British GT, Silverstone – Wrap-up
To Finish First, First You Have to Stay Within Track Limits

Well, that was a strange one, wasn’t it? The three hours of Silverstone last weekend saw some great racing, but also lots and lots of penalties; and it ended with a well-deserved – if rather straightforward – victory for the United Autosports McLaren MP4-12C and with the tantalising prospect of a championship decider in a fortnight’s time featuring seven cars.

 Going into Sunday’s race, that title fight looked to be down to three contenders – David Ashburn, Duncan Cameron/Matt Griffin and Alex Buncombe/Jann Mardenborough – but instead of being able to capitalise on the misfortunes of their rivals at Silverstone, all three suffered almost equally with just 15 points being collected between them. In fact, when you look at the points from the last two rounds, Snetterton (two races) and Silverstone, we see quite a telling picture:

David Ashburn – 8
Buncombe/Mardenborough – 21
Cameron/Griffin – 25
Tandy/Osborne – 38
Alasdair McCaig – 43
Perfetti/Caine – 50.5
Bateman/Bell – 62.5

The fact is that three solid results (i.e. podium finishes) at these races from any of numbers 21, 31 and 35 would have settled things by now; and it is in fact Michael Caine and Danielle Perfetti who have been most consistent over those three races, with second, fifth and third places respectively.

We now have the situation where a win at Donington from any of Ashburn, McCaig, Cameron/Griffin, Buncombe/Mardenborough or Perfetti/Caine will secure the title. Should any other car take the top step, however, the possible permutations become head-spinningly numerous.

But back to Silverstone; just how did United Autosports take the win?

“To be honest, the race just came to us,” said Matt Bell. “We’d been on the back foot since practice, having found a good balance during testing at Pembrey only to discover that we’d been given a 6mm ride-height increase for this round.  We worked on set-up through practice, but it was a hard slog and we never did have a perfect car; in fact, fifth in qualifying was a real bonus – we thought we’d be lower down the grid.

“Heading into the race, we decided to just get our heads down and then see where we were at halfway; we weren’t really bothered where everyone else was at that point. As the race went on, lots of other teams made mistakes and picked up penalties and we didn’t and we found ourselves in the lead towards the end.”

How did he and Bateman avoid exceeding the track limits when so many others didn’t? “I’m no angel when it comes to this; I’ve got previous,” laughed Bell. “But it was mentioned during the drivers’ briefing and there had been plenty of flags and warning during practice, so we just made sure we stayed on the track.”

Two wins from the last three races mean that the McLaren is now once more mathematically in the title hunt; “We’re not even giving that a moment’s thought, going to Donington,” Bell asserted. “We want to end the season on a high with a third win and that’s our entire focus. We’ll have a 27-second penalty to overcome and we’ll need to find the correct balance – we were delighted to take the win at Silverstone, but not so happy with the fact that we didn’t have the fastest car – so there’s plenty for us to worry about without thinking of the championship. Once we get the win, anything else is a bonus!”  

As for the leading contenders, it was a sorry tale. David Ashburn saw his car go out while in the hands of his co-driver for the second time in a row – at Snetterton it had been the result of a very rare error from Richard Westbrook, but at Silverstone it was an ECU failure that stranded Phil Keen just after he began his first stint – while both the #21 MTECH Ferrari and #35 RJN Nissan struggled with mechanical issues that dropped them out of the top six. And even the #32 Porsche of Joe Osborne and Steve Tandy struggled after losing ground in the opening laps when Tandy was tapped into a spin.

But all this was great news for Alasdair McCaig, who is suddenly in with as good a chance as anyone of landing the title in the Barwell-run Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4; an excellent second place from the car – shared this time by Ollie Hancock, who excelled on his debut – propelling the 30 year old Scot to second in the standings, despite an overheating diff that caused several anxious moments for the team towards the end of the race.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the weekend was the pace of the Ginetta G55 GT3; especially that of Team WFR. Both Riki Christodoulou and Jody Firth revelled in the car’s performance following the latest BoP adjustments –which, according to Firth, put the car where it should have been at the start of the year – and it was only a brake-fluid leak that held them back in the race; the leak resulting in an off for Firth while leading. The car resumed after a lengthy stop and ran well until the end, despite two drive-throughs for exceeding track limits.

“Today didn’t go to plan,” admitted Christodoulou. “We got a good start, but unfortunately there was contact with car 007 just off the start line. After the scuffle I pinched the lead and was pulling further away with every lap in my stint.  It was a short time in the pits for the changeover to Jody, but not long into his stint there was a problem with the brakes, he was forced to pit and there was an unexpected driver change. I didn’t notice that Jody had had an off and hit the wall which left damage to the front of the car, causing a lot of under steer. Overall, it’s not the result the team and I wanted, after the pace we had all weekend I felt we at least deserved a podium. I am really looking forward to Donington Park in a few weeks’ time and we will keep pushing for the win.”

Firth was bullish after the race, tweeting: "Be sure we will be back pushing hard at the last race in three weeks time at Donington. We WILL have a win this year!"

Things went even better for Team LNT on their return to the series after many years, with only stubborn resistance from Michael Caine denying Lawrence Tomlinson and Mike Simpson a podium finish.

“Fourth place overall from a grid of 27 cars isn’t bad for Team LNT’s first time out in the 2012 British GT series," said Tomlinson. "In coming to Silverstone, Team LNT have proven the G55 GT3 car is highly competitive and a rival for any marque in the GT3 category – which was our long-term goal for the weekend.”

“We achieved exactly what we wanted to do here this weekend, in showing that the Ginetta G55 GT3 is capable of holding its own on such a highly competitive grid," added Simpson. "Team LNT did an exceptional job of prepping the car and we had the slickest of all pit stops, and we leave here having demonstrated the potential of the GT3 in this highly regarded race series and looking forward to returning in two weeks for the Britcar 24 hour.”

The contact with the #007 Beechdean Aston Martin Vantage GT3 referred to by Christodoulou earlier  had Andrew Howard spitting feathers, as it resulted initially in a spin and then to a brake pad being dislodged by a calliper that had broken in the impact.

This necessitated a lengthy stop that kept the Aston out of contention and dropped it out of the title chase. All credit to the team for persevering, though; a 2:06.308 from Jonny Adam on Lap 63 (just shy of Joe Osborne’s fastest lap of the race of 2:06.291) showing what might have been.

The Cyber Racing AMR Aston of John Gaw and Phil Dryburgh had a solid racing debut and finished 12th; a very creditable result. As could be expected with a new car and team, an extra couple of minutes were spent in the pits over the course of the three stops; but there were no major issues and Gaw’s fastest lap was quicker than that of the winning McLaren.

The 2011 champions, Jim and Glynn Geddie, also enjoyed a good race as they debuted their APEX Racing McLaren in the series. Normally run by Peter Hignett’s ABG Motorsport, they were on this occasion run by CRS as Hignett is contracted to United Autosports for the season. Meanwhile, the ABG truck – in United Autosport colours – was to be found outside the Chevron garage after being brought in to help out there!

The APEX car ran quickly and reliably throughout, but a 16s stop/go for a too-short first stop cost Glynn the lead and almost certainly cost the team a podium finish.

The Preci-Spark Mercedes AMG SLS GT3 was another to enjoy a strong race in the hands of David and Godfrey Jones. The silver machine ran like clockwork – its three pitstops each taking 2:04 – and was at the sharp-end for the whole race, but just didn’t have the extra second of pace it needed to challenge for the win. A fine effort, nonetheless.

In GT4, there is no suspense as to the outcome of the class title, as Jody Fannin and Warren Hughes claimed the prize after a flawless weekend – fastest in FP1, Fastest in FP2, pole by three quarters of a second, and the win by two laps (oh, and fastest race lap) says it all, really!

“We had a pretty simple race, which given it was a three-hour race is quite an achievement really," said Hughes. "The strategy went to plan and we had no hiccups in the pitlane, and the team did a great job; it was a nice way to win the championship with a win.

“The car was faultless and it was important to win the title as if I hadn’t won it, it wouldn’t have reflected well on me; but I’m most satisfied by what it will hopefully mean and do for Jody’s future. I’ve really enjoyed this year with Jody, and I’d love to have a crack in a really good GT3 car next year.”

“It went to plan today, the team did everything right," added Fannin. "Warren built up a good lead and we didn’t get any warnings or drive-throughs and we ended up winning by two laps, a perfect race for us. I wanted to move on into endurance racing as my previous two years have been sprint racing, so this means a lot; and having Warren alongside me has helped me no end. It’s great to win it with a round to spare, I don’t think we could’ve asked for a better year.”

In truth, the GT4 fight at Silverstone never really materialised, with most of the opposition encountering problems or visiting the naughty step rather too often. For example, the Optimum Ginetta G50 of Lee Mowle and Gary Simms were handed no fewer than four drive-through penalties, and yet they still finished second!

It is to be hoped that the class can relive some of its better battles from earlier in the season at the Donington finalé.

So it’s all to play for at the end of the month in Leicestershire as the championship hunt goes down to the wire. It’s all but confirmed that the FIA GT1 World Championship will be joining the BGT field at the meeting, but there is no doubt that it will be the British series that will be attracting the headlines!

MH