British GT Championship - Thruxton – Saturday Race Report
All Square In The Points Battle There were three major differences on the British GT grid for the first race of the weekend. Firstly we had scorching temperatures, and secondly and thirdly two of the most loyal supporters of the championship were absent, after a morning engine blow-up for Keith Ahlers’ Team Aero Morgan and gearbox trouble for the #9 Tech 9 Porsche 997. That still left 22 cars on the grid for the 60 minute race, at the UK’s fastest road racing circuit. The #21 Team Modena Lamborghini Gallardo was in its second row grid slot after oil starvation problems in qualifying, Adam Jones ready to tackle Thruxton in a solo run. As the cars emerged from the chicane on their slow grind to the start line, Barrie Whight looked poised to take a run on Bradley Ellis, the #18 Cadena Motorsport Aston Martin looking to go one better than its second place in qualifying. Ellis though was wise to the potential move and a last moment dab on the brakes was enough to unsettle the Aston man before the hammer went down: the #6 RPM Viper grabbed the advantage and all of a sudden the hunter became the hunted. As Whight looked to get on terms with Ellis he found the inside line blocked by a Viper, but this wasn’t the leading #6 car but instead it was Nigel Redwood, from the second row of the grid in the #7 RPM car. Whight was forced to stay on the outside line and instead of grabbing the lead the #18 Aston was down to third. Thereafter the story of the opening portion of the race was a lead car (Bradley Ellis in the #6 RPM Viper) pulling away, as a furious battle played itself out behind. Redwood now led a train of four cars with Whight leading the clearly not on song Lamborghini of Adam Jones and Ben de Zille Butler closing in fast in the #3 Barwell Aston Martin, the Barwell man posting the fastest lap of the race at that point and repeating the feat next time around as he got by the Lamborghini for fourth. At this point things were looking very good indeed for RPM with all three of their Vipers in the top 6, Ellis leading from Redwood with Henry Fletcher running 6th in the #5 car, Fletcher though would get a wild ride between Church and Brooklands on Lap 7, spinning off into the infield, way off, the car would rejoin but the air intakes would sport enough grass for a fair sized cricket pitch and the RPM team would take some time to perform the required clear up, There would be no chance for a run at the race win for Tim Harvey. With the train battling for second place still battling away, the Lamborghini still hanging on but with Whight looking at this point the most likely man to make progress. Back down the order there were battles aplenty, Hector Lester, enjoying his first visit to Thruxton was having a fine battle with Richard Hay, the Hay-Fisher boss enjoying his Bank Holiday weekend aboard the Brookspeed Viper. Hay would finally get by the Ferrari for 8th on lap 8. GT Cup meanwhile was developing into a pretty straightforward affair, the three runners lapping reasonably rapidly in the first half of the race, led by the #54 RSS Performance Porsche of Graeme Mundy who gradually pulled out a comfortable advantage. Andrew Howard in the #99 Beechdean Motorsport Ferrari 360 was having a rare old time with the #13 Plans Motorsport Lotus Exige, a car which ran reliably throughout the race in conservative tune. The Richmond Racing Ginetta was hanging on gallantly until just before the pit stop window, in the laps before though the little #88 car’s pace had been dropping away rapidly and sure enough the car disappeared into the paddock, a broken gear linkage robbing Hollebon and Nick Marsh of yet another podium shot. Lap 8 and Ellis had now pulled out almost 5 seconds advantage over the chasing train, with the 2,3,4,5 battle covered by just under a second and a half. Ben de Zille Butler was now looking set to progress up the order and he had a good look on the outside of Whight under braking into the chicane. The Cadena man though toughed it, out but the lost momentum for de Zille Butler allowed Adam Jones to get a run on the #3 car, the Lamborghini still smoking heavily each time it powered through the chicane. The Gallardo though simply didn’t have enough grunt to finish the job, the two powering down the start finish stretch side by side and the Aston man hanging on to retain the place around the outside of turn one. The additional effort though would be the end of the Lamborghini, Jones dropping back rapidly, pitting at the end of the next lap and out of the car. “I was losing power, there was just no top end at all.” Team Modena would spend the next two hours investigating but eventually concluded that the problem was engine-related and of the terminal variety, The Gallardo would be on its way home on Saturday night, no Sunday race start for Jones. Hector Lester’s adventures continued meanwhile at the wrong end of the top ten, he now headed Tom Alexander and Oliver Bryant, Ferrari from Aston Martin and Ascari, great racing and great variety. Ahead of this train it was another Aston vs Ascari battle, Paul Drayson in the bio fuelled #1 car ahead of David Jones’s Preci Spark Ascari. Up front Ellis was still pulling away, 7 seconds to the good after 20 minutes, with the chasing trio closer together than ever, just 0.7 seconds between them. De Zille Butler though would now make his move, up to third ahead of the #18 Cadena car as the pit stop window opened. First to make its routine stop, and timed absolutely to the second, was the struggling #10 Damax Ascari, Robin Ward opening the door to allow Thomas Erdos to take over from Stephen Keating just as 23 minutes had elapsed. Hector Lester and Phil Burton were early pit visitors too in the Ferrari 430s, Allan Simonsen jumping aboard the #23 car and Adam Wilcox in #12. The VRS Finance machine though would take new rear tyres, the work to do this only being allowed to take place after the statutory 45 second stop had elapsed, Simonsen meanwhile would be on a conservative run, the team having been convinced in the morning practice session that a tyre change would be required! The stops were coming thick and fast now, Paul Drayson handing the #1 Barwell Aston over to Jonathan Cocker and Andrew Howard jumping from the #99 Beechdean Ferrari to give Aaron Scott a chance to attack the GTC lead: neither car would take new rubber. Significantly perhaps the class leading #54 car stopped at much the same time and did take new rear tyres (after the crew had to be reminded by pit marshals that they must not do so until the end of the 45 seconds). Peter Bamford was next in, the #8 car seemingly making a late decision to pit and badly baulking the Cadena Aston as it did so. Matt Griffin would climb aboard the car but would have a mountain to climb after his co-driver had struggled in the opening period of the race, lapping amongst the GTC cars. In the group chasing the leader the baulking of Whight had allowed the #7 and #3 cars to take some advantage and de Zille Butler now grabbed second place and started to take time out of Ellis’s advantage ahead. Another retirement at around this point was the #16 RSS Porsche, Colin Willmott left stranded out on the circuit with a driveshaft problem. The #2 Barwell Aston was next to pit, Michael Bentwood would be another man with a lot of work to do though if a good points finish was to be gained. As the quick men started to make their marks, Simonsen 1:19, Wilcox 1:18.8 and Cocker 1:18.6, the #11 Damax Ascari pitted, Phil Keen in for Oliver Bryant. GTC was now in its critical phase. The Beechdean stop had allowed Aaron Scott out ahead of the RSS Porsche but Jamie Smyth was closing in fast: was it tyres, the Ferrari hadn’t changed but the Porsche had? Well perhaps in part but post race a wound up Aaron Scott revealed that the 360’s engine problems had returned, the V8 substantially down on power again. That was really game over for that race as Smyth stroke the Porsche home, with Scott nursing his off-colour #99 car behind. The quick laps continued to come – Simonsen 1:18.7, Wilcox 1:18.394, Cocker 1:18.357: the #23 Ferrari though was already in tyre trouble. Lap 24 completed and the leading pair (#6 and #3) finally pitted, the gap down to 6 seconds, no tyres for either car and the Barwell car seemed to have picked up a second or so with slightly slicker pit routine. Cocker was closing in fast now on the two, Alex Mortimer and Guy Harrington emerging from the pits as Cocker exited the chicane. Paul Fenton had had a steady stint in the #17 Moore Motorsport Viper, but he would have a moment on the exit of the chicane, the car way off line before he gathered everything back up to continue, before passing the beautiful blue and white car over to Mike Gardiner. As the now leading #7 Viper pitted, Nigel Redwood handing the car over to Nick Foster, we had a third leader just after the halfway point as Barrie Whight stormed through in the #18 Cadena Aston Martin, 25 laps completed in around 32 minutes. Simonsen’s pace was now dropping off but Wilcox (albeit battling to get back into the top ten) was still lapping quickly and consistently, a pair of laps in the 1:18.5s though were bettered by the flying Jonathan Cocker, 1:18.196 was the fastest lap of the race at that point. Thomas Erdos had not got up to speed in the #10 Damax Ascari and he was soon back in the pits to retire the car, an off from Paul Keating early in the race had produced rising temperatures in the engine compartment - and amongst some of the front runners, the KZ1R rejoining the track right in front of the charging battle for second place! The lead battle now was between two cars yet to pit. Barrie Whight led David Jones by around 8 seconds, whilst the ‘virtual lead’ battle was in full flow, the #6, #3 and #1 cars now lapping together. Whight and Jones pitted next time around to hand over to……….Whight and Jones! (Paul and Godfrey) and as the pit stops wound out the RPM and Barwell double battle became the tussle for the lead once again, this trio separated by just 2.4 seconds on lap 26. Battling hard still to make up ground, Adam Wilcox was producing a string of fastest laps, down into the low 1:18s before becoming the only man into the 1:17s on his lap 26 (1:17.815). With 20 minutes to go Cocker grabbed second place from Harrington to leave the order: #6 Mortimer
#1 Cocker
#3 Harrington
#18 Whight (P)
#7 Foster
#22 Jones (G)
#23 Simonsen
#11 Keen
#2 Bentwood
#12 Wilcox Within that little lot Cocker was 2.5 seconds behind the leader and closing whilst Jones was also closing in fast on the Whight / Foster combo ahead. He wouldn’t have to work too hard at one of those though, as Paul Whight had a quick spin in the middle of the chicane. He rejoined quickly, but not quickly enough to save himself from losing a couple of places to Foster and Jones, the Cadena Aston now down in sixth, and with Simonsen closing in. Up front the lead was now down to 1.6 seconds (Lap 30) with a similar gap now between Cocker and Harrington, the #1 car seeming able to pull away easily. The #40 Brookspeed Viper meanwhile pitted, Richard Stanton needing the attention of the leaf blower after a grassy moment. Just outside the top ten meanwhile, Mark Cole in the #4 4Car Porsche was making progress, at the expense of Mike Gardiner. Lap 31 and the lead gap was down to under a second as Cocker continued to pull away from Harrington, that gap up to over 3 seconds. The gap next time around was less than 0.3 seconds and finally Cocker was through into the lead (with a bit of a shove, which earned him a driving standards flag but no complaint from Mortimer: “It was nothing shady, nothing I wouldn’t have done to him in the same circumstances.”). Further down the order there were still battles raging. Phil Keen was finally passed by Michael Bentwood for 8th and Godfrey Jones was having a high old time in pursuit of a podium finish (and a much needed points score): he was right with Foster with 16 minutes to go and next time around got a great exit from the chicane for a drag race past the pits, finally grabbing fourth up the inside into Allard. Harrington was now his next target but 16.4 seconds ahead. By now some of the tyres were getting somewhat…..tired, and the pace of the #3 Aston dropped off alarmingly, Jones carving a full 5 seconds out of Harrington next time around with a further chunk (almost 4 seconds) on the following lap. Nick Foster though was still very much in touch with the Ascari, that final podium place, and fourth place too for that matter, was rapidly becoming a three car battle. Another three car affair was developing at the bottom end of the top ten, with Bentwood, Keen and Wilcox separated by 1.4 seconds in a battle for 8th. Ahead of this trio, Simonsen had just got by Whight for 6th but the #23 Ferrari was in big tyre trouble and the Aston was lapping right on his tail. By now Cocker was simply storming away in the lead: he had no radio, and not a lot of help with pit boards and perhaps because of that his pace was very rapid indeed, lapping into the 1:18s to a lead which would stretch to more than 33 seconds by the end of the race! Further back though there was much still to be settled and with 7 minutes to go one of the other Barwell cars had hit trouble, Michael Bentwood tagging a backmarker which damaged the front of the #2 Aston and left him unable to resist Wilcox and Keen, the Ferrari having passed the Ascari in the same tussle. The gap between Harrington and Jones meanwhile was still coming down, but the Aston man had got the ‘get on with it’ call from Mark Lemmer and the Ascari’s closure rate was slowing dramatically, but was that all to do with the Aston’s pace? The answer was that it wasn’t, the Ascari was in trouble, the alternator was failing and the #22 KZ1R was losing power: “With about 5 laps to go the power steering went and that’s a big problem here,” said a very hot and bothered Godfrey Jones afterwards. The car dropped back rapidly from the battle for third place, Harrington was now safe there, and now Nick Foster was looking longingly at fourth. He grabbed it with a very good move around the outside of the hobbled Ascari into the chicane on the penultimate lap: massively frustrating for Jones but his troubles were far from over as on the final lap he exited the chicane and the car almost came to a stop, almost all electrical power gone. He crawled to the line but would lose places both to Simonsen and Whight, the Cadena man having dogged the #23 Ferrari for the last laps of the race. So that leaves the #1 Aston back on level terms in the points standings with the #6 Viper, both cars having won a pair of races apiece and with five races to go, the #3 Aston squad is now 7 points adrift, with the Jones twins two further back still, that late race stumble costing them dear. Hector Lester meanwhile is a further point adrift, ten off the points lead with 5 races to go. Jonathan Cocker: “That was a great birthday present but I wouldn’t have pushed so hard if I’d had a radio. I lost it 3 or 4 laps after getting in and was a bit worried about the gap. I only got a pit board one lap from the end and by then I was getting really worried about the front left which wasn’t feeling very good at all, I had a strong smell of rubber in the car on the last couple of laps.” Paul Drayson: “I wanted to keep the car in good shape for Jonathan but I was under pressure for the whole of my stint so probably had to push harder than we’d have liked. I really had to get my head down but the speed here is just awesome.” Alex Mortimer: “I pushed as hard as I could but when he came by it was like he had a turbo! I have got to get myself some of that bio fuel! We were always going to struggle here against a car with a GT1 body kit.” Bradley Ellis: “I only pushed as hard as I needed to. The game was to hand the car back to Al so that he could push with no real risk. I was enjoying it though, every time I came out of Church I had a great view of the cars battling behind!” Ben de Zille Butler: “I’m a bit disappointed, I got held up at the start behind the Lambo and then the (#7) Viper and the yellow Aston so I was a bit off the pace when I needed to be making up ground.” Guy Harrington: “We’re in pretty good shape, the gap is seven points and there’s a way to go yet.” The GTC battle had effectively been over for half of the race, Jamie Smyth able to pace himself as Aaron Scott struggled with the off colour Ferrari. Graeme Mundy: “I hope we can hold this points gap (14) to the end. I had a busy old time at the start of the race with not only the Ferrari but a bunch of GT3 cars, quite fun really.” Jamie Smyth: “It was eventually pretty straightforward. Aaron had a problem and we were there to take advantage.” Andrew Howard: “I enjoyed my fight with the Lotus, I had the legs on him out the back but he was always back right there through the chicane.” Aaron Scott: “The team did a great job to get me out in front but I had the engine issue again almost immediately, very, very frustrating!” Elsewhere there were stories of milestones met – George Mackintosh and Alistair MacKinnon delighted with the race finish for the #13 Plans Motorsport Lotus Exige. George Mackintosh: “Tenacity pays off and we got it to the end. Our best possible result would have been a finish and 15th feels as good as a podium to us. I got my tyres working quickly and got by a few cars at the start (three in fact) but when the bigger cars got their rubber working I was right into the fight. The engine we have here is a very conservative tune, we’re here to build confidence and in fairness whilst a third of this place plays to our strengths, the other two thirds doesn’t!” Alistair MacKinnon: “We needed this result for everyone involved back at Hethel. We’ve now got something to build on and some real pluses. The gar felt great throughout, the handling was wonderful and the rubber was good from start to finish.” Less happy (to put it mildly) with the rubber was Allan Simonsen, the #23 Ferrari finishing the race with the inside edge of its left rear Avon down to the wire: “That’s the third time this year we’ve finished with tyres in that state, the big man upstairs must really be looking after this car. I have never felt scared in my life in a race car but today I felt sure we were going to have a blowout in the very worst place, the car felt as if it would spin at every corner. The Championship, and their sponsor needs to look hard at what is required to build a tyre that will last the distance. I’m sure people will say we could have changed it but the fact is that the tyres should be able to run the distance safely. I wasn’t pushing hard and the state that this tyre has ended the race in is just unacceptable.” Oliver Bryant meanwhile was in reflective mood too: “I actually ran faster here two years ago in the Aero 8 than in the Ascari today.” The upside? There were no punctures at all during the race at this the most abrasive of UK racetracks (though in the case of Simonsen’s car that was rather lucky!). We saw a good race in parts and some fine battles up and down the field. The points battle literally couldn’t be closer and Sunday’s 60 minute tussle could see the championship enter yet another fascinating phase, with five cars still very much in the hunt.
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