British GT Snetterton – Race One Report
Trimite Gets It Right

The first of the two Snetterton races began in utter confusion, when the race schedule was brought forward three minutes and a number of teams didn’t get the message; “Nobody told us,” fumed Richmond Racing’s Richard Hollebon, “we don’t have a loudspeaker in the garage.” Thus five cars found themselves starting from the pitlane; including Guy Harrington’s fourth-placed Gallardo and Matt Nicoll-Jones’ GT4 pole-sitting G50.

Also missing were the two GT3 Aston Martins, having elected not to race; “It’s the best way that we can think of to send a message,” said Cadena Motorsport’s Barrie Whight. “We found that we are so far off the pace in the wet and the car is so nervous, that it would be dangerous for the driver to try and keep up with the others. I want to stress that this isn’t an issue with the tyres – we’ve got the same tyres as the Ford GT and they clearly work on that car.”

Marco Mapelli almost undid his good qualifying work by stalling as the grid moved off for the formation lap; but he managed to restart the car before everyone had passed him and so was able to regain his position for the start.

With the race starting in the dry, there would be no need for a second lap under the pace car and Alex Mortimer unleashed the Ford’s power; the five litre V8 roaring as the car instantly began to pull away.

The first few places were unchanged at the end of the first lap, but midfield places had been traded; Nick Foster’s #2 RPM and James Gornall’s #40 Trimite Vipers in particular benefiting and advancing to fifth and sixth places. In GT4, meanwhile, Andrew Howard was making the most of his opportunity to progress while his main rivals tried to catch up from the back of the grid.

Also fighting his way up from the back was Hector Lester in the CiM Ferrari, after his team’s qualifying indiscretion, and Guy Harrington in the #11 Team Modena Lamborghini. Harrington was soon on the tail of the Ferrari, but Lester took advantage of the conditions to keep the Gallardo about a second behind him.

After ten laps, Harrington began to drop back from the Ferrari and on lap 13 was forced to pit. The sight of steam pouring from the car and the driver banging the wheel in frustration indicated that this was a significant problem and indeed the car was pushed away; with an engine malady so serious that the weekend was over for the unfortunate Harrington and his team mate Ben de Zille Butler. It was also scant reward for Team Modena’s decision to fully support the two BGT pairs by having the whole team present at Snetterton before heading off to Le Mans.

Back at the front, Mortimer was starting to pull away art a consistent rate from Jeremy Metcalfe in the #16 Ferrari; but the CR Scuderia driver was similarly pulling away from Leo Machitski in the #9 Tech 9 Gallardo. In fact, Metcalfe was pulling away from Machitski at a faster rate than the Ford was pulling away from him; impressive stuff from the youngster in the tricky conditions.

Andrew Howard was enjoying his time at the front of the GT4 class and held a two second lead over Steve Tandy’s #50 RPM Ginetta; and was matching his pace. But the #51 Ginetta in the hands of Nigel Moore was significantly quicker than both and quickly closing.

In GT3, the gap from third to sixth was less than a second at the end of lap five, with Mapelli keeping Machitski in range while keeping Foster behind him. On lap six, though, James Gornall took position from Foster and a couple of laps later, a minor off-road excursion for Machitski dropped him to the tail of this pack. Craig Wilkins saw his own opportunity for promotion and went by the still-recovering Gallardo for sixth.

As this was happening up ahead, Andrew Howard’s attention was focussed very much on the car on his tail; Nigel Moore having closed the gap to nothing. The Beechdean Aston was going to have its work cut out to keep the Ginetta at bay, but Howard was in his stride. Alas, as the cars came through Bomb Hole on lap ten, Moore made an optimistic dive down the inside and the two cars had a coming together.

The Ginetta suffered significant front left damage, which necessitated a lengthy stop; but things were worse for the Aston. Despite leaving the road at 90 mph and hitting the tyre barrier, the car was remarkably unscathed – just a loose side-mirror cover coming astray, but not even a scratch apart from that – but it was in the gravel and stuck; much to Howard’s fury.

And things were almost as frustrating for Alex Mortimer, as he saw his ten-second lead evaporate with the emergence of the safety car as the Aston was recovered. Mortimer’s nightmare scenario had come to fruition; “I could have cried,” admitted the Ford GT driver.

The battle behind the leaders had begun to fragment prior to the safety car, as several drivers found their cars less happy in the wet (the rain now falling once more) than they had been in the drier conditions; The RPM Vipers and the VRS Ferrari notably unhappy.

Peter Bamford brought his #4 Chad Racing Ferrari into the pits in the belief that he had a puncture, but it turned out that he had just hit oil. This would cost the car 40 seconds.

But the closing up of the field coincided with the opening of the pit window and the majority of the field stopped immediately; rendering the pit lane a very busy place indeed. Only Craig Wilkins stayed out in the #20 ABG Viper; a faulty radio being the culprit, with the driver not receiving the instruction to pit. The extra lap behind the safety car would scupper any chance of a good result.

As the cars scrambled to get back out on track in the best position possible, things were rather more relaxed in the RPM Ford GT pit; “It was quite comical really,” said Bradley Ellis. “I had so much time because of the extra 30 seconds that I was able to dry my feet before getting in. Then, I just sat there and waited to be waved out.” When he resumed, Ellis was in 13th place.

Jamie Smyth also resumed in the much delayed Beechdean Aston, but this was as much a pride run as anything else.

The order was now 16,15,40,14,2,9,12,1,3,8,21,23,6,20,52,55,88,50,71,54,51,99 and 30 minutes remained.

Michael Cullen was quickly passed by Jon Barnes’ Trimite Viper and James Sutton’s #14 Ferrari, but Luke Hines was eight seconds in the lead and pushing hard to maintain his advantage. Two laps later, Sutton had his own ‘moment’ somewhere around the track and dropped back to seventh behind Adam Wilcox’s VRS Ferrari.

In GT4, ‘Roberto Austini’ now led in the #55 Ginetta, from Nigel Redwood in the #52 RPM and Stewart Linn in the #88 Richmond racing/IMS G50s. Redwood applied some early pressure to the leader, but the gap from first to second drifted out to two seconds before stabilising, with Linn a further four seconds back.

By lap 25, Jonny Cocker had fought his way up to third in the Tech 9 Gallardo #9, but Tom Ferrier was struggling with a suspension problem on the #8 car, as had Oliver Morley earlier. Fastest man on the track, meanwhile, was Matt Griffin in the delayed #4 Chad Ferrari.

But further back, Bradley Ellis was starting to make significant progress through the field; at a rate that suggested that the impossible may turn out to be possible after all – up to two seconds a lap faster than anyone else.

Whether he was aware of the threat from behind or not is unclear, but Jon Barnes had only one goal in mind – the lead. “I asked the team how far behind I was and when they told me I said to myself “right, I’m going to have him”. I didn’t look in my mirrors or anything and just got down to it.”

The gap to Hines started to shrink at an appreciable pace, until by lap 36 it was less than a second and the lead changed along the Revett Straight.

Ellis had now blasted his way up to an incredible third place and was lapping three seconds a lap quicker than Hines. The gap evaporated over the course of the next three laps and Ellis took second at the Esses on lap 41.

The gap from first to second was 2.548s as the cars started the last lap and Ellis was still at full chat; “I was out of control most of the time,” said the 2007 champion, “just giving it 110%.” But Barnes was no wilting flower and was unfazed by the ever-increasing blue shape in his mirrors. As the cars exited Coram for the final time, the Ford was reducing the gap, but it was clear that Barnes would have to make a mistake to lose now; and that wasn’t going to happen – the Trimite Viper crossing the line 0.697 ahead of the Ford.

“I might have done it with another lap,” said Ellis, “but he might have defended well. The Trimite guys drove superbly and deserved the win.”

Indeed they did. Luke Hines hung on to third, with Jonny Cocker a dozen seconds further back in fourth. Adam Wilcox brought the VRS Ferrari home in fifth – only the car’s second finish of the season – ahead of James Sutton in sixth.

In GT4, Rob Austin controlled the race comfortably to deny Nigel Redwood; while Stewart Linn finished a seemingly subdued third – the race seeing none of the dramas that enlivened the first race at Rockingham.

James Gornall and Jon Barnes now led the championship, but the Ford GT was clearly the major threat for the second race the following day.

Mark Howson