British GT Donington Park – Race One Report
New Boys Take Barwell & Aston Martin’s First Race
© Mark Howson

The day began for the BGT racers with a dressing down from Clerk of the Course Bernard Cottrell, in which he told the assembled throng in the drivers’ briefing that driving standards had been so appalling at Oulton Park that, although podium ceremonies would take place as normal, for the rest of the season all results would be provisional until the Tuesday after the races.

Thus chastised, the 18 surviving cars assembled on the grid for the first of the two Donington races. Included in this number was the #14 Trackspeed Porsche, a new gearbox (courtesy of Iain Dockerill) having been very rapidly and professionally installed by the hard working Trackspeed mechanics. Not amongst them was the Lotus Sport Cadena Exige, the team having already packed up and departed the circuit after qualifying. Incredibly, this was the sixth blown engine of the year for the team and their mood was understandably dark.

Like Oulton Park, and very unlike last year’s race here, the conditions were warm and sunny, with no threat of rain as the cars moved off for the formation lap. As the pace car peeled off, there was a gap of a few seconds before the field came slowly round Goddards. As the lights went out, Alex Mortimer floored it.

The RPM Viper maintained its lead to Redgate, while behind there was the usual first-corner scrum. All cars emerged unscathed from this melee and largely in the order in which they crossed the line, with the only significant change at the front being Paul Drayson’s demotion to sixth from fourth, the #1 Barwell DBRS9 having failed to prevent both Matt Harris and David Jones from getting through.

This change in the leading cars turned out to be significant for several, because David Jones immediately adopted a very effective defensive driving style in the Team Eurotech Preci-Spark Ascari. This allowed the first four cars to begin pulling away from the rest of the pack at the rate of two seconds a lap.

Matt Harris had started well in the Tech 9 Porsche, but the good work ended on lap three with a spin into the McLeans gravel. “I changed down from fourth to third, but it wouldn’t go in,” began a disappointed Harris, “I gave it a whack, but found second instead and when I lifted the clutch it spun.” Fortunately for him he was able to drive out unaided and resumed, but he now found himself in sixteenth place and behind the Ferrari 430 of Phil Burton, which was progressing through the field, having started from the back row after missing qualifying.

The next few laps saw few changes for position anywhere in the field, but the race was developing in a very interesting manner.

At the front, Mortimer was being hotly pursued by a level-headed Ben de Zille Butler, who was himself being closely followed by Craig Cole in the Eclipse Mosler. The gap from first to third see-sawed from lap to lap, but remained at less than three seconds for the first eight laps. By the end of lap eight, the gap from third to fourth had grown to 14 seconds.

But on lap nine, the Tesco-backed Mosler suddenly slowed and headed for the pits. To the team’s immense frustration, the problem was wheel related and the same one as had occurred at Oulton Park. The Mosler rejoined but had lost a lap. “Really frustrating,” began Craig Cole after the race. “We bought two new wheel inners from BBS. The first failed at Oulton and the other failed here. The times were looking good and I reckon without the wheel problem we would have been on for a podium easily.” Indeed, the Mosler’s pace was quick and consistent for the rest of the race, but neither Craig nor Elliott Cole could do anything about the huge deficit.

By this stage, the GTC battle was distinct entity at the rear of the pack. Jamie Smyth led in the RSS Performance Porsche, from Andrew Howard’s Beechdean Ferrari 360, who had himself retaken the place previously ceded to Keith Ahlers in the Team Aero Morgan. This was probably the first time ever that we had seen the Morgan running at the tail of the field, but that was due more to a lack of GTC entrants than the car’s or driver’s pace. As it was, the gap between the cars was widening with each lap.

As the leading pair continued to pull away, the main action in the race was taking pace in the not-inconsiderable train that had formed behind David Jones.

Paul Drayson’s Aston Martin was clearly able to go faster than the Ascari, but Jones would not let him by; and David Ashburn also had designs on what was now third place. Ashburn had demoted Drayson on lap five, but the Government Minister allowed him just two laps before regaining the place.

The next few laps were greatly entertaining; with constant challenges taking place from fourth to third, fifth to fourth, and occasionally fifth to third. The highlight of this battle came on lap ten, when Drayson, having run slightly wide at the exit of Goddards after another challenge on Jones, found Ashburn sensing an opportunity for advancement. We now had the extraordinary sight of three cars side-by-side on the approach to Redgate. Jones held his nerve and place, while Ashburn just squeezed ahead of Drayson as the cars braked. Drayson held on and quickly got the Aston back in front once more.

This was good, aggressive, but clean racing from three drivers with a combined age, let us not forget, well in excess of 150.

Ashburn finally took fourth on lap 15, but his race was shortly to end after a rash challenge on the Ascari at McLeans; “I got a better run than the Ascari out of the old Hairpin,” explained the big man, “but he can really get the power down there and by the time we got to the corner he was a bit ahead again. I got alongside under braking, but when he turned in I had nowhere to go.”

Unlike Matt Harris (himself struggling to get past Phil Burton and losing ground to the leaders every lap), there was to be no recovery for the #14 Trackspeed Porsche and Tim Sugden would have to wait until Sunday for his race.

Nick Foster had kept the #7 RPM Porsche close to this battle and had himself earlier challenged Ashburn for position. He was distracted by Lawrence Tomlinson’s Brookspeed Viper, which was close behind, but rarely able to challenge; “All great fun but I had nobody to race, my tyres were not very good I'm afraid (hard compound) - no real grip and no consistency either.”

So why was the LNT boss here in the first place? “I was free this weekend, so decided to give Martin (Braybrook) a call on Friday and the seat was still vacant.” Interestingly, Tomlinson’s first GT race was at Donington in 2004, with the same Nigel Greensall sharing the car.

Not far behind the Brookspeed Viper was the second RPM Dodge, driven by Henry Fletcher. He himself was pursued by Kevin Riley in the Rollcentre Mosler and Fergus Campbell’s Team 4Car Porsche. Phil Burton and Matt Harris caught up and passed Campbell, but Harris couldn’t get past the Ferrari. Elsewhere, Keith Ahlers had caught up with and retaken position from the Beechdean Ferrari.

Paul Drayson was the first to pit, after a good stint that demonstrated how quickly he was settling into GT racing, handing the car over to Jonny Cocker. But the fight with Jones and Ashburn had delayed the #1 Aston and Cocker would have a big gap to make up to the leaders.

Several cars followed Drayson on the same lap, and the majority of the field was soon in. But the lead cars stayed out for several laps further.

Alex Mortimer finally managed to increase the lead over Ben Butler’s Aston beyond two seconds in the last few laps of his stint, but it was still less than five seconds when he stopped. The Viper pitted so close to the end of the pit stop window that it closed even before Bradley Ellis reemerged.

Unfortunately for Ellis, that #6 Viper stalled as he moved away, and the handful of seconds lost because of this were enough to allow Guy Harrington into the lead in the #3 Barwell Aston Martin.

With all cars now having new drivers, things were beginning to change. Most notably, Ian Flux was flying in the Rollcentre Mosler and setting several fastest laps in the process, despite Martin Short reporting that the car was suffering with braking problems.

Tommy Erdos was now in the Damax Ascari, having taken over from Stephen Keating, but had too much time to make up. That didn’t stop him challenging Mark Cole’s team 4Car Porsche, taking the place on lap 29 after a nose to tail fight. Adam Wilcox, meanwhile, again had to endure a frustrating pitstop as the door on the Ferrari refused to cooperate with the pit crew, probably as a result of damage incurred in the morning.

Guy Harrington now began to pull away from Bradley Ellis by a few tenths each lap, but the gap at the front was still less than six seconds.

It was now time for a second Jones brother to engage in an epic duel, with Godfrey having to defend from the extremely rapid Ian Flux.

Jones was no slouch himself, and restricted Flux’s progress to a few tenths a lap, even forcing the Mosler driver to dip into the 1:10s on lap 37 in his efforts to get by. But Jones’ defence was not an easy one; “The hard tyres are terrible,” said the Ascari driver. “There's just no grip at all; then all of a sudden you get some and immediately it’s gone again.”

For lap after lap, the gap came down until Flux was on Jones’ tail. But it would not be until lap 41, with ten minutes to go, before the Mosler was through; “I enjoyed that,” said the veteran, Flux. “I had a great battle with Godfrey; he was absolutely straight as a die, drove well and made it very tough for me to get past. I didn't so much have braking problems as have less braking effect due to the tyres going off.”

Jones didn’t give up, despite losing fourth place, and hung on to the Mosler for the rest of the race; finally finishing just two seconds behind.

Attention now switched back to the front and particularly onto the rapidly diminishing gap from third to second.

For the second race in succession, Jonny Cocker was chasing down a rival hand over fist in the #1 Barwell Aston. This time, his prey was Bradley Ellis. The gap came down with every lap until he was on the Viper’s tail as the cars crossed the line to start the last lap.

The two big cars thundered round the circuit, but Cocker couldn’t pass a very determined Ellis and the cars finished that lap just two tenths apart. “He made it a very wide car around the back of the circuit and I couldn’t get him on that last lap,” recalled Cocker. “It’s just like Oulton Park; the races should be an hour and two minutes long!”

But almost lost in the excitement of the other two chases, Guy Harrington and Ben de Zille Butler drove superbly to bring the #3 Barwell Aston Martin home for their first victory in GT racing, and also the first victory for an Aston Martin in BGT. “It’s the best feeling I’ve ever had,” beamed Harrington after the podium ceremony; “At the start of the season, we were hoping for consistent finishes and would have been pleased with the top five; so to finish first is incredible.”

“Really good; really pleased,” added Butler. “We had a great result at Oulton and wanted to go well here, too. But we’ve exceeded our expectations and ended up on the top step.”

Barwell team boss, Mark Lemmer, wasn’t too upset either; “The dream result would have been first and second and we almost got that. But it’s fantastic. The team has worked incredibly hard and the drivers did a fabulous job. We’ve now had all drivers on the podium in the first three races and that’s a great feeling.”

The third Barwell car was some way back in the field in this race, Michael Bentwood starting too far back after getting the car from Tom Alexander to worry the leaders. Ollie Bryant’s was a similar story as he tried to make up ground in the delayed Tech 9 Porsche.

In GTC, Steve Hyde was leading GTC for much of his stint, but soon became aware of a red and yellow ice cream logo in his mirrors. Aaron Scott was tearing huge chunks out of Hyde’s lead with each lap and the Ferrari caught the Morgan with seven minutes to go. Scott kept the pace up and carried on to claim Beechdean’s first win, much to the delight of Andrew Howard; “Absolutely thrilled, absolutely fantastic. I’ve got to keep up with Aaron now; my God, what was he on?”

Two cars came to grief in the second half of the race. The #5 RPM Viper was black flagged after losing oil around the circuit, and was retired on lap 34; while Graeme Mundy was forced out on lap 35 after circulating for two laps with flames lapping at the back of the RSS GTC Porsche; “The car died under me and I was trying to coast back to the pits. I was losing momentum though and it wouldn't bump start so as a last act of desperation really I tried the key and it started straight away. From what the marshall at the Old hairpin told me, the fire started as soon as the car restarted - From what we have seen so far it looks like oil on the exhaust but I don't know where the oil came from yet!”

Tommy Erdos again failed to take the chequered flag as the #11 Damax Ascari ground to a halt along Shwantz on the final lap, having run out of fuel. The Brazilian had also found the hard tyres to be as problematic as the Jones twins had.

The first race at Donington was another great spectacle, although completely different to the first round at Oulton Park a fortnight previously. On Sunday, Adam Wilcox will be starting from pole in the VRS Ferrari and the story would undoubtedly be very different again.