Bute Motorsport GT Cup, Spa-Francorchamps – Race 1
A Triumph Over Adversity for Saunders

The Bute Motorsport GT Cup Championship crossed the Channel for its penultimate meeting of 2011, where it formed part of the Racing Festival at historic Spa-Francorchamps.

The first of the two Free Practice sessions took place on the Friday, with the second session and qualifying following on Saturday morning. The first race – 40 minutes instead of the usual 25 – would take place on Saturday afternoon, with Race 2 being held on Sunday afternoon.

Unfortunately for Danny Winstanley, his weekend was over almost before it had begun, when the engine of his #78 TVR Sagaris seized during morning testing.

Andy Ruhan is clearly a fan of the seven kilometre circuit and his fastest practice time was about two seconds faster than anyone else’s. Qualifying, however, was very different and it took a later determined effort for the championship leader to take pole in the #6 Porsche 997 GT3 away from the #99 TVR Cerbera of Michael Saunders – the gap between the two cars being just 0.054s.

Francis Galashan took Group 2 pole in the #57 Porsche 996 GT3, while Barclay Dougall claimed another Group 3 pole in the #37 BMW E46.

Three hours later, Ruhan led the field around the Belgian countryside and readied himself for the start.

When it came, he made no mistake and immediately began to pull away; to the extent that he held a 1.574s lead by the end of the first lap.

While the top three remained unchanged, places were being traded elsewhere in the pack. Galashan took fourth from the #31 BMW E46 GTR, while Rupert Martin gained two places in the #49 Ferrari 430 GTC. Martin was followed by Robert Koenig, who had gone one better by passing three cars in the #25 Porsche 996 GT3.

Saunders was not happy at the end of his opening lap and set about closing back up to the Porsche. The TVR’s first two sectors on Lap 2 were both quicker than Ruhan’s and the #6’s lead was halved by the time the cars passed the garages again; but one lap later the gap had widened by ten-tenths as Ruhan dug in.

Tom Andrew had had to make a pretty dramatic shift in his plans for the weekend when the timing belt broke on his Morgan. Rather than pack up and go home, he borrowed Patrick Galashan’s spare Porsche – but as this was the first time he had ever driven it, he was understandably taking some time to get used to it.

But attention suddenly shifted to the lead again as Ruhan had a very slow second sector. Was he in trouble?

The answer came quickly, and in the affirmative – the Porsche had a puncture. Ruhan got the car back to the pits as quickly as he dared and his team banged on a new wheel and sent him on his way. He was now 12th and a long way adrift.

Saunders now enjoyed a ten second lead over Simon Blanckley’s Porsche 997 GT3. Galashan was still in third, but David Tomlin had taken fourth in the #66 Ferrari 430 from Michael Symons’s #31 BMW E46 GTR. Barclay Dougall led Group 3 in sixth place, but his was a very lonely race at this point.

As the race reached the halfway point, things were looking promising for the TVR. Its lead was in excess of ten seconds and a poor Lap 8 for Blanckley both widened the gap and allowed Galashan to close to two seconds. But while the Porsche ahead of Galashan was coming into range, the #66 Ferrari was getting ever-bigger in his mirrors.

Andy Ruhan was back up to pace in the #6 Porsche and had begun a hugely entertaining fightback. He was up to ninth on Lap 8 and passed Martin and Winder on the next circuit, However, the next car – the #37 BMW – was some 30 seconds down the road and further progress seemed unlikely.

As Michael Saunders ended Lap 11, a little over ten minutes remained and his lead was still over 11 seconds. However, his pace had slowed and Blanckley was gaining – was he pacing himself, or was this a sign of something else?

The answer came on the next lap, as the gap from first to second shrank to just three seconds; the TVR was definitely in trouble. The change for the lead came on the next lap, but Saunders was able to match the Porsche through sectors 2 & 3 on that lap before falling away again on Lap 14. This very much suggested a gearbox issue.

David Tomlin finally caught and passed Francis Galashan for third after a slow lap from the Group 2 leader, and the Ferrari now set its sights on the ailing TVR and second.

Andy Ruhan, meanwhile, had already closed the gap to Dougall’s BMW and was up to sixth. Further back, Tom Andrew and Paul Cope were passing tenth place back and forth.

As the cars started what looked like being the final lap (Lap 15), Tomlin still had almost eight seconds to make up on Saunders, while Ruhan was ten seconds adrift of Symons. Unhappily for the BMW driver, Ruhan’s task was made infinitely easier when the #31 E46 retired with a broken clutch.

But Blanckley crossed the line with five seconds still on the clock, so another lap would have to be completed. Tomlin had closed to 4.022s behind Saunders, but now had another bite at the cherry.

The sector times showed that the TVR was still struggling and it was going to be close.

Simon Blanckley completed the final 7003 metres and crossed the line to take the win, 12 seconds ahead of……the TVR; Saunders having held on to the place by less than a second.

But it was very quickly announced that Blanckley was being served a 30-second time penalty, which caused much head-scratching; but it transpired that he had continued up the pit-straight at the end of the slow-down lap and taken the flag twice!

This demoted the unfortunate Porsche to fourth and promoted Saunders and Tomlin to second and third respectively.

Francis Galashan took a very well-earned Group 2 win in the #57 Porsche, third overall, while Tom Andrew took second after coming out on top in his battle with Paul Cope.

Barclay Dougall clinched the Group 3 crown with his latest win, while Robert Koenig and Marc Charlton completed the podium.  

As Michael Saunders celebrated his first win in the championship, his team were grateful that they would have the luxury of almost 20 hours in which to patch up the yellow car before battle began again in Race 2.