BGT - Donington Park – Saturday Morning Notes
© Mark Howson

While Team Tiger and Moore Racing are definitely out for the weekend, hope has not yet been abandoned in the Ferrari pits, with both teams on the phone in the hunt for parts. At least a rapprochement has been reached between the two teams; Phil Burton earlier went to apologise to Tim Mullen for his error and it was accepted with good grace.

Mullen related to Graham Goodwin that he was on a very fast lap and would certainly have improved his time to below 1:10. His fastest lap previously was set on very old tyres and with 80 litres of fuel aboard. He was, as they say in football, gutted.

Stop press! The #23 Ferrari has been withdrawn from the meeting, but Adam Wilcox and Phil Burton are delighted to report that Hector Lester has very generously agreed to supply the VRS team with any parts they need from his car; so it is yet possible that there will be one 430 in the race.

Jonny Cocker was very pleased with the way that the bio-ethanol fuelled Barwell Aston went at Oulton Park, especially as the green fuel means that they have to start with 150kg onboard rather than 100kg for the rest of the field. He was also pleasantly surprised at the 60kg weight allowance applied to the DBRS9.

The reason for the absence of the second Cadena Exige has become clearer. Paul Whight reported that the #18 suffered a melted piston in testing at Hethel. As a result, the number was transferred to chassis 05 (the car due to be driven by Paul Whight and Ben Clucas) and the development engine from Adria installed. The team has not seen any evidence of the piston problem elsewhere and are confident that it was a one-off.

Things didn’t go too smoothly in practice for the Exige, with the car suffering from brake problems and pad knock-off. “The discs are warping after three laps and we thought that we’d need more cooling,” said Paul Whight, “but it turns out that we actually have too much cooling and that seems to be warping the discs.”

Spirits were raised at RPM, with the #6 Viper of Alex Mortimer and Bradley Ellis finishing the session third fastest. The car spent the first portion of the session at the bottom of the timing screen, but that didn’t signify a problem. “Al was bedding in pads,” said Ellis, “but couldn’t get a run in because of the red flags. Towards the end he got a few laps together and set a good time.”

The #5 Viper did test on Thursday, but a non-functioning transponder prevented the car from appearing on the timing. The Viper has been rebuilt after its Oulton crunch and seemed to be going well in the hands of Henry Fletcher and James Saggers.

The Eclipse Mosler lost a gearbox input shaft during the session, but it was soon being replaced and would be finished before qualifying.

Moore Racing update: The car is going to be stripped down and immediately driven to the Oreca workshops so that the chassis can be realigned on the jig. The team mean to have the car back out as soon as possible.

An unexpected sight in the paddock was the Berlanga truck. It transpired that it was there to support the Jones twins in the Preci-Spark Ascari, Mike Jordan and Eurotech presumably occupied elsewhere in BTCC. It was also revealed that several Belcar entrants had made enquiries about the KZ1R, so it is possible that examples may soon appear in that series.

Team 4Car driver Mark Cole was the latest driver to express displeasure at the FIA equalisation rules, feeling that the Porsche 997 is now the least competitive car to have in the category. “The Porsche entrants are pinning their hopes on the as yet unavailable upgrade kit, but first indications from testing last week are that it isn’t very good.

“It’s a bit early this weekend to see how we’re faring against the others,” he continued, “because we don’t know who’s on new or old tyres, and so on; but Fergus (Campbell) is getting closer to my pace all the time and that consistency will go in our favour.”

The mood was a bit downbeat in GTC also, with the prospect of running in a class of three not doing much to motivate the drivers. “I’m sure it will be different when the race starts,” said Keith Ahlers, “but it’s a bit flat at the moment.”

The Team Aero Morgan started the morning session with a bit of understeer, which the team successfully dialled out through suspension and wing adjustments, but Ahlers and Steve Hyde professed that they were a bit bemused by a lack of pace. “The car is going faster now we’ve got rid of the understeer,” said the GTC veteran, “and it feels a lot nicer to drive, but we’re going slower than last year!”

Ian Grimes managed to sort a misfire for the Beechdean Ferrari during the first red flag by “diving in and sorting out the spark plug that wasn’t working.” He reported that both drivers were happy with their morning’s work and that the team had brought enough compressed air with them this time; “The pitstop (in the second race) was a nightmare! Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. We’ll do better this time.”

Jamie Smyth was happy in the RSS Performance 996, reporting that he was able to take Goddards flat once the cement dust had been put down, 1:12.882 being the fastest GTC time of the session.