British GT, Rockingham – Round-up
A Crazy Day We may have had a steadily-shrinking field over the course of the weekend at the Rockingham Motor Speedway, as well as some less-than-stellar weather, but the British GT Championship again served up two dramatic and action-packed races, as well as two new winners. Going into Sunday, nobody would have predicted that Andrew Howard and Jonny Adam would be receiving the winners laurels after the first hour-long encounter, with the Beechdean Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9 largely anonymous during practice and qualifying on a circuit that hasn’t been kind to the marque in the past. But an inspired tyre choice and great stints from both drivers led to the Barwell-run team thoroughly deserving their first win in the championship; “We certainly made the most of the opportunity that the weather gave us,” said Barwell’s Mark Lemmer. “When others around us on the grid were losing their heads and making silly decisions we stayed focused and made the right call.” And it was a similar story for the Preci-Spark Mercedes SLS, which finished the first race a comfortable second after also opting for wet rubber at the start; the ever straight-talking David Jones describing the decision of other teams to start on slicks as ‘bonkers!’ Perhaps the most surprising discovery of the first race was that Ferrari 458 GT3 – at Rockingham at least – appears not to like the rain. Here’s how the fastest lap times for the Ferraris compare: #3 - Hector Lester/Allan Simonsen - Ferrari 430 Scuderia - 1:36.769
#13 - John Dhillon/Aaron Scott - Ferrari 430 - 1:39.218
#21 - Duncan Cameron/Matt Griffin - Ferrari 458 Italia - 1:39.569
#12 - Phil Burton/Adam Wilcox - Ferrari 430 Scuderia - 1:39.821
#11 - Andrew Tate/Alex Mortimer - Ferrari 458 Italia - 1:39.890
#10 - Jim Geddie/Glynn Geddie - Ferrari 458 Italia - 1:40.008
#5 - Michael Lyons/Charles Bateman - Ferrari 458 Italia - 1:40.474 Even taking into account the Simonsen factor, it must be concerning to the 458 teams just how much the cars struggled at Rockingham. When Matt Griffin can only just go quicker than a Ferrari 430 Scuderia that was plagued with brake-problems all weekend, something’s just not right. No doubt Beechdean, Preci-Spark and several other teams will be doing the rain dance ahead of Donington’s three-hour race. Of course, things were very different in the fully-dry Race 2, when the older Ferraris were unable to keep up with the 2011 cars. Even so, the race could well have gone to Trackspeed, and David Ashburn will certainly not be happy with himself for the error that led to a spin and a subsequent sixth-placed finish. The reigning champion has been a revelation in the GT3 R and an unforced error is a rarity indeed nowadays. Phil Keen’s start in the second race was simply epic as he went round the outside of two cars at Turn 1 before taking the lead from Matt Bell’s Audi on the infield. The spectators were then treated to a classic cat and mouse chase for the next half-hour as Keen tried to shake off the close attentions of Alex Mortimer in the #11 CRS Ferrari; “I was just trying to get as close as possible to Keeny without destroying the front tyres, which is easy to do in the 458 when you’re pushing,” said Mortimer.  |
At the stop, Keen’s advantage was just four seconds, and the places switched during the change-over on account of the Porsche’s additional five second time penalty. Even so, it looked like the Porsche would be back ahead before too long; but then came Ashburn’s spin on his outlap which caused bodywork damage that would require a stop later in the race. “After that, Andrew drove brilliantly,” continued Mortimer. “It’s hard enough for a professional driver to manage a lead like that with cars closing, so it was great to see Andrew keeping his cool. “It was painful for me as I realised that there was absolutely nothing I could do to influence the outcome of the race. The team were in communication with Andrew – telling him what laptimes to stick to – but all I could do was bite my nails. “I’m absolutely chuffed to have won. We’d had a good car all weekend, but then made the wrong choice in the first race. But Rockingham’s been good to me over the years and it was again today. I’ve now won races in British GT in ’06, ’07, ’08, ’09 and ’11 – and I got a pole in 2010 – so I’m happy!” Less happy, despite finishing on the podium, were Glynn Geddie and Matt Griffin, who both were given drive-through penalties for not respecting the track limits at Turn 9 (the Tarzan hairpin). “We had no warning at all,” fumed Griffin. “It was just - ‘Bang!’ - penalty!” “I wouldn’t have minded so much, but I’d been using the same line all through the first race and it wasn’t an issue then,” added Geddie. Geddie’s mood was lifted by the knowledge that he and his dad had just assumed the lead in the championship, while Griffin had just witnessed a great fightback from his teammate to third. It’s always good to see Aaron Scott smiling at a British GT meeting – the frustration of racing in a class of one should not be underestimated – but he was positively beaming after bring the ancient MTECH 430 home in fifth place in Race 1; the top Ferrari across the line. But it was revealing just how fine the line was between success and disaster in the moments before the race started; “We almost put slicks on the car, but didn’t have time to make the change,” he admitted. “We may have started on wets anyway, as it’s John’s first race here, but it was a close call! “Damn – I should have said it was my decision to go with wets,” he laughed. Allan Simonsen bowed out of the 2011 championship with another characteristically epic drive in Race 1 – moving from 14th to sixth over the course of his stint, but it was Hector Lester who had the better of the second race; driving quickly and assuredly as he improved on an unusually low field placing at the hand-over (a consequence of the car’s lack of pace in the dry and a drive-through penalty for the Dane). It appears that the small Rosso Verde team will see out the season with an as-yet-unconfirmed new-generation car, while we are promised a new (to British GT) but rapid face in Simonsen’s place for the final two rounds. The CCTV Predator team of Phil Burton and Adam Wilcox endured another weekend of teeth-grinding frustration, as the brakes on the #12 Scuderia refused to play ball all weekend; Burton in particular having to endure some hairy moments in Race 2 as the ABS switched itself on and off at random. All credit to them, then, for persevering to two top-ten finishes. The Scuderia Vittoria Ferrari of Charles Bateman and Michael Lyons had an unusually subdued weekend, but they will undoubtedly be a threat in the final two, longer-format, races. Piers Masarati’s and Tom Ferrier’s team has amassed a wealth of endurance info on the 458 this season and know how to win over the longer distance. While the Trackspeed #1’s weekend delivered less than it promised, it was considerably more successful than that of the sister Porsche of Gregor Fisken and Tim Bridgman. The Scot was relishing getting stuck in to the Audis in Race 1, while Bridgman had the #2 GT3 R on pole for the second race. A sudden loss of power in the Sunday morning warm-up, however, turned out to be an engine failure and this meant that neither driver would be racing that day. “Oh well, no-one died,” said Fisken philosophically, but he had just seen his championship hopes end. He did, however, promise to “give it the max now for the remaining two races!” It’s probably fair to say that United Autosports have had better weekends. The Audi R8 LMS was noticeably on the pace from the start of the weekend and it looked as though Matt bell and Mike Guasch had the perfect opportunity to extend their championship lead. However, having secured pole for Race 1, Mike Guasch found his car refusing to get away from the grid and he was forced to start the race from the back – and on the wrong tyres! Jay Palmer compounded the misery by spinning on the outlap and both cars were out of contention by the time they had changed to slicks.  |
The #23 also started on pole in Race 2 in the absence of the Trackspeed Porsche, but was down in third by the end of the first lap. Even so, he kept the car in contention and Guasch was seemingly in a position to progress rapidly. Unfortunately for the California, he came up against Fortress Jim Geddie, who just would not let the Audi through into second place. Guasch tried numerous times to get through at Deene, but the Scot shut the door every time. Eventually, the Ferraris of Cameron and Lyons caught up with the battle and the Audi slipped to fifth just a few minutes from the end. “Claiming a front row start was a good result but I was still slightly disappointed with my performance as I believe I could have done better. We changed to a new set of wets when I took over from Mike in Race 1 and it definitely helped. I concentrated on catching as many cars as possible after our early race problems. It was good to score a point but obviously a great shame not to have bagged more. The track still had damp patches in the early stages of the second race which made the opening laps tricky. I made a mistake going into the chicane at the end of the opening lap and ran wide. It was a frustrating race and disappointing result. All in all not a great day,” was how Matt Bell summed things up. Expect a big bounce-back from this determined team in the final two rounds. After a hugely encouraging outing at Spa, things couldn't have been more different at Rockingham for the Speedworks Corvette of Ron and Piers Johnson. After a respectable qualifying session, the car's racing lasted just one slow lap before diff failure was diagnosed and it was packed away. Hopefully the more 'Spa-like' environs of Donington Park will revitalise this crowd-pleasing machine.
After a difficult season so far, the Ginetta G55 contingent finally had their moment in the, er, sun, when the Century Motorsport and Stark Racing GT3s ran in the top four for much of Race 1 and the #28 almost landed a podium finish. Things hadn’t got off to the best of starts when the already-down-on-power Rollcentre G55 was withdrawn by Martin Short on Saturday afternoon after a potentially-catastrophic engine issue was discovered. Rollcentre have been invited by Lawrence Tomlinson to do some development work on the new car and we’re sure to see the fruits of their labours sooner rather than later. Despite the car’s lack of pace so far, Ian Stinton is still upbeat about the Ginetta G55; “The gap’s coming down gradually to the closer cars – about two-seconds on dry pace now – and Shorty’s bound to find some more pace, but I’m still enjoying it and will be back next year for another crack; hopefully still with Mike Simpson.” Had he enjoyed being so far up in the first race? “Loved it! It was so nice to be able to pass 458s, Audis and Porsches,” he smiled. “The best bit was that Richard Dean had showed me round the R8’s ABS system and its 12 settings, but my right foot seemed to be doing better!” Things didn’t go so well in the second race, when his stint came to a rather premature – and unpleasant- end; "A fire stopped me finishing due to pickup on the exhaust," he explained. "This set fire to the driver's sill. I kept going thinking it was just Avons best pickup smoking but the cockpit filled totally with smoke; my eyes were streaming so decided to stop. "Then I got out of the car and couldn't breath very well - as the doc put it, toxic smoke inhalation. So after retching, Ken Rathenbre and my lovely girlfriend Lauren took me to the medial centre; who did a lot of tests and put me on oxygen and then took me to Kettering hospital. "A blood test for toxic smoke poisoning was clear and they took me off oxygen at 9pm. I could then breath okay and they let me go home at 1030. "It feels like I have a bonfire in my mouth, but I'm okay today." Curiously, both Oliver Gavin and Marino Franchitti suffered similar injury over the weekend, so the Stark Racing boss was in very good company. Jody Firth and Stefan Hodgetts were late call-ups for century Motorsport, but combined to deliver an excellent fourth place in Race 1; Firth in particular being very happy to have handed the car over in third after his stint. The LMS and SPEED EuroSeries racer was left with a pronounced limp after his race; “I dislocated my knee five weeks ago, and this is the first time I’ve had to use a manual clutch since then.” It was a good day for Ginetta in GT4 also, with two wins for the #50 Scuderia Vittoria G50 of Dan Denis and David McDonald. Race 1 saw utter domination for the duo after Denis started on wet rubber; the 20 year-old quickly putting a lap on the rest of the class and running in fifth place overall for most of his stint. "We've lost so many points by being taken out at Oulton whilst leading, at Snetterton whilst in second and at Spa in Race 2 whilst second, that really we should be walking this championship," said Piers Masarati. The Century Motorsports G50 of Jake Rattenbury and Josh Wakefield managed a third-place finish in Race 2, but would arguably have been pushing for the win were it not for two drive-through penalties that dropped them back. The ABG Motorsport duo of Peter Belshaw and Marcus Clutton were relieved to end Race 2 on the podium in second after a difficult day in the much-penalised KTM X-Bow. Overheating had dropped them out of contention in the first race, but two dogged shifts from the drivers meant that they came away still with a 19 point lead in the GT4 title race. And it is a sign of Clutton’s ability that he managed to take the fastest lap in Race 2 in dry conditions, in a car that is now way off the pace. Lotus Sport UK had what they must classify as an unsatisfactory weekend, even though their Evoras finished second and third in Race 1. The cars appeared to be struggling to find a set-up on Saturday and were very inconsistent. Things looked to be going much better in Race 2, with Phil Glew leading the way for the first half-hour in #48; but Ollie Jackson’s stint lasted just four laps before retirement at Tarzan. Nevertheless, #49 pairing Freddy Nordstrom and Leyton Clarke closed the gap slightly in the title chase, and both Evoras should run stronger at Donington and Silverstone. The next round takes place at Donington Park on September 25th and will feature a three-hour race that will end in the Leicestershire twilight. Grid numbers are expected to be back up into the high 20s, and it is possible we’ll see new cars as well. It should be an intriguing and entertaining encounter. MH | 
