British GT Snetterton – Race Two Report
Ford’s First

At long last, the sun shone on a British GT race in 2008 and it was truly glorious by the time the grid formed up for the second race early in the afternoon. For Cadena Motorsport, however, a cloud was forming; as the yellow Aston was suddenly pushed off the grid and down the pitlane. Despite urgent attention by the team, the problem (a collapsed wheel) was deemed to be not immediately rectifiable and Gavan Kershaw resignedly climbed out; denied the opportunity to show what the Aston could do at its ‘home’ track. With the #11 Lamborghini unable to take part in the race, this left just 24 runners.

Bradley Ellis knew what he had to do in the spectacular Ford GT and started proceedings off by immediately moving across to the left to take his line for Riches. Adam Jones followed him through in the #21 Team Modena Gallardo, but soon had Allan Simonsen – determined to expunge the memory of a very disappointing Saturday race – in hot pursuit.

Most cars completed the first lap in their starting positions, but Jonny Cocker and Matt Griffin both lost several places; suggesting that their paths may have crossed in the busy opening moments.

The Ford was immediately into the 1:09s in its efforts to get away and it would be six laps before the Modena car could match the time; but then it looked as though the gap would be pegged at around the six second mark. All the while Simonsen was within a second of Jones, while James Sutton was a couple of seconds further back in the #14 CR Scuderia Ferrari.

The real battle at this moment was for fifth place; Adam Wilcox, Luke Hines, Anthony Reid and Jonny Cocker separated by barely a second. The battle was causing the group to fall back from the leaders, but also into the clutches of the faster of the pursuers; most notably Jon Barnes in the Team Trimite Viper. On lap seven, Cocker got by Reid and Barnes used his momentum to also go by; before lining himself up to have a go at the Gallardo on the next lap. Successfully.

In GT4, Rob Austin had deposed the pole-sitting Beechdean N24 on the first lap and now led a close battle for the class lead; just a couple of seconds separating first from fifth.

But it was now Bradley Ellis’ turn to feel emotional as he saw the safety car boards being readied. But when the car came out – to enable debris to be removed from the Esses – it failed to pick up the Ford GT and Adam Jones had to react quickly to avoid running into the back of it. The net result was that the ford was now effectively a lap ahead.

Fortunately, the safety car stayed out long enough for the field to be released and to catch up the leader; in the process offering the bizarre sight of Adam Jones recording a 1:11.858 under caution proceedings and prompting observers to question the necessity of the safety car. The clean up was completed on lap 13 and the field was once more shown the green flag. Ellis got to work once more.

The field had only gone two corners when Luke Hines and Adam Wilcox had a coming together. Both Ferraris continued, but with damage and having lost a lot of ground. This promoted Jon Barnes to fifth, but he unexpectedly pitted early in the pit window to hand over to James Gornall.

Meanwhile, Anthony Reid found himself again locked in a fight for position with a former touring car driver; this time Paul O’Neill in the #1 RPM Viper. This was to be a brief fight, however, as the Viper went by one lap later, quickly followed by Ollie Bryant in the #2 Viper. Reid had earlier been passed by Aaron Scott in the ABG Viper, who was himself now embroiled in a scrap for sixth with Jonny Cocker.

Rob Austin had pulled out a two second advantage over Jamie Smyth in GT4, but it was still very close; and Stewart Linn was another early stopper in the #88 IMS Ginetta as he sought to gain an advantage.

Despite Allan Simonsen’s best efforts, the Team Modena Gallardo stayed in second and when the latter pitted on lap 21, the Dane could only watch the Ford GT pull away from him.   

But Team Modena’s race was run, Piers Johnson only briefly sitting in the seat before the car was pushed away; Adam Jones explaining that the brakes had disappeared at the end of his stint and that it was not safe for his team mate to drive.

Ellis stopped on lap 27 with a 15 second lead over Simonsen, who stopped one lap later; the final pitter.

The Christians in Motorsport Ferrari still held the lead when Hector Lester resumed, but the car ten seconds behind him in second was the Ford GT and not even the Irishman’s main sponsor could do much for him now.

Alex Mortimer closed the gap within three laps and assumed the lead on lap 34. But James Gornall was well into his stride in the Trimite Viper, following the early pitstop and required just one more lap before he himself took a place from the #23 Ferrari.

The Beechdean Aston lost out badly at the driver-change, dropping several seconds behind the battle for the GT4 lead; now led by Matt Nicoll-Jones in the #88 IMS Ginetta from Nigel Moore in the #51 RPM G50 and Hunter Abbott in the #55. These three were setting lap times that were within a few tenths of each other, except for when being lapped.

Moore did get into the lead briefly, but a spin on lap 38 undid his good work and dropped him to third. There was not enough time to recover the lost ground and Nicoll-Jones hung on for his fourth victory of the season from Abbott.

At the head of the field, Mortimer was not getting away from the pursuing Gornall, as expected; in fact the gap was coming down. The Viper seemed able to deal with the traffic better than the Ford and at one stage the gap was less than a second. This was fantastic stuff; but as soon as Mortimer found open air the Ford started to move away again.

Gornall never gave up and reduced the gap again before the end; but there was to be no denying the Ford and Mortimer brought the car home to a very impressive victory by 2.833 seconds.

The fight for third went down to the wire and was eventually decided in Michael Meadows’ favour, after he muscled his way past Hector Lester on lap 42 and then kept the #14 Ferrari ahead of Marco Mapelli in the #15; the Italian impressing on his GT debut.

Leo Machitski was closing on Lester at the death, but sixth was the final position for the #9 Tech 9 Gallardo.

The Ford GT had added some glamour to the British GT field at Snetterton and had proven itself to be a very impressive piece of machinery; even if it made few friends elsewhere in the pitlane. But back in the ‘real world’, one car was finally coming to the fore and staking its claim on the title. That car was the Trimite Viper; with Jon Barnes and James Gornall heading to Hampshire with a 15 point championship lead.  

Mark Howson