British GT, Rockingham – Round-Up
A Corby Corker

Love it or loathe it, there’s no denying that the Rockingham Motor Speedway in Corby rarely produces a dull race in the British GT Championship; and Sunday’s two-hour event was arguably the cream of an abundant crop.

Joe Osborne and Steve Tandy took their first GT3 win in the #32 Trackspeed Porsche after a great pitstop by the team and despite intense pressure from several cars – not least the #31 Trackspeed GT3 R of Phil Keen. This wasn’t Osborne’s first overall win – he managed that twice in 2009 alongside Olly Bryant in the Invitation class Ginetta G50Z at the same venue – but this weekend’s victory was earned under much more  competitive conditions (and, indeed, much more unexpected ) and carried the very important distinction of  bringing with it 37.5 championship points.

“I’m not really sure what happened there,” admitted Joe Osborne. “Steve pitted in 12th and when I came back out, somehow I was in third! It actually took a couple of laps to sink in – the team was radioing that I was third and I thought we were having communication problems.

“At first I thought it would be good to get a podium, but when I was able to get past the BMW for second fairly easily and then saw that the Nissan was struggling for grip I began to think that perhaps we could win this. After the race Steve and I were sitting in the truck – we just looked at each other and started laughing!”

The safety car and the pitstop had clearly worked out very well for the #32, but how tough had it been to stay in the lead once he had acquired it? “To be honest, I think that was probably my best ever race. I saw Phil closing in quickly behind me and knew I had to have self-discipline and work out what pace I needed to go at to win it – I only made one mistake when I clipped the wall coming out of the chicane with about 30 minutes to go, but it only cost me about half a second.

“The hardest part was passing the backmarkers, but I decided early on to go into ‘Allan McNish Mode’ and be quite aggressive with my passing. It worked!

“When Phil had closed to about two seconds I had to dig deep and really push the car to its limits – I may even have brushed the wall again at Turn 1 late in the race – and this found me the extra two or three tenths I needed. I was even able to relax a little bit in the final five minutes.

“But having seen Simonsen, Griffin and Bell in my mirrors as well, I was surprised that they couldn’t get closer! Steve had kept the car on the island and looked after it well during his stint and it was in good nick when I got in; we then had a very good stop to put us into contention. Basically, we won through a combination of luck, good driving, good teamwork and having a good, consistent car!”

The race was so tight at the end that a momentary loss of momentum caused by being baulked by a lapped GT4 was all it took for Keen – having looked for so long like a potential winner – to lose second place to Allan Simonsen’s Rosso Verde Ferrari 458, and very nearly third to Matt Griffin’s MTECH 458. The Rosso Verde car has been struggling for pace so far this season, but John Buchan and his small team of weekend warriors gave Simonsen a much improved car this weekend and second was just reward for their efforts.

MTECH, meanwhile, had suffered a torrid start to their Saturday, with major handling problems throughout both Free Practice sessions; but whatever measures Mike Edmonds and his crew had taken before qualifying had clearly paid dividends – Griffin so very nearly snatching pole - and the car was able to overcome its 20-second pitstop handicap to close to within five seconds of the winner by the close of the race. Griffin and Duncan Cameron retain their championship lead and head to Brands in the knowledge that they will have just a normal pitstop to serve during the two-hour race.

For RJN, Rockingham must have been both hugely positive and hugely frustrating. It’s easy to forget that the team only took delivery of the Nissan GT-R mere days before the season opener at Oulton Park and that their racing programme allows them no opportunity for testing between events, so to see the car running so strongly for the second consecutive weekend was testament to the hard work of Bob Neville’s outfit.

And it’s arguable that the team would have taken the win had it not been for the safety car shortly before the pit-window opened (caused by a slow-puncture on Andrew Howard’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3, which pitched him hard into the T1 wall; both driver and car fortunately getting away lightly from a hefty shunt).

Alex Buncombe had fought his way to the front and pulled out a ten-second gap by the time the caution period started, and had the yellows not come out would likely have eked out several seconds more before handing over to Jann Mardenborough at the halfway point. As it was, his advantage shrank to just four car-lengths behind the safety car (which made for a great photo-op for Nissan; a Juke-R followed by the RJN and JMH GT-Rs in the queue) and the decision was taken to bring him in at the first opportunity.

Mardenborough rejoined in the lead, but would drop to fifth by the close. During the race, your scribe suggested that he was learning a hard lesson at the hands of seasoned pros, but with the benefit of hindsight it now looks more likely that this was yet another sign of the youngster’s talent. With minimal grip for much of his race, he had made it hard for Osborne, Keen, Simonsen and Griffin to get by, and still managed to finish just 18 seconds off the winner after the two hours.

A win for this duo is surely not far away.

One of the best performances of the day came from the car that finished 12th overall. The Team WFR Ginetta G55 GT3 started the race in blistering fashion with Riki Christodoulou moving up to fourth from ninth inside the first 20 minutes. A puncture then demanded an unscheduled stop which dropped the car back down the order, but a good recovery drive and the safety car brought Christodoulou back into contention once more by the time the pit window opened. Unfortunately, a disastrous pitstop (both Team WFR cars arriving at the same time, when there was only room for one) would result in a ten-second stop/go for Jody Firth, who had also made good progress during his stint. Had these issues not arisen then there is little doubt that the car would have been in the thick of the fight for the podium places – and perhaps even the win – by the end of the race.

Two places ahead of them at the finish was the Optimum Motorsport G55 of George Murrells and Ginetta factory driver Mike Simpson – another car to have seemingly had a quiet race; but it transpired that it had lost time early on after the gear stick snapped in two. An unscheduled stop was clearly required, and the solution was to attach a pair of mole-grips to the surviving piece.

Remarkably, this enabled the car to not only return to the race but make up 16 places before the chequered flag flew.

It was an eventful race for Ecurie Ecosse and seventh place at the close might lead one to think that this would be a disappointing result, but the Barwell-run team was able to take many positives on to the next round; “We made a big step forward in qualifying this weekend, showing our best pace of the season to be just 0.539s off pole," said Olly Bryant. "We were able to exploit the excellent handling of the BMW chassis through the tight infield section but unfortunately the massive straight-line speed advantage of the Porsches made the race more difficult, as on the banking three of them passed me as if I was standing still! The Barwell crew did a fantastic job during the pit-stop and we brought the car home for our fifth consecutive points scoring finish of the season, so there’s much to be positive about.”

“I’m on a very steep learning curve this season and took away a lot of vital experience from the Rockingham weekend," said teammate Alasdair McCaig. "I was pleased to be able to hand the car to Olly in one piece after which he did a tremendous job. We’re now really looking forward to Brands Hatch.”

“We showed signs of what we can achieve this weekend, with Olly in particular on the pace for qualifying and the race," said Barwell's Mark Lemmer. "As such the ingredients are there for a potential podium on the fast, flowing Brands Hatch GP circuit.”

While Trackspeed celebrated getting all three of its Porsches into the top six – Tim Harvey starting his stint in 14th after taking over the #33 from Jon Minshaw – things were less positive over at Motorbase as both of their Porsches hit trouble and ended up only eighth and 13th. Dave Bartrum’s team will regroup over the next fortnight, however, and be ready to put on a show at their local track.

The GT4 race was less interesting than it might have been, with both Lotus Evoras retiring before the halfway point of the race.

This left the Century Motorsports Ginetta of Dom Evans and Zoe Wenham leading the class, although they then shot themselves in the foot by managing to mistime their pitstop by a remarkable 15 seconds, resulting in a stop/go of the same magnitude. This left the APO Ginetta of James May and Alex Osborne in the lead, but Jody Fannin was soon by in the Team WFR G50.

Warren Hughes had started the race, but he was feeling under the weather and unable to run at full pace. The team then managed to mismanage the stop, as previously mentioned, and the GT4 Ginetta also received a ten-second stop/go. Despite this, Fannin had built up enough of a lead to still be there when he had served his penalty and the white, red and blue car went on to a comfortable victory; “A difficult race in many ways," admitted Hughes. "I’ve been ill all weekend and half way into the stint I really struggled. Both Team WFR cars came in at the same time and it was a bit confusing as the team tried to service both cars at once. We then got a stop-go; it was a bit frustrating watching the time tick away. I have to say that is the worst I’ve ever felt in a racing car physically.”

“In my stint I decided to go flat out and ignore the pit board," said Fannin. "I kept pushing and pushing and suddenly I was in the lead. We then had the stop-go and luckily I came back out in the lead. The car was moving about a lot, I think the tyres had a hard time around here, but I kept it steady and took the win.”

With one and a half times the normal points being offered for this race, the leading championship standings after the race are:

GT3

1. Duncan Cameron/Matt Griffin MTECH 88pts
2. David Ashburn Trackspeed 78.5pts
3. Richard Westbrook Trackspeed 56pts
4. Danielle Perfetti/Michael Caine Motorbase 50pts
5. Jann Mardenborough/Alex Buncombe RJN Motorsport 50pts
6. Hector Lester/Allan Simonsen Rosso Verde 49pts
7. Alasdair McCaig/Oliver Bryant Ecurie Ecosse 47pts
8. Steve Tandy/Joe Osborne Trackspeed 43.5pts
9. Andrew Howard/Jonny Adam Beechdean 33pts
10. Jon Minshaw/Tim Harvey Trackspeed 32pts
 
GT4

1. Jody Fannin/Warren Hughes Team WFR 112.5pts
2. Zoe Wenham Century Motorsport 82.5pts
3. Sailesh Bolisetti/Phil Glew Lotus Sport UK 71pts
4. Dominic Evans Century Motorsport 55.5pts

The series now moves on to Round 4 on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit, which will be another two-hour race. It’ll have to go some to top Rockingham, but will we have seen six different winners from six races at the end of it?

MH