British GT, Oulton Park – Saturday Notes
Looking Good

The 2012 British GT Championship officially got underway at 8.30 this morning with the first of two free practice sessions. The weather may have been grey and the track wet, but the 26 strong GT field looked and sounded fabulous and the level of professionalism in the pitlane was striking.

There had been a couple of changes to the provisional entry, with the Appleby Engineering Aston and the Jota Mazda MX5 absent from GT4, but with the Optimum Ginetta G55 being added to the GT3 class. Sadly, we were also destined to lose the APO Sport Ginetta G50 after an engine failure in the first session; the team determining that the damage could not be repaired in time for Monday’s racing.

That first session saw some unremarkable times due to the damp conditions, but fastest time went to the #21 MTECH Ferrari 458 of Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin with a 1:49.388. Second fastest was the older Predator Ferrari Scuderia of Phil Burton and Adam Wilcox, which augured well for the expected wet weather on Monday. GT4 was led by the Team WFR Ginetta G50 of Jody Fannin and Warren Hughes, with a fastest time of 1:58.248.

The second session was fully dry and thus the times were significantly better, and it was the Porsches that came to the fore; Nick Tandy taking the #10 Motorbase 997 GT3 R to the top of the classification with a 1:36.621. Matt Griffin took the MTECH Ferrari to second near to the end of the session, demoting Richard Westbrook to third in the #31 Trackspeed Porsche and Michael Caine to fourth in the #11 Motorbase car.

“We only got the #10 on Monday afternoon,” explained Motorbase Team Principal Dave Bartrum. “We couldn’t get a new car – no more available – so we bought a 2011 car from a-workx and an update kit. When it got back to the workshop I basically gave everyone a part of the car to work on and told them that I wanted the whole car assembled in ten hours; I think we actually had it done in 15! In all, it was about 36 hours from the truck leaving Munich to applying the livery; I wish we’d had a time-lapse camera to record it!”

So will both cars be in for the full season? “Oh yes,” he replied. “In fact, we’re looking to run a third car. We like to do things in threes!”

Matt Griffin was quietly content with the way things were going in the MTECH garage; “We’ve made a lot of progress over the winter and the car feels a lot more sorted now,” he explained. “Last year I would say the 458 was fantastic in the dry but virtually undriveable in the wet; at the Spa 24 last year, the 458s were five seconds off the pace in the wet. Part of the improvement  is down to the update kit; some of it is down to the new Avons; but I think Lee [Penn] has identified a number of areas where we could improve and that’s made the biggest difference. Having tyre ovens will also help us, as we struggle to get heat into the rears and lose a lot of time over the first few laps while waiting for them to come in.”

Duncan Cameron’s race preparation began on January 1st; “I did a lot of skiing over the winter and we were on the slopes over New Year, but I decided that the celebrations would end on the 31st and that I was going back into the gym on New Year’s Day.” Is skiing a good way to prepare? “There is a physical aspect to it, but I find it really helps to clear and focus the mind!”

The close-season brought no news at all of the Speedworks Corvette, prompting fears that it would be a no-show this year, but Team Principal Christian Dick explained that a return to the series was never in doubt; “We’ve been waiting for the2012 update kit to arrive from Callaway, but it has been delayed as they are still ironing out some issues before releasing it; so it got to the point when we had to make the decision to come here in 2011 spec. Hopefully, we’ll have the new kit before the Nürburgring.” And what will the update comprise? “There’s a new engine, which will be 6.2ltr versus the 7ltr block we have now; it’ll give us more useable power. It’ll also be dropped lower into the chassis and moved further back, and there’ll be various aero tweaks; quite a comprehensive update all in all.

“We’re just looking for a steady run this weekend – it’s the first time we’ve run the 2012 Avons, and the guys haven’t been in the car since (the last race at) Silverstone, so we’ve some catching up to do.”

Bob Neville was glad to have the opportunity to give his Nissan GT3-R its first run out, having only recently taken delivery of it; “It’s not the ideal situation,” explained the RJN boss, “because there aren’t many spares and we need to go straight from here to Monza for next week’s Blancpain race. But so far it’s going well, so fingers crossed.”

Steve Tandy’s preparations for his return to the British GT Championship were not helped by a most unfortunate accident that befell him earlier this week; “I managed to chop the end off my finger on Thursday,” he said as he revealed a heavily bandaged left hand. “I can still drive as I can operate the paddle shift with my other fingers – I just hope the marshals don’t think I’m giving them the finger as I go past!” 

The GT4 Evoras of Lotus Sport UK have also been updated since the end of the 2011 season, with more to come; “The main updates so far have been applied to the engine, which have made it a lot smoother and given it more power,” explained Team Manager Gary Ayles. “Lotus are in the process of homologating various other updates, so once they’re approved we’ll have those too.”

The #48 car contains the first Indian racing driver to compete in BGT, Sailesh Bolisetti; “Sailesh is still inexperienced, but is certainly talented,” continued Ayles. “The first thing we need to do though is to get him up to speed in and out of the car; he’s been used to a more relaxed racing environment, so we need to sharpen him up for the more demanding scene over here.”

MH