Britcar Report - Brands Hatch, August 11
Opel Wins, Bell and Leith Are Champions

The overall win went to Michael Vergers and Phil Bennett, in Nigel Mustill’s Opel V8 Star, but the overall championship award went to Steve Bell and Simon Leith, who played the game, bringing their BMW M3 home eighth overall, and first in Class 1.

Bennett and Vergers had laid down a marker in qualifying, posting a 48.245 on the 13th of the car’s 15 laps. Aaron Scott had topped the timing screens early on, but the Ferrari 360 he shares with David Back would have to be content with being the fastest GT Cup car, just 0.437 shy of the Opel’s pole time. Cup cars filled the second row, the Luc Paillard / Jon Harrison Topcats Marcos Mantis being over a second faster than Pete Morris and Craig Wilkins in the ex-Tech 9 Porsche 996. Porsches filled the third row; Peter Cook and Franck Pelle, still campaigning the old favourite white 911, and the IN2Racing 997 GT3 of Paul Hogarth and team boss Nick Dudfield, both also competing in the Porsche Open race that would precede the Britcar decider.

Kevin Clarke’s BMW M3 GTR was atypically languishing back in seventh, but co-driver Ian Donaldson explained the position; “Everybody else on new rubber, and going for it, but we’ve still got the Donington tyres on. We’ll put new ones on for the race, then run consistently.” Witt Gamski’s Ferrari 360, co-driven once more by the amiable Keith Robinson, lined-up next to the BMW, and, the combined age of the drivers on row five would challenge the best pocket calculator, with the Nero Ferrari 360 of Andy Ruhan and David Foster claiming “pensioners’ pole”, in front of Rod Barrett and Jan Persson’s Porsche 996.

The ISL Motorsport Marcos Mantis of Alun Edwards and veteran Doug Newman lined up 11th, with “very nervous” champions-in-waiting Steve Bell and Simon Leith, in the Stingray/Geoff Steel BMW M3, alongside, the single point awarded for class pole coming in very handy. Erstwhile championship contender Mark Smith, in the Metcalf Motorsport BMW M3 E30, sharing with Eugene Gardiner (who was returning from an 11-month lay off), was 13th on the grid, followed by the first of the two Class 2 runners, Paul Collis and Simon Mason in the TJH Motorsport Honda Civic.

Collis had outbraked himself, and had a trip into the Paddock Hill gravel towards the end of the 45-minute session, but no damaged was sustained. The final row saw Dave Shelton’s ex-Hawthorns BMW Z3 Coupe, shared with son Del and the ubiquitous Nigel Greensall (showing off his natty overalls, right), and the smart Renault Clio of veteran Tony Skelton and Arthur Forster.

When Britcar shares a meeting with the Porsche Club’s series there is a fair amount of crossover, and one race often has influence on the other. Peter Cook had taken the overall win in the Bill Taylor Memorial Trophy that preceded the Britcar race, leaving Franck Pelle to take the start in Britcar, but Paul Hogarth had retired the IN2Racing 997, with a suspected driveshaft or wheel bearing failure, and would not take up his position on the Britcar grid.

So, on a rather hot day, the race got underway with Vergers converting pole into the lead, but Luc Paillard in the Topcats Marcos taking a look as they turned into Paddock. Kevin Clarke had seemingly come from nowhere, using his new rubber to the full, and was snapping at the heels of David Back’s Nero Ferrari, whilst mounting a rearguard action against Pelle.

Clarke could find no way round the black Ferrari, and several times in the very short opening laps, the white Porsche of Pelle got alongside and in front of the silver BMW GTR. Keeping well out of any trouble was championship contender Steve Bell, dropping to dead last as the pack filtered through Paddock after the green light, then cautiously picking his way through the back markers as the field thinned out.

Whilst Vergers and Paillard ran away at the front, Pete Morris’ Porsche joined Clarke and Pelle in triangular formation behind Back’s Ferrari. Clarke’s BMW nosed in front of the black Ferrari on lap five, but it was two more laps before Pelle managed a move, down the inside at Paddock, with Morris following him through as they rounded Druids. Now, with ten laps on the board, Vergers’ Opel V8 Star was over six seconds in front of Paillard’s Marcos, who in turn had Clarke over 10 seconds adrift behind him, and Pelle and Morris now spread out to his rear.

The crucial Class 1 battle – where the championship would be decided – was hotting up, with Mark Smith’s BMW E30 just holding off Paul White’s newer E36 machine, with Bell keeping a watching brief less than a second and a half behind. The Kockney Koi BMW Z3, started by not-so-coy-cockney Dave Shelton, had been in and out of the pits from the opening laps – eight stops would be taken in total - and Doug Newman had also taken a fairly long stop in Alun Edwards’ Marcos too, but a long trail of oil smoke along the Cooper Straight and round Clearways signalled its demise on lap 27.

Paul White had by now hauled the Butler Motorsport BMW M3 past Smith, and Bell was now on the tail of the Metcalfe E30, finding a safe way past on the Cooper Straight after 43 laps.

You get a lot of laps for your bucks on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit, and there was still over an hour and a quarter to go, and a lot of traffic faced by the leaders; Paillard’s Marcos found Ruhan’s Ferrari, which had pitted earlier for checks, a problem, allowing Clarke to move on to the Marcos’ tail, but there was further drama further round the lap. Faced with sticking behind Paillard, or trying down the inside at the Clearways loop, Clarke chose the latter move, only to find Mark Smith’s BMW, slowing to enter the pit lane, blocking his way. Losing time once again, Clarke quickly recovered as he followed the Marcos through the traffic, though Paillard responded, maintaining the gap at around a second, and then disaster struck, as the pair came to lap David Back’s Ferrari, Paillard nipped past, but Clarke must have felt a strong sense of déjà vu, and, not wanting a repeat of earlier events, tried to pass around the outside of Druids. It didn’t work, and the silver BMW GTR ended up beached in the gravel, bringing out the safety car, with an hour and twelve minutes left to run.

With the safety car waiting to pick up the leader in the escape road on Cooper Straight, Vergers slowed to let the grey Saab out, but, finding it was going nowhere, accelerated away again. Next time round, Paul Dishman expertly eased the Saab out between a back-marker and the leader, and brought the field under control. “I was ready, lights flashing, and saw Michael slow down, but I couldn’t move until instructed by race control,” he said later. Luc Paillard had actually brought the Topcats Marcos into the pits slightly before the SC boards were shown, surprising the team, and was, after some discussion, ushered away again, returning whilst the field was still under caution some five laps later. Whilst is was still 10 minutes before the half way mark, most elected to take their mandatory stops at this opportune moment, including leader Vergers. Staying out for the time being, though, were new leader Franck Pelle, and Class 2 leader Paul Collis, in the TJH Honda Civic. “ It made sense to give Paul more track time, as we weren’t under any pressure in the class,” explained co-driver and tutor Simon Mason later.

With Clarke’s car now moved from the gravel at Druids, and back in the pits under its own power, the Safety Car prepared to come in, but Arthur Forster’s Renault Clio had expired on the Brabham Straight, and, to assist its recovery, the Saab remained at the head of the field. Forster got going again though, and, just as the SC boards were finally withdrawn, Bennett was shown the black and orange flag – a fluid leak allegedly being the reason – and was forced to pit to satisfy the scrutineers. After a brief period of scrutiny, and discussion, Bennett was on his way again, a lurid slide as he accelerated away from his pit indicating an amount of red mist was clogging the cockpit.

With 48 minutes to go, the 70% pit-stop window was closing, and both Collis and Pelle made their stops, Cook bringing the Porsche out in front once again, after Bennett’s pit delay.

Earlier in the day, MN’s Matt James had wangled his way into the EERC good books by collating the starting drivers for the race, an unsolicited action which was greatly appreciated, and now, he had trawled the pit lane for information, which he relayed in the commentary box. Of course, these stories were meant for himself and commentator Brian Jones, but it would be a foolish man – and that doesn’t include Autosport’s Dud Candler, or your own correspondent – that didn’t lunch off of the opportunity. The gems included:-

Paillard – pitted with a gearbox problem, but the Topcats team sent him back out until Jon Harrison was ready to take over.

Bennett – marshals noticed fuel spilling out as the second churn was placed in the filler during the pit stop. Called back in, but the spill was the action of the filling operation, and not a leak.

Pelle / Cook – fuel was marginal, and, Safety Car or not, the car had to run a full hour to guarantee that another full hour of fuel was put in.

Pete Morris had been doing a great job in the ABG Porsche 996, coming in from third overall to hand the car to Craig Wilkins, but he had attracted the attention of the officials whilst the safety car was circulating, and was awarded a stop/go penalty, which Wilkins would now have to take on his behalf. This played into the hands of Aaron Scott, who had amazingly pulled the Nero Ferrari 360 that David Back had started, back into contention once more, the black machine now third overall, a lap down on Cook, who had Bennett’s Opel rapidly closing in on him.

Traffic once more came into play, with a little over 30 minutes of the arduous race to run, and Bennett’s progress to pull up to the rear of Cook’s Porsche could have been quicker, were it not for the back markers, but, 97 laps in, there was a three second gap, and a clear track between them.

Cook responded, though, and was able to maintain the gap for three more laps, before Bennett chopped it down to second, then half a second, before powering past on the Cooper Straight – and immediately pulling out a two-second margin: it seemed, now within the final half hour, to be all but over.

For the overall lead, maybe, but it was all happening in the classes.

Steve Bell had, before the race, confided the Stingray strategy; “We’ll make sure we’re in a good position, and completed 80% of the race, then, in the last minutes, we’ll put on some new rubber, and go out and get fastest lap”.

That plan was thrown awry, for two completely separate reasons; firstly, national treasure Nigel Greensall had recently jumped into Dave Shelton’s BMW Z3, and the previously recalcitrant machine was positively flying , and his 50.495 lap was untouchable, and, secondly, Simon Leith, now in the champions-elect BMW, could see a real chance of catching Sarah Bennett-Baggs, now in the Butler Motorsport M3 started by Paul White, before the flag fell. It took around 15 minutes to close the gap, and with a quarter of an hour to go, David Foster’s Nero Ferrari, running eighth overall, look an achievable target, too, and the place was claimed on the penultimate of the 135 laps.

The closing minutes saw a spate of spinners – Forster’s Clio, Wilkins in the Porsche, Rod Barrett’s similar machine, and Keith Robinson in Witt Gamski’s Ferrari 360. Both Barrett and Robinson pitted; Rod to take a drink, since the tube from the in-car water container had come off immediately he started his stint, and Keith to fix a puncture.

Winner Phil Bennett was visibly shattered as he emerged from the blast-furnace cockpit of the Opel V8 Star, and, it seemed, there wasn’t much left in the car or the driver. “The gearbox oil temperature was showing 187 degrees, and the pedals were so hot, that I burnt the soles of my feet,” he said between gulps of water, adding “we had no radio, so I didn’t know who I chasing”.

It was Peter Cook he was chasing, of course, and it wasn’t plain sailing for him and Franck Pelle either, as the Cheshire man explained; “We did the whole race without third gear – in fact I won the Porsche race without third gear. Only Porsche could build a gearbox that you can run an endurance race with when it’s broken”.

Aaron Scott made a phenomenal recovery drive to win the GT Cup class, and third overall, in the Team Nero Ferrari 360, but was typically modest; “I just looked after it,” was his response, adding “I‘d like to thank the team, our sponsors, the JMH guys, and James Tucker and the team – we’ve have a great year, and we’ll be back next season”.

Jon Harrison has had a great year too, but it ended at Brands Hatch under difficult circumstances; “The Marcos only had two gears when I took it over from Luc, but within a couple of laps, I just had fifth.” So, driving for around an hour, in intense heat, with just one gear, makes fifth overall and third in class some achievement.

Class Two had just two runners – the Skelton/Forster Clio had a wild and woolly time, Arthur’s frequent excursions onto Mr Palmer’s greensward incurring the displeasure of the men in killjoy trousers, but the win, once again, went to Paul Collis and Simon Mason in the TJH Honda Civic. “We were under no pressure, so we stayed out during the safety car period, giving Paul maximum time in the car,” explained Mason.

Early Class 1 leader Mark Smith’s race was blighted by a split hose in the Metcalf BMW E30, leaving the newer Butler machine of Paul White and Sarah Bennett-Baggs to uphold the honours, but the day belonged to Simon Leith. Steve Bell, and the hard working Geoff Steel Racing team, first in class, and the first ever Britcar champions.

A feature on the champions will come later this week, but Simon’s thoughts as he celebrated in the Kentagon were “It really hasn’t sunk in yet.”
STEVE WOOD

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