British GT, Oulton Park – Race Two Report
Top Step Again For Ashburn & Westbrook

After their nightmarish end to Race 1, the United Autosports mechanics got to work on tracing and sorting the fuel pick-up issue that had cost Matt Bell and Charles Bateman victory, with the news coming through after a couple of hours that this had been accomplished. However, that merely meant that Bell would be able to take up his slot on the grid for the second race, and as he brought the Audi to the end of its installation lap he could see the rear ends of two dozen other GTs ahead of him.

He would however have company for his fight through the field to come, with both the Black Ferrari of Adam Wilcox and the yellow and white Porsche of Nick Tandy also starting from the back of the grid after missing qualifying through mechanical issues.

Although the rain didn’t actually stop at all between the races, it had eased considerably as the grid was forming up at just past three o’clock. However, as the safety car led the field round for the solitary pace lap the heavens opened once more and it was fair bucketing it down as the lights went green.

Richard Westbrook absolutely nailed the start and left the rest of the field in his wake as the #11 Trackspeed Porsche hurtled over Deer Leap and sped down to Old Hall. Jonny Adam’s start in the Beechdean Aston was nothing like as sharp and this allowed both Matt Griffin and Allan Simonsen to get by before the first corner, with the Vantage GT3 dropping back two seconds from the top three over the course of the opening lap, although retaining fourth.

Simonsen tried to carry his momentum past Griffin, but the MTECH Ferrari held fast against the Rosso Verde one and the Dane stayed second. He kept up the pressure and this forced the #21 to defend, but even so Westbrook was not able to pull out a significant advantage. Further back, Adam was finding that the Aston was just as much of a handful in the wet as it had been in Race 1 and he began to form a bottleneck with several faster GTs stuck behind him. By the time Tim Harvey eventually found a way past on Lap 7 – the veteran driver powering past out of Deer Leap – the leading trio were a long way down the road; 13 seconds to be exact.

Despite the appalling conditions in the opening laps, the race was destined to lose just one car; that being the Stark Ginetta, which failed to complete the opening lap in the hands of Jake Rattenbury. Everyone else made it round, although the #98 GT3 Chevron was again clearly in trouble, with Anthony Reid being forced to pit twice in the first half-dozen laps. Tandy, Bell and Wilcox, however, were carving their way through the field, with the Porsche driver up to 15th at the end of Lap 1 and up to 11th by Lap 6, and with the Audi and Scuderia close behind.

After its excellent run in Race 1, the RJN Nissan looked to be comfortable in eighth in the opening stages, but Alex Buncombe was headed for the pits after just five laps, with what turned out to be a delaminating tyre. This was quickly changed and the GT-R stayed on the lead lap, albeit at the rear of the field.

In stark contrast to the first race, GT4 saw a very close three-way fight for the lead, with Phil Glew having to drive at the maximum to keep the #48 Lotus Evora ahead of the Century Ginetta of Mike Simpson and the Team WFR G50 of Warren Hughes. Alastair Mackinnon missed out on the fun in the #49 Evora after a spin on Lap 3 cost him about 15 seconds.

With eight laps gone, Westbrook led by a little over five seconds from Griffin, with Simonsen a further second back in third. Harvey hadn’t been able to close the gap to the Ferrari ahead, but had pulled out an almost four second gap on Adam in the Aston, who was doing all he could to keep the Porsches of Michael Caine (#11) and Joe Osborne (#32) behind him. There was then a ten second gap back to the #5 Scuderia Vittoria Ferrari of Aaron Scott, who had Olly Bryant’s Race 1-winning #79 Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 and Benji Hetherington’s #9 JMH Nissan for very close company. And the white GT-R’s mirrors were full of Tandy’s #10 Porsche. The Mercedes of Godfrey Jones had run wide at Old Hall on Lap 5 and dropped to 18th, just behind the Optimum G55 of David McDonald.

On Lap 9 Adam’s resistance finally crumbled and Caine was through at Old Hall, while Osborne also found his way past the Aston a lap later despite again having no traction control to aid him.

The battle for second was intense, with Simonsen all over Griffin; but try as he might he couldn’t find a way through. On Lap 13, however, the Rosso Verde 458 rounded Lodge in second; “Simmo hit me in the back and dislodged the rear wing and took away most of the aero,” said Griffin. “He didn’t do it deliberately – the conditions were awful out there – but I couldn’t do anything to keep him behind me after that.”    

As Simonsen now went after Westbrook, positions were being traded further back in the pack. Hetherington had just taken ninth from Bryant and would soon be past Scott for eighth, while Nick Tandy was hot on his heels as he continued his progress in the Motorbase Porsche.

Bryant was not having a fun time in the Z4 that had run so well earlier in the day; “I kept having the traction control kick in unexpectedly which made the car unpredictable and hard to control, but couldn’t work out why it was happening,” said the Marlow-based driver. “It later turned out that the front right tyre had suffered a block tread failure – very rare, and the Avons have been excellent apart from that – and that had been confusing the sensors.”

By this point in the race the pit-window was open, but as expected the pits were quiet in the opening moments. Jody Firth was the first to stop, handing the WFR G55 over to Riki Christodoulou on Lap 13, but Matt Bell was perhaps a surprise visitor just a lap later in the #23 Audi. This wasn’t a surprise to the team, however, and they quickly turned the R8 around and sent Charles Bateman back out before the pitlane began to fill with cars.

The fight for the GT4 lead had by this point shrunk to a duel, with Simpson’s Ginetta falling away in third. Phil Glew held a three second lead over warren Hughes, but both were lapping consistently within a few hundredths of each other. It was great to watch, but it was clear where the pendulum would swing after the stops.

As expected, the lead cars in both categories left it until the last possible moment to make their stops, and so Westbrook, Simonsen, Griffin, Harvey, Glew and Hughes followed each other down the pitlane to hand over to their teammates. Only the Optimum Ginetta missed the pit window, and George Murrells would soon be required to serve a 38.4s stop/go penalty as a consequence.

Although Simonsen had closed to within three seconds on Westbrook by the time both drivers pitted, the Rosso Verde car had earned an additional ten seconds at the stop as a result of their earlier race result. The MTECH car would have an extra five seconds – although it was ten seconds behind the #3 when it pitted – while the #31 Porsche would just have the mandatory 57 seconds to serve. As a result, when David Ashburn resumed after a textbook driver-change, he found himself with a humungous advantage of 30 seconds over Hector Lester in the Rosso Verde 458. Duncan Cameron was right behind in the MTECH Ferrari in third, but was unable to pass due to the damaged rear wing; and right behind him was the #33 Porsche of Jon Minshaw. The three cars would remain in close proximity to each other for most of the remainder of the race.

Danielle Perfetti found himself in fifth place in the #11 Porsche and a long way clear of the sixth placed car of Steve Tandy (#32 Porsche). With no pressure behind, therefore, he began to work on reducing his ten-second deficit to the Trackspeed Porsche ahead.

As expected, Jody Fannin had quickly taken the GT4 lead in the Team WFR Ginetta from Sailesh Bolisetti in the #48 Evora, but Zoe Wenham found herself with no windscreen wipers in the awful conditions.

As Ashburn maintained his lead with apparent ease, and with the fight for second static, attention switched to the fight for sixth, where Tandy – having to cope with no traction control and the pain from his finger injury – was coming under pressure from the #10 Porsche of Steve Parish, the #9 JMH Nissan of Freddie Hetherington and, a little further back, the #23 Audi of Charles Bateman; the last of these by some the fastest of the quartet. Tandy did his best but, with his pursuers ever closer, when one went by (on Lap 28) they all went by. As the Trackspeed Porsche fell away, the fight between the remaining trio continued unabated.

Its early unscheduled stop had left the #35 RJN Nissan GT-R a lap down on the leader, but the car was running strongly in the hands of GT Academy graduate Jann Mardenborough, who was having the time of his life on the Cheshire circuit; “I thoroughly enjoyed my stint out there,” he said afterwards. “I was having to go offline at Turn 1 to find the grip, and I overtook a Ferrari at Turn 4 which was very satisfying – Alex told me at the stop that there was more grip on the outside there, so I thought I’d try it and it worked!

“I then saw a Porsche ahead of me and caught and passed him – nobody told me that it was the leader and that I’d just unlapped myself!” A bright future clearly awaits this talented young man.

As Ashburn continued his flawless drive at the front, Lester appeared to have done enough to hang on to second place. However, Cameron appeared to close as the race entered its final minutes and looked poised to mount a challenge; and at the start of Lap 31 – the penultimate lap, according to the clock – he went to the inside as the cars headed to Old Hall. As the two Ferraris rounded the corner though, they touched and Lester suffered the agony of a spin, coming to rest against the tyre wall; “As we arrived at the corner Hector braked earlier than normal and I had the choice of hitting him in the back or going to the inside,” said Cameron. “I chose the latter, but he was already turning in and I couldn’t avoid hitting him.” It appeared to be a racing incident, although you can be sure the Irish driver had a different viewpoint.

Cameron wasn’t delayed by the incident and hung on to what was now second place, with Minshaw unable to mount a challenge in the time remaining.

But this was very much David Ashburn’s and Richard Westbrook’s race, and there was to be no repeat of the last-lap drama form earlier in the day; the 2010 champion taking the flag at the end of Lap 32 to seal a dominant victory.

“It was really good," said Westbrook. "Race one was frustrating, the car was better in the first race but we had a clear track in race two. The rain started coming down and I kept catching the water into Cascades; the Avon’s dispersed the water brilliantly and are a real improvement. My team-mate did another fantastic job too. I knew Allan had a ten second penalty and we’d be okay at the handover. It’s not easy running three competitive cars, so well done to Keith, Trackspeed and my new engineer Taka on his first-ever race weekend!”

“We’re delighted with how it’s gone today,” said second-placed Matt Griffin. “The MTECH Ferrari 458 has improved massively over the winter – last year it was virtually undriveable in the wet. It didn’t all go our way today, but we finished on the podium twice and we’ve no complaints.”

“We were disappointed after the first race, had it not been for the debris we hit, we could’ve been seventh," said third-placed Tim Harvey. "I enjoyed my first stint when the track was really at its wettest. We got held up a bit by the Aston, which had I got in front of, might have put Jon in front of the two Ferrari. Jon just impressed me enormously and for that to be his first ever modern car race; it was a dream start really.”

Danielle Perfetti had closed to within five seconds of third in the #11 Motorbase Porsche after an impressive run for the newcomer, while Charles Bateman completed an excellent run for the Audi to salvage some pride with fifth place, just ahead of Steve Parish.

“Obviously it was great to come back after the disappointment of the first race, having been so close to our first race win, half a lap away with a clear lead and to lose it to such a simple issue was very disappointing. But it was important to look ahead quickly after that," said Matt Bell.

“Starting from the back was always going to be a big ask and at the start it was like someone dropped a blanket over my windscreen; I couldn’t see a thing with the spray. It was the wettest we’d had it all weekend and it made it very difficult coming through slower cars where you couldn’t even see their brake lights at all. I struggled on the old tyres with standing water and aquaplaned a few times, which is interesting around Oulton Park with the barriers looming! The car got better towards the end of my stint and then Charles took over and did brilliantly to get us up to fifth at the end. I really think we’ll be strong for the rest of the season.”

GT4 went to Jody Fannin and Warren Hughes – their second victory of the day in the Team WFR Ginetta – while Sailesh Bolisetti gained valuable experience en route to second in the #48 Evora. Zoe Wenham overcame her visibility problem to claim her first podium of the season in the #42 Century G50.

"It's been an excellent start to the championship, especially considering I had to do my stint in the second race with no windscreen wipers - and it was extremely wet!" said Fannin. "Two wins from two starts. Looking forward to the next round at the Nurburgring!"

“Race two was very similar to race one, apart from the fact I got a fairly good lead; it wasn’t enough though," said Phil Glew. "There was much more water on the track than this morning and I was just trying to push-on and keep ahead of Warren. I’m sure Sailesh will continue to get better, he’s learnt a lot this weekend and to get two second place finishes is a great result.”

And so ended a great day’s racing. The weather conditions had been lousy, but the British GT field had delivered the goods and thoroughly entertained the hardy spectators; and it was testament to the driving standards that the attrition rate was so remarkably low in both races.

But with the next round taking place on the Grand prix circuit of the Nürburgring next month – in support of the 24 hour race – there’s a fair chance that the Avon wets would be required once again.

MH