Bute Motorsport GT Cup, Donington Park - Saturday Notes
An Entertaining Day

An excellent field of 29 cars assembled at Donington Park for Round 6 of the Bute Motorsport GT Cup, with the first of the two days seeing two Free Practice sessions in the morning and one Qualifying session late in the afternoon; the two races following on the Sunday.

With this meeting being held in the middle of August, holidays meant that some regulars were absent – Francis Galashan and Leon Price amongst them – but there were several returnees as well as the newcomers. Andy Yool, Barclay Dougall, Danny Winstanley and Tom Andrew all returned after missing the Brands Hatch Indy round.

Both practice sessions were led by the Ferrari 458 Challenge of Derek Johnston, this car running as an Invitation entry, but gearbox problems saw the car being replaced by a Group 1 Ferrari 430 before qualifying took place.

“Let’s just say it’s not my weekend,” said the 2009 Sunoco Daytona Challenge winner. “The whole point of being here was to see where the 458 fits into the GT Cup – it’s uncategorised at the moment, so it was running as an Invitation to make sure it didn’t take championship points from the regulars. We want to develop it this year with a view to racing it here in 2012.

“Then during practice this morning the car developed an electrical fault and I was down to just three gears. We’ll get that sorted under warranty, but couldn’t do anything else this weekend; but I’ve paid the entry fee so we went and got my old car from the Nottingham workshop. It hasn’t moved for more than a year and we’ve had no chance to set it up, so we’ve no idea how it’ll be tomorrow!”

Jordan Witt was the quickest of the Group 1 runners in the morning in the #85 Chevron GR8, even with the 60kg ballast he earned with his win at Brands Hatch last month. His father David’s GR8, #84, had been upgraded from its near-standard spec last time out and now looked almost identical to the #85, with the colour of the roofs (one yellow, one black) now being the easiest way to tell them apart. There were still sufficient differences between the two cars to determine that Witt Snr would be racing in Group 2. Joining him there would be Andy Yool, with his less-developed GR8. The ‘independent’ Chevron driver had been struggling with the weight that he had been forced to carry in Group 3, so requested that he be able to run unballasted in Group 2. The organisers agreed to this request, and also allowed him to carry his points earned in Group 3 across to Group 2. The #53 was, however, struggling with a yet-to-be-traced power issue during practice.

Seven cars were within a second of Jordan Witt’s time – 1:11.228 - with Tom Andrew being the sixth of these in the Group 2-leading Morgan Aero 8 GT. Just behind him was the very familiar Xero Chevrolet Corvette of Mitch Millett, the American car returning to the series for the first time this season. 

Group 3 was led in practice by Barclay Dougall, his 1:13.706 in the #37 BMW E46 GTR being almost a full second quicker than Mark Radcliffe’s BMW M3.

Nick Whale had four races in the GT Cup in 2008 and thoroughly enjoyed them, “but then the recession struck and nearly wiped me out, so the car had to go!” Now, however, he’s back with son Harry in the #29 Group 1 Porsche 997 GT3. “We had a few outings in a historic Mustang in the Masters Series last year,” he continued, “but then took the first six months of this year off while I set up Silverstone Auctions. This car came through the business, and I liked it so much I withdrew it from the auction and bought it – it’s a 2007 Porsche Carrera Cup, Mark Hazell’s old car, and it’s only ever raced in that series before today. We’ve changed absolutely nothing on it!” 

As for Harry? “I started racing in 2009 in Ginetta Challenge in a G20 and have done two seasons of that; but that car has 120 bhp, while the Porsche has probably not far off 400!”

The two drivers undoubtedly form the tallest driver pairing in the field, both several inches taller than six-foot, so can they comfortably fit in the Porsche? “That was one of the main reasons we bought it – plenty of room,” said Nick. “We’re treating this as a bit of fun, as and when we can afford it, but we very much want to do the Spa round – I want Harry to experience that circuit. Then hopefully we’ll look to do perhaps four rounds in 2012.”

Away from the pit garages – just behind the GT Cup hospitality awning, in fact – was to be found the Marcos Mantis in which 22 year-old Darrelle Wilson would be making his GT debut. “I started in the VW Cup at 16, where I drove a VR6 Vento, a beetle and a Bora, then did British Formula Ford, Dunlop SportMaxx and Mini Challenge. I started off with backing from Team48 – Luther Blissett and John Barnes’ team – but haven’t raced for two years due to budget issues.”

So why a GT? “I want to see what it’s like. We tested on Tuesday, which went okay. We’ll see how this weekend goes, then take it from there.”

Darrelle’s father, Des – who ran him in VW Cup – was on hand at Donington, but his main role was as a mechanic on Michael Symons’ Group 1 BMW, which was run by Geoff Steele Racing. He revealed that Darrelle would be racing again at Anglesey and Snetterton, and also that his won team was on the way up to Hull to obtain a replacement BMW for Symons after the engine in the #31 seized in morning practice.

Qualifying

On a packed schedule of practice, qualifying and racing, the GT Cup runners had a long wait before their own 20-minute qualifying session began at 17:15. This di, however, enable both the stricken Ferrari and BMW to be replaced and 29 cars would take part.

And what a session it turned out to be!

Nick Whale was the first to set a time, 1:15.984 on his second lap in the #29 Porsche, followed shortly afterwards by a 1:15.864 from Jordan Witt. The majority of the pack was on a similar pace, except for Tom Andrew, who decided that his second lap was the right time to lower the bar in the Group 2 Morgan by a full three seconds – to 1:12.918, in fact; and he dropped this to a 1:12.444 on his next lap.

The Group 1 cars started to get on the pace and it wasn’t long before David Tomlin, in the #66 Ferrari 430, and Jordan Witt were fighting over provisional pole; the red car sitting at the top on 1:11.552 after six minutes. Mark Radcliffe led group 3 at this point, with 1 1:14.163 in the #19 BMW M3.

Nick Whale confirmed his return to the series with a 1:11.323 on the next lap, which left the top six cars covered by just 0.480s at this point. Mitch Millett had just taken the Corvette into third, while Gary Eastwood was fifth in the #8 Ferrari 430 GTC. Barclay Dougall, meanwhile, had just set the fastest Group 3 time in the #37 BMW E46.

Andy Ruhan and Danny Winstanley had very quiet opening stints in the session, but the #6 Porsche 997 GT3 and the #78 TVR Sagaris soon began to rise rapidly up the timing screens.

Gary Eastwood improved to second just before the halfway point – meaning the top six were now covered by only 0.295s – but then Jordan Witt found a half second from somewhere to leap to a 1:10.828.

Tom Andrew was still well clear in Group 2, but was sliding down the screen as the Morgan undertook a five-minute stop. Whatever his team did, however, certainly made a difference, as the Morgan astonished everyone just a couple of minutes before the end by setting a 1:10.963 and going second overall; and there it stayed until the end.

Danny Winstanley had risen to fourth in the TVR just before this, but was forced to pit with a mechanical issue before the end of the session.

So an excellent qualifying session ended with Group poles going to Jordan Witt, Tom Andrew and Barclay Dougall.

“I don’t know where I found the extra time from,” admitted a delighted Witt Jnr. “Thinking back, I took a wider entry to McLeans than before which gave me a tighter exit, and I stayed in third rather than dropping down to second; so I suppose I carried the momentum round rather than try and shake the time out of the car.

“We’ve done a lot of work on the car and it was just perfect today.”

Sunday’s races were promising to be corkers.

MH