BGT, Rockingham – Race One Report
A Good Day For Ginetta

The first race at The Rock was a slow-burner which only sorted itself out in the final quarter, but there was plenty of incident and racing along the way. Out front all the way, though, was the Barwell Ginetta G50Z.

The first lap of the race saw the expected shuffling of the pack as the field streamed through Deene and Yentwood. Joe Osborne and Dan brown had managed to pull enough speed on the banking to stay out front, but the car closest to the Mosler as the cars cleared the Chapman Curve was not Andrew Howard’s DBRS9, but the #12 VRS Ferrari; Phil Burton having made a storming start to improve from sixth to third.

Gary Simms’ start in GT4 was even more spectacular. Not only had he kept his class lead in the #54 Rob Austin Racing G50, but he had even made his way past the MTECH Ferrari of Duncan Cameron and the Ford GT of Philip Walker after just two corners. However, as the cars made their way through the infield section, the white Ginetta became boxed in and lost all the ground gained; finishing the opening lap with just the Ford behind.

Osborne’s lead in the G50Z was an impressive 1.931s as it began lap two, and Brown seemed unable to stay on terms; dropping further and further away. Just as worryingly, Brown was himself pulling away rapidly from his pursuers as Burton concentrated on defending his third place, and it looked as though we would have a very strung-out race.

On that second lap, we lost the Ascari after it slowed dramatically, leaving David Jones to crawl back to the pits; “We had an alternator failure in qualifying,” explained Godfrey Jones, “and in an Ascari it’s a big job to replace it – the engine has to be dropped. We didn’t have time to make the repair before the race, so decided to start in order to lose 20kg of ballast.” 

Howard’s Aston looked to be lining up a move on the third placed 430, but an error led to the black and yellow car dropping back a couple of places. Howard quickly recovered and regained one place straight away. Up ahead Craig Wilkins took advantage of this by himself lining up the white Ferrari and making the pass at Turn 1 on lap four.

On that same lap, Hector Lester dropped to eighth after losing two places to the Ferrari Scuderia of Cameron and the Chad 430 of Chris Hyman; both recovering after poor starts.

At the head of the field, Osborne’s lead had extended to four seconds before Brown managed to peg it, and this was the situation for most of the first half of the race – Osborne quick enough to maintain his lead, but not quick enough to extend it.

The expected GT4 tussle had never materialised after a spin dropped Gary Simms a long way adrift of his rivals and Jody Firth had enough clear air in the Team WFR car to gradually pull away from Ian Stinton’s Stark Racing version.

The action was now taking place in the midfield. Two fights were taking place – the first for third place, between Wilkins and Howard, and the second for fifth place, between Burton, Hyman, (now ahead of) Cameron and Lester.

Wilkins resisted Howard’s pressure for several laps before finally succumbing on lap 11, but the Viper did not let the Aston go and over the next few laps started to reel it in again.

By this point, the two leaders were some 20 seconds clear, but their battle was getting more and more interesting.

The gap between the Ginetta and the Mosler had started to reduce from lap six and, by lap 11, was just 2.493s. It then started to widen again before closing dramatically on lap 16. Just under a second now separated first from second and the momentum seemed to be with Brown.

By this stage of the race, several cars were already heading for, or in, the pitlane for their scheduled stops. Craig Wilkins was the first to stop - entering the pitlane no more than a second after the window had officially opened – followed by Burton, Lester, Cameron and Walker.

Aaron Scott was the first to get away after a good stop by the ABG crew, while Adam Wilcox marked his exit with several metres of thick black rubber on the ground.

Things weren’t going so well for MTECH however, as Matt Griffin tried repeatedly, but in vain, to select a gear in the Scuderia. After several fruitless minutes, the driver climbed back out and the car was retired.

As Jody Firth pitted from the GT4 lead to hand over to Nigel Moore, Dan Brown was cheekily flashing his lights at Joe Osborne – now just half a second ahead – but on the next lap, the Ginetta driver responded to almost double his advantage before pitting to hand over to Ollie Bryant.

The next two minutes of this race were quite remarkable, as a large cloud of Murphy’s Law passed overhead and dumped its contents on the track.

It began when Adam Wilcox and Aaron Scott crossed the finish line side-by-side (the official margin being 0.090s in the Viper’s favour). Scott clung on the exit Deene first, but the two were again side-by-side at Yentwood and the Ferrari had the line at Chapman Curve. But the rate at which Wilcox was pulling away immediately signalled that the ABG car was in trouble and, indeed, its pace just fell off a cliff. A driveshaft had failed and the big car’s race was run.  

A flurry of activity instantly drew spectator’s attention to the Brook chicane, where the Ford GT and Simms’ Ginetta were pirouetting off the track amid a shower of white carbon fibre.

Michael Bentwood had inherited the RPM Ford a long way adrift of the leaders, but both he and Robin Mortimer knew that the car was much more sympathetic to its tyres than the rest of the field would be and both expected to make up large tracts of ground in the second half of the race. However, Bentwood had the misfortune to arrive at the chicane at the same moment as Simms was making a misjudged passing manoeuvre on Ian Stinton’s G50 (which was heading for the pits anyway). The white car carried far too much speed into the corner and simply T-boned the black GT3.

Simms headed for the pits and into instant retirement with front-left damage, while the Ford took a long time to get moving again. The damage did not seem too bad and the car was quickly up to speed. Gallingly for the team, the car was indeed kinder to its tyres as proven by Bentwood’s pace over the rest of the race, but too much time had been lost and seventh was all that could be salvaged.

The final drama was the most significant of the race. Dan Brown had been pushing on to take advantage of the clear air he was now enjoying, but, as he arrived at Deene for the 24th time, the Mosler spun; and in the tight confines of the hairpin, a disastrous 28 seconds were lost in the recovery. Brown pitted at the end of that lap, but the damage was done.

With all pitstops completed, 23 minutes remained and the order after 25 laps was 90 (26.454s) 7 (3.499s) 12 (8.527s) 23 (5.598s) 9 (9.076s) 3.

Adam Wilcox very quickly closed the gap to Jamie Smyth in the Beechdean Aston – the DBRS9 already struggling badly on badly worn tyres – and wasted no time in getting past. He couldn’t afford to, as Allan Simonsen was now in the middle of one of his customary charges.

The Dane closed visibly on the Aston, but Smyth resisted and it was a couple of laps before the Rosso Verde car found a gap at the chicane.

Further back, Paul Warren was pursuing Gregor Fisken’s Mosler in the Chad Ferrari, with the gap between the two ebbing and flowing by several seconds. Although the Mosler was clearly struggling, Fisken had enough in reserve to ensure that the gap stayed above seven seconds.

At the front of the field, Ollie Bryant was struggling to get pace out of the car on its worn tyres and his lead started to shrink. He also had another problem; “After Joe’s fuel-pressure problem in qualifying, the team had rigged up a button so we could swap the auxiliary system if the pressure died again – and it did, midway through my stint. Fortunately the fix worked and I could keep going,” said Bryant.

As it fell back towards its pursuers, the Ginetta was helped by the fact that the two Ferraris were fighting for position and therefore concentrating on each other, rather than the leader.

Simonsen caught up with the VRS driver on lap 36, but it was a known fact that Wilcox would not yield without a fight, and this is how it proved. The white car assertively but cleanly fended off the red car for the next three laps until, at the end of lap 38, the cars found Mike Thomas’ Ginetta at the Brook chicane.

The G50 momentarily blocked Wilcox allowing Simonsen to go past, but as the three cars climbed onto the Turn 4 banking, the situation was reversed and Wilcox regained the place. When the cars reached the Deene hairpin, Simonsen went to the outside and the cars were again side-by-side. It was now a drag race to Yentwood and the advantage lay with the #23; the Dane finally securing the place on the exit of Chapman Curve.      

Just three laps remained and Bryant managed to squeeze a 1:25.676 out of his Ginetta on lap 40 to give him just enough of a gap; and, despite the Rosso Verde car still having a two-second speed advantage, Bryant had enough clear air to cross the line 4.141s ahead of Simonsen to take the car’s and Joe Osborne’s first victory and his first since Oulton Park in 2007; “We had a good outlap, and after  the Mosler spun, it was a case of settling into a rhythm and holding on,” said a delighted Bryant. “The team did a great job,” said the very impressive Osborne. “The car was very good on the brakes off the oval and into the infield, and Ollie and I have worked well on developing it further this weekend – it’s not the same car it was even on Friday.”

 Allan Simonsen – who didn’t even have the grace to look warm after getting out of the car – now heads off to Le Mans, leaving Hector Lester in the championship lead as he goes to Knockhill; but how had he managed to be so consistent on such worn tyres? “It was a case of making the best of a bad situation – and it was a very bad situation; like driving on inters in dry conditions. I knew what was going to happen after testing on Friday, so I set the car up to compensate.”

Jamie Smyth hung on to finish fourth in the Aston, while Paul warren’s pursuit of Gregor Fisken ended just three seconds shy of his target when time ran out.

In GT4, Nigel Moore enjoyed a comfortable win over the Stark Racing Ginetta of Mike Thomas and, like Simonsen, sees his teammate head off to Knockhill in the championship lead as he himself heads off to the 24 Hours; “The car was excellent again today,” said the 17-year old. “Jody gave me the car in good condition and the tyres were good. Everyone has done a really good job.”

“I was a bit cautious in the opening laps,” said Firth,” but after that I started to pull away and was 17 second clear at the stop. Then Nigel took over and that was that, really!”

Ian Stinton and Mike Thomas enjoyed their day, despite the relatively lonely race they had. “I had a good start – past Gary and alongside Jody on the first lap,” said Stinton, “and I was embroiled in a battle with Gary until his spin. But it was good fun out there; even though the track is very hard on the tyres.”

“Ian told me to keep it on the island, and that’s what I did,” said Thomas. “It’s all about points.”

The second race would take place on Sunday afternoon – with more tyre-shredding sun and heat guaranteed.

MH