British GT, Oulton Park – Qualifying Report
A Great Start For Fortec

It’s been a hectic few weeks for Fortec Motorsports – a late decision to enter GT racing; a delivery schedule that only allowed for limited testing opportunities; and a scramble to find drivers – but Benji Hetherington provided the perfect fillip for the team when he placed the #15 Mercedes AMG SLS GT3 on pole position for the opening round of the 2013 British GT Championship.

"Everything has gone really well so far,” said Hetherington, who shares the car with Ollie Hancock this weekend. “It's a pleasure for me to join Fortec; they're a great team with a fun atmosphere. Given I've not driven the car on a circuit before today, we've done well to find a drivable setup and I'm confident for the race."

The first session got off to a bad start when we lost two cars, in separate incidents, before a time had even appeared on the TV screens. Roger Wills spun the #24 United Autosports McLaren into the tyres at Druids – “I'm really disappointed. I thought the grip was coming and just got caught out. Apologies to the team they have worked so hard.” – while Matt Smith had a heavy off in the Redgate Lifetime Ginetta G50. Neither driver was hurt, but both cars suffered extensive damage. The #24 is facing its second major rebuild following Richard Meins’ testing accident at the same circuit, but will hopefully be back in action on Monday, but the brand-new G50 will have to wait until Rockingham for its race debut after Dan Eagling confirmed that the car had incurred enough damage to force the team to withdraw from the meeting.

After almost 20 minutes the session resumed and immediately Jon Minshaw made a bid for pole, laying down a 1:38.325 on his first flying lap and improving to 1:37.835 on his second in the #33 Trackspeed Porsche. Within seconds, though, he was down to second as Omani racer Ahmad Al Harthy went top with a 1:37.603 in the #1 Motorbase GT3 R.

Several drivers dropped into the low 1:38s over the next couple of minutes – Hetherington, Gary Eastwood and Mark Patterson amongst them – but Minshaw looked to have cemented pole when he posted a 1:37.353 before pitting with a minute and a half to go. But Hetherington had saved his best for last and his 1:37.098 with just seconds remaining handed P1 to the white car. Jay Palmer – looking impressive in the #27 Vita4One Ferrari – also dislodged Minshaw with a 1:37.265 on his last lap, while Al Harthy snatched third at the death in the #1 Porsche with a 1:37.338.

Derek Johnston was another to impress on his BGT debut, with a fifth place in the #41 MTECH Ferrari, while Jody Fannin ended his first GT3 qualifying session in sixth in the #230 JRM Nisan GT-R.

Despite the GT4 field being reduced to four cars, Steve Chaplin enjoyed his – and indeed Aston Martin’s – first pole in the BGT after he took the Complete Racing Vantage GT4 round in 1:46.715; "I'm very pleased with the result in qualifying today,” he said after both sessions were complete. “We didn't really think we'd get pole but we improved and got better and better as the day went on. I was surprised to see the two cars lose it due to tyre temperatures, we had a lot of grip out there and it felt really good to drive. Tom did a fantastic job and I have to thank the boys in the crew for doing such a solid job today. I don't really want to talk tactics, but the championship is what we’re after, so we'll push hard and keep safe; we know we have to be smart."

Fireworks were expected in the second session, and it was Richard Westbrook who lit the blue touch paper and fired the first rocket when his first flying lap produced a 1:35.032 in the #32 Trackspeed Porsche – the quickest time of the day by almost half a second. Joe Osborne improved the #8 888Optimum BMW Z4’s best by four tenths on his first flier to go second on 1:35.988, while Mike Simpson briefly had the #16 Team LNT Ginetta G55 in third on 1:36.291.

As has become the norm in the Pro session, the next couple of laps saw a multitude of improvements and a constant shuffling of the positions. Allan Simonsen briefly went top with a 1:35.103, but was instantly demoted by a 1:35.032 from Westbrook. The Dane managed to exactly replicate his time on his next lap, but by then Matt Griffin had occupied provisional pole with a 1:35.015 in the #21 MTECH Ferrari. By the time your scribe had glanced down at his notepad and back up at the screen, Nick Tandy was second in the #31 Porsche (1:34.863), but his amazing time had been eclipsed by a staggering 1:34.599 from the #3 Rosso Verde pilot.

"Racing with Hector and Rosso Verde is always fun,” said Simonsen after his time had been confirmed as the quickest of the session. “Last year I raced for 11 different Ferrari teams and the times I have with these guys are always up there with the most rewarding. The car hadn't turned a wheel since Donington last year when we raced there in British GT, but John is such a brilliant engineer that he does exactly what I ask and the car feels great to drive. I waited until everyone else had gone, gave myself a huge gap and I knew it would be cold, so I changed something and it paid off. This is really satisfying, and you can see it means a lot to the team."

Westbrook pitted with six minutes to go and Simonsen followed his down the pitlane a minute later, with more and more cars calling it a day as the session wound down. But Jonny Adam and Matteo Bobbi stayed out and made late improvements – a 1:34.989 from the Scot promoting the Beechdean Aston to third and a 1:35.484 from the Italian putting the Vita4One Ferrari sixth, just ahead of Matt Bell’s #25 United Autosports Audi.

Declan Jones was clearly in Simmo mode when he took pole in GT4 in the #43 century Ginetta with a blistering 1:44.729 on his series debut – a second and a half quicker than his best from earlier in the day. For much of the session his gap to the next class car was some five seconds, but a series of ever-quicker laps from Tom Wilson moved the Aston to within three seconds by the close.

Both qualifying sessions had been hugely entertaining, but the closeness of the first session had been something of a surprise, with just 2.030s covering the top 20 drivers (compared to 2.638s in the Pro session), suggesting the first race could be just as entertaining as the second.

As to who will win on Monday? Well, that’s just as difficult to predict as it was before the cars fired up their engines on Saturday morning. The table below shows how closely matched the driver pairings were in qualifying (note - some cars had issues during the session), but the nature of the Oulton Park circuit is likely to have just as much impact on the race outcomes as anything. Race 1 begins at 10:55, with Race 2 following at 14:55.

MH

Avon Tyres British GT Championship, Oulton Park - Qualifying Times - Comparison

No. Class Team Drivers Car Driver 1 Driver 2 Diff 41 GT3 MTECH Derek Johnston Julien Draper Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 1:37.656 1:37.592 0.064 15 GT3 Fortec Motorsports Benji Hetherington Ollie Hancock Mercedes AMG SLS GT3 1:37.098 1:37.227 0.129 1 GT3 Motorbase Performance Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Caine Porsche 997 GT3 R 1:37.338 1:36.941 0.397 22 GT3 Preci-Spark David Jones Godfrey Jones McLaren MP4-12C 1:37.886 1:37.343 0.543 53 GT4 Complete Racing Steve Chaplin Tom Wilson Aston Martin GT4 1:46.715 1:47.663 0.948 230 GT3 JRM Racing Jody Fannin Jody Fannin Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 1:37.734 1:36.439 1.295 320 GT3 JRM Racing Mark Cole Mark Cole Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 1:38.644 1:37.331 1.313 23 GT3 United Autosports Zak Brown Glynn Geddie McLaren MP4-12C 1:38.097 1:36.583 1.514 33 GT3 Trackspeed Jon Minshaw Phil Keen Porsche 997 GT3 R 1:37.353 1:35.616 1.737 27 GT3 Vita4One Team Italy Jay Palmer Matteo Bobbi Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 1:37.265 1:35.466 1.799 40 GT3 IDL-CWS Colin White Tom Sharp Ginetta G55 GT3 1:39.431 1:37.527 1.904 16 GT3 Team LNT Richard Sykes Mike Simpson Ginetta G55 GT3 1:38.161 1:36.052 2.109 18 GT3 FF Corse Gary Eastwood Rob Barff Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 1:38.408 1:36.020 2.388 14 GT3 Fortec Motorsports Jason Minshaw James Walker Mercedes AMG SLS GT3 1:38.844 1:36.370 2.474 25 GT3 United Autosports Mark Patterson Matt Bell Audi R8 LMS ultra 1:38.035 1:35.484 2.551 78 GT3 Ecurie Ecosse with Barwell Motorsport Ron Johnson Piers Johnson BMW Z4 GT3 1:40.121 1:37.310 2.811 79 GT3 Ecurie Ecosse Marco Attard Oliver Bryant BMW Z4 GT3 1:38.431 1:35.584 2.847 888 GT3 888Optimum Steve Tandy Dan Brown BMW Z4 GT3 1:39.128 1:36.110 3.018 69 GT4 APO Sport James May Alex Osborne Ginetta G50 1:47.749 1:50.927 3.178 21 GT3 MTECH Duncan Cameron Matt Griffin Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 1:38.371 1:35.015 3.356 6 GT3 PGF-Kinfaun AMR Phil Dryburgh John Gaw Aston Martin Vantage GT3 1:38.915 1:35.559 3.356 31 GT3 Trackspeed David Ashburn Nick Tandy Porsche 997 GT3 R 1:38.267 1:34.863 3.404 007 GT3 Beechdean AMR Andrew Howard Jonathan Adam Aston Martin Vantage GT3 1:38.727 1:34.989 3.738 32 GT3 Trackspeed Gregor Fisken Richard Westbrook Porsche 997 GT3 R 1:38.799 1:35.032 3.767 8 GT3 888Optimum Lee Mowle Joe Osborne BMW Z4 GT3 1:39.661 1:35.869 3.792 13 GT3 AF Corse John Dhillon Aaron Scott Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 1:40.570 1:36.419 4.151 3 GT3 Rosso Verde Hector Lester Allan Simonsen Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 1:39.333 1:34.589 4.744 43 GT4 Century Motorsport Zoe Wenham Declan Jones Ginetta G50 1:50.472 1:44.729 5.682 11 GT3 PE Group Blendini Moto Dom Evans Tom Roche Audi R8 LMS 1:47.511 1:37.693 9.818 44 GT4 Optimum Motorsport Ryan Ratcliffe Rick Parfitt Jnr Ginetta G50 2:11.181 1:59.443 11.738 24 GT3 United Autosports Roger Wills Mark Blundell McLaren MP4-12C No Time No Time - 50 GT4 Redgate Lifetime Matt Smith Dan Eagling Ginetta G50 No Time No Time - 10 INV M-Sport Racing Rembert Berg Warren Hughes Audi R8 LMS ultra No Time No Time -