British GT, Knockhill – Race One Report
No Keeping Up With The Joneses

There were a few spots of rain in the air as the grid assembled for the first of the day’s two races, but the clouds were high and there was no indication that it would get harder; and so it proved – the cars moving off on a dry track. All 15 had made the grid, but the Piranha Lotus only due to the crew cobbling together a hasty solution to the gear linkage issue that was facing them (by making a new plate on site when it became apparent that there was no spare).

The BGT grid behaved itself on the climb up the hill to the lights, and when the reds went out the dash to the SEAT Curve began.

Chris Hyman had a look at the outside line into that first corner, but it was clear that David Jones hadn’t lost any momentum and the #21 Chad Ferrari slotted into second place just behind the silver Ascari. All 15 cars got through the challenging sequence of curves – SEAT, Leslie’s, Scotsman, Butcher – and blasted on up through the chicane.

The top six positions were unchanged at the end of the first lap, but Craig Wilkins had already found his way past three cars in the first mile and a third – the #10 Chad and #3 Rosso Verde Ferraris and the GTC class #62 JHM Porsche – and was up to seventh. In G4 Benjamin Harvey was up to second in the ABG X-Bow at the expense of Chris Bialan, but it was clear the Lotus 2-Eleven was in trouble and it coasted round the track at the start of the second lap; the gearbox was jammed in neutral and Bialan’s race was already over. 

Jones and Hyman began to pull away from the rest of the GT3 field - Hector Lester now having demoted the JMH Porsche to tenth – and three distinct battles were forming. As Hyman chased after Jones, David Ashburn and Duncan Cameron (now having passed the #11 Chad Racing 430 of Juan Garriz) started to pressure Phil Burton for third, while Wilkins, Paul Warren and Lester were keen on taking sixth from the Argentine. Steve Hunter was doing his best to hang on to the GT3 field in his Porsche 997, while in G4 Jamie Stanley was beginning to pull away from the X-Bow in the #48 Speedworks Ginetta.

With Burton preoccupied with the green, white and red colours in his mirrors – the three cars nose to tail by this point – Hyman was able to pull away; but his race became increasingly lonely as he found himself unable to keep pace with the Ascari. Nevertheless, the South African was driving flawlessly and was poised to hand the car over to Dan Brown in a very useful position.

Hector Lester was also enjoying himself in the opening stages of the race. On lap 10 he found a Scuderia-sized gap to take eighth from Warren, and did the same to Wilkins on lap 17 to move up to sixth.

The reason for his being in sixth and not seventh at this stage was that Phil Burton had had a spin out of the chicane four laps earlier and was now effectively a lap down on the leader.

And now a commercial break....

Yes, those were the words a bewildered pressroom heard as the commentary stopped for four minutes and a record came on over the airwaves. It transpired that Damon Hill – present in Scotland to support his son Josh in his Formula Ford races – had arrived at the commentary box, and this apparently took precedence over telling spectators what was happening in the race.

Out on track, the Ashburn/Cameron fight was literally as close as it could be – 0.089s being the gap at the end of lap 16 – but the red car prevailed on the next lap despite some great driving from the 67 year old in the Porsche.

A quarter of the race had elapsed and the order was now 1, 21, 2, 7, 11, 3, 5, 10, 62, 12, 48, 44, 49 and 47.

By now David Jones was pulling away from Hyman at a consistent rate and his lead had extended to 16 seconds by the end of lap 25. Hyman, however, was also coming under pressure from Cameron, but the gap between the Scuderias was only coming down at a couple of tenths per lap and the Chad driver hung on to second until the pit window.

As is usually the case in the first race, this prompted a flurry of activity as several cars were handed over to the quicker drivers. The earliest stoppers included Burton, Hyman, Ashburn, Lester and Warren, and in G4 Benjamin Harvey and Osman Yusuf.

But Chris Hyman and Dan Brown’s excellent weekend was about to come to a grinding and most frustrating halt. No sooner had the BRDC Rising Star installed himself in the #21 than it was clear that the car was in trouble. Brown managed one slow lap and was then back in the pits; the car’s brand new gearbox having suffered a failure. The car was retired – bad enough in itself – but there would also be insufficient time between the races to rebuild the box and the Chad duo went away empty handed when a podium was definitely on the cards.

The driver changes continued through their cycle, with Juan Garriz and the race leader Jones being the last to stop. Once complete, the order was 1, 7, 2, 10, 11, 3, 6, 12, 62, 48, 49, 47.

Matt Griffin was now on Glynn Geddie’s case in the fight for second, but the young Scot is not easily intimidated and was driving very impressively in the Trackspeed GT3 R. For lap after lap he resisted the MTECH Ferrari, but Griffin’s patience and experience paid off on lap 41 when he finally took the place.

Chad’s day got worse just a minute or so later when Tom Ferrier – who had risen to fourth after starting sixth – also started to encounter gearbox trouble (later identified as a failed actuator circlip) and was forced into the pits and retirement on lap 43. Fortunately, the damage wasn’t as great and the repairs could be completed in time for race two.

This put José Balbiani back up into fourth place, but Stéphane Daoudi was closing quickly in the Rosso Verde Ferrari. However, the Frenchman was black-flagged for cutting the chicane and he was forced to take a drive-through; “If I was cutting the chicane, I would say so,” he said later, “but I didn’t think I was.” Adam Wilcox was also awarded the same penalty for the same offence as he attempted to make up ground in the CCTV Predator Scuderia; which was also hampered by damaged steering at this stage. Daoudi would later suffer a rear-right puncture and end the race in seventh.

In G4 Christian Dick held a substantial lead in the Speedworks Ginetta over Joe Osborne’s #49 G50, with Nathan Freke a further lap behind in the Century Motorsports car. The X-Bow had joined the Lotus in retirement soon after the stops having suffered a broken engine mount and other complications arising from it.

And that was pretty much it. Godfrey Jones completed the final few laps without drama to win at a canter; the eight-second gap at the end not fully showing just how dominant the Ascari had been.

Matt Griffin came home second after gradually easing away from the determined Glynn Geddie, while Balbiani brought the 430 home fourth. Aaron Scott finished fifth – Craig Wilkins having admitted to wearing out the Viper’s tyres during his stint – and Wilcox sixth.

Derek Pierce brought home the JMH Porsche a lap ahead of the G4 winning Speedworks Ginetta, having had a trouble-free run. What a shame that Kinfaun hadn’t made the trip – that would have been an entertaining battle for Cup honours, no doubt.

So ultimately the first race fizzled out just as it looked to be setting up an interesting second half. Race two, some three hours later, would be a very different story.

MH