A sad end to a fine battle.

By this stage, Edwards had regained second from Alessi and Haase was up to eighth. The race was now following a similar pattern to the first round, with the top four having broken away, and with the main body of the field a long way adrift.

Martin’s lead was just under two seconds when the pit window opened, with Chris Goodwin one of the first stoppers, to hand over to Chris Niarchos.

Scheier had caught up with Mutsch and Bert just before the two collided, and so benefited from their demise. However, the #100 refused to start after its stop at the half-way point; and Dimitri Enjalbert was obliged to climb back out and start preparing to go home.

While this was happening, a bizarre incident was taking place at Copse.

Niki Lanik, who had just climbed aboard the #11 Prospeed Porsche, hit the rear end of the #29 Fischer Racing Ford GT – Harald Becker at the wheel – with significant violence; the Porsche rearing up into the air in a shower of bodywork before ploughing into the Copse tyre wall, closely followed by the Ford. It was unclear as to the cause of the incident, but the closing speed involved at such a high-speed corner suggested that one of them had got things horribly wrong.

Both drivers were able to climb out unaided – Lanik taken to the medical centre after being badly shaken – but the Porsche appeared to have been written off.

Despite the damage, the corner was controlled by waved yellows and the safety car was not required.

Maxime Martin and Sean Edwards both pitted soon after; both drivers having delivered sterling work. Alas for Oliver Morley, much of Edwards’ graft was negated by problems getting the car restarted and much ground was lost before the Porsche rejoined.

No such dramas for the Morgan, however, and Gael Lesoudier had a commanding lead as he rejoined.

With 20 minutes remaining, the field was by now very spread out, although one driver in particular stood out on the timing screens.

Nicolas Armindo had just taken over the #32 Team Rosberg Audi from Cesar Campanico and was significantly quicker than anyone else on track – up to two seconds per lap. On lap 25, he demoted the delayed Morley to eighth; on 27 he was in sixth after passing Manuel Rodrigues’ #4 Hexis Aston, and then fifth when Luca Pirri had a stop/go in the #17 Corvette; and up to fourth on lap 29 when Christoffer Nygaard pitted to take a one second stop/go penalty in his #28 Ford. 

Thomas Accary was another driving strongly in the #3 Hexis Aston, and on lap 29 – after a long pursuit – finally demoted Christopher Mies in the #26 Audi to third. However, no sooner had he done this than he appeared to trip up over himself and sent the silver DBRS9 across the gravel.

This gave second place back to Mies, and now the rapid Armindo was very close behind. The momentum lay with the Audi driver and as the cars arrived at Woodcote for the final time, he found the gap he needed and snatched the third podium slot at the death, by just two tenths of a second.

But Lesoudier had kept his head and his focus in the #101 Morgan to bring home AutoGT Racing’s second win of the weekend – a remarkable turn-around in fortune for the French team, after three seasons of toil that had only hinted at the car’s potential. Now it had revealed it in full.

"I had a very good start so I could stay in first at the first corner,” said a happy Maxime Martin.  We were very fast, so it was great and Gael was very good at the end, so it was fantastic for the whole team. It wasn't easy, but we could stay first, so it was fantastic. We had some problems at the end of the race with the tyres, but it was good at the beginning.  It is good for the team with two wins, we can't do better."

"When I took the car I was not directly behind the Aston Martin,” said Nicholas Armindo, of his race. “Thanks a lot to Cesar; when he gave me the car the tyres were nearly new and I could push for the rest of the race and I could overtake cars. Before the last lap the team said to me that if I could be third I was to push as hard as I can - so I did.  The last lap, the last corner it was very close and a little hard, but this is racing. We worked a lot on the car yesterday evening because we destroyed the tyres in the first race and we found out how to do it.  We'll have to see next time because we get a weight penalty.  Adria is a completely different race track.  Here we have fast corners and high speed and in Adria it will be different because there is a lot of braking, a lot of heat in the car, it will be a lot more physical."  
 
Elsewhere in the field, Robert Hissom held on in the face of fierce competition to finish 12th in the #56 CRS Racing 430, taking the Ferrari Cup in the process; while Bradley Ellis deposed David Ashburn’s Porsche on the final lap to take 19th in the Jaguar XKR-S. Chris Niarchos’ and Chris Goodwin’s race was undone – literally – by a seatbelt problem, after they became loose during the Canadian’s stint and causing him to pit for adjustments. When he resumed, he found himself behind the leader; and despite being quicker, was obliged to stay behind to avoid being blue-flagged.

Lesoudier and Martin lead the championship as it heads to Italy in a fortnight’s time. How will the success ballast affect things there?

MH