British GT, Rockingham – Sunday Notes
A Rare Sunny Moment For Predator

The Sunday timetable was very kind to the British GT field, with their presence not required until 11.45, when the ten-minute warm-up took place (the race was not due to begin until 15.25); and for the second day running the weather was reasonably warm and often sunny.

Warm-up allowed an all-too-rare moment of cheer for the beleaguered CCTV Predator team, as the #12 Ferrari Scuderia topped the times with a 1:25.123. The RJN Nissan was second – 26 thousandths of a second slower – with the #5 Ferrari 458 of Scuderia Vittoria third – a comparatively whopping 30 thousandths of a second further back.  “I think it’s going to be an old race for us,” admitted Aaron Scott. “We’ve got a brake-locking issue and we’re starting from the back, so it’s going to be a bit of a challenge.”

Olly Bryant was pleased with progress in the Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4; “It was a good qualifying session for us – half a second off pole is as close as we’ve been. What we’re struggling with is pace on old tyres; we’ve not done much extended running on old rubber so it’s a bit of a worry. We could do with some rain.”

Charles Bateman wasn’t so happy with the starting position of the #23 United Autosports Audi, however; “Our time is really pretty much as fast as we can go here – we need help from the BoP to go any faster.”

In GT4 the Jota Mazda finally ran trouble free during warm-up, but the team begins the race at a big disadvantage to the rest of the class.

Dominic Evans, however, was looking forward to the race despite the #42 Century Motorsports Ginetta hitting driveshaft and diff problems on the Saturday; “We didn’t show our full pace yesterday, but if we can avoid any further issues today we’re confident of a reasonable result. Our advantage is that Zoe (Wenham) and I are closely matched in pace – while some other pairings have quite a difference between their drivers – and that will hopefully help us as the race progresses. I think second isn’t impossible.”

There is likely to be a rapid exodus from the track as soon as the race ends at 17:25, as several drivers and engineers head to Le Mans for scrutineering tomorrow (Monday). They include Matt Griffin, Allan Simonsen, Jody Firth and Warren Hughes (driving) as well as the towering strategic cerebuses Ricki Martino and Malcolm Swetnam. Several others will have a more leisurely journey as they take part in the supporting Aston Martin and Group C races. 

As the race start approached, the sun disappeared and the clouds thickened; but rain didn’t look imminent.

MH