British GT, Silverstone – Saturday Notes
As Close As You Like

Raceday began with the disappointing news that the engine on the CCTV Predator Ferrari Scuderia had given up the ghost after the oil light came on during FP2 on Friday and, as a result, the team would be taking no further part in the meeting. This meant that 30 cars would be taking part in qualifying on Saturday morning.

Scuderia Vittoria had a rather worrying moment when they opened up the garage to find that someone had switched the lights and master switch of their #5 Ferrari 458 on, leaving the car with a dead battery. Nothing had been taken, however, and the car appeared to be otherwise untouched, so the motive for this action remained a mystery.

Ian Stinton reported that the #25 Stark Racing Ginetta G55 was fully fit after its Friday problems; “There’s a small filter in the sump that came adrift and the car dropped two litres of oil outside the garage – had it happened anywhere else, it would have lunched the engine!”

Tom Sharp and Andrew Jordan were getting to grips with the #18 Rollcentre Ginetta G55, this weekend running with the 2012 aero package; “There has been a massive aero change since Donington, but no development on the engine yet,” said Sharp. “So it’s great through the corners but loses out on the straights.” Both drivers had 20 minutes to shakedown the car at Donington during the week and a similar amount of time on Friday, so there was still much to discover about the car. “The biggest thing to get my head around is the braking,” Sharp continued. “I can break 20-30 metres later in this than in my regular G55! If we had a day with the car, I’m sure we could easily find a couple of seconds. I don’t know if we’ll get near that this weekend.”

“The car is so different in the way it handles to my touring car, it’s amazing,” said Jordan. “I’d certainly like to do more GT racing in the future – the BTCC is ten weekends a year, so hopefully I’ll be able to combine that with a wider programme.”

The thirty minute qualifying session once again demonstrated just how close the BGT cars are to one  another, with pole going to Jonny Adam in the #Beechdean Aston DBRS9, by just under two tenths from the #1 Porsche of Richard Westbrook. Joe Osborne – who only had it confirmed that he would be driving just before the drivers’ briefing on Friday morning – set the third fastest time in the #29 United Autosports Audi R8 (the team using this race as a shakedown for next weekend’s FIA GT3 meeting at Zandvoort), and was joined on the second row by title hopeful Mat Bell; “I’m not particularly happy,” said Bell. “I’d just set my fastest lap and was looking to go faster when I got baulked by a GT4 car all the way from Luffield to the finish line.   

Tim Bridgman was fifth – still less than four-tenths off pole – and Matt Griffin sixth. The championship-leading Geddies, Jim & Glynn, were ninth, with Mike Lyons and Charles Bateman alongside in the #5 458.

Bradley Ellis was a bit disappointed with his 11th place in the RPM Ford GT, after accidentally hitting the pit-limiter with his elbow while making a correction on his fastest lap. Co-driver Peter Bamford, meanwhile, was hoping for a good result after what has been a disappointing season in GT Open; “We’ve had just a whole sequence of incidents – some were mistakes, most were other people’s fault – and I think we’ve only actually had two race finishes; and one of those we finished on the podium!”

While it was close in GT3, it was even closer in GT3B and GT4. In the B class, Aaron Scott was pipped to class pole by two-hundredths of a second by Andy Ruhan in the #15 Barwell DBRS9 (the MTECH driver is the GT Cup champion-elect’s driver coach), while the margin between the #48 Lotus and the #50 Scuderia Vittoria Ginetta was just six thousandths.

Two cars were caught out by the conditions as they exited the pitlane – the #24 Audi and the #49 Lotus – but both were able to continue after a quick spin with only superficial damage. 

Matt Griffin is driving two Ferraris this weekend – the #21 MTECH 458 in BGT, and the #50 AF Corse 458 in the BES – and barely had time to have a drink between setting fourth fastest time in the Blancpain qualifying and getting ready for the British GT race during the afternoon; “It’s been mad,” said the Irishman. “Both races are going to be tough, but I’m hopeful of a good result in both.”

On the evidence of the weekend so far, the biggest threat to Griffin’s and Duncan Cameron’s hopes is likely to come from the Trackspeed Porsches, which look very strong; but two hours is a long time and much can happen – and probably will.

Traffic is likely to be a significant factor in the race, with the lapping likely to start quite early in the race. As regards who will be the champions come six o’clock, the computations are headache-inducing. Best to just sit back and enjoy the race, methinks.

MH