British GT, Rockingham – Race One Report
Trackspeed To The Top Step

(Images to follow)

The BGT field may have been depleted, but the 14 cars assembled on the Rockingham grid still promised to put on a show for the crowd on a blustery but dry afternoon.

As the field approached the start line at the end of the formation lap, the lights appeared to stay red until the last possible moment and this caused the leaders to hold back; and had the knock-on effect of Chris Hyman being adjudged to be out of position when the race officially started – the #21 Chad Ferrari driver being required to undergo a drive-through penalty on lap four. It also meant that we had a large number of cars fighting over a small amount of tarmac at the first two corners and the positions changed rapidly.

Gregor Fisken held onto his pole position in the Rollcentre through turns one and two, but David Ashburn’s start was similarly tidy in the Trackspeed Porsche and the two soon started to break away. Not far behind, Juan Garriz had suffered a slow getaway and was in fifth behind Chad teammates Hyman and Paul Warren, having started third. The young Argentine quickly got to the grips with his situation, however, and retook fourth place at Tarzan; and this became third on lap two when Hyman spun his car at Chapman Curve and fell to the back of the field.

Duncan Cameron’s start had been as poor as Garriz’s in the #2 MTECH Scuderia and found himself in sixth – even after Hyman’s misfortune – and several seconds adrift of Craig Wilkins’ fifth-placed Viper.

As Fisken began to pull away from Ashburn by a couple of tenths per lap, this duo were pulling away from the rest of the field at a much greater rate; as Garriz concentrated on keeping his pursuers behind him. In G4, meanwhile, Chris Bialan had made such a good start in the Lotus that it took Philip Walker two laps to get the RPM Ford GT back ahead, having allowed the 2-Eleven past at the start. Athanasios Ladas had taken second in class from Jamie Stanley’s #48 Ginetta, but would have the silver car in the mirrors of his Chad X-Bow for his whole stint.

Phil Burton’s #12 Ferrari appeared to have taken a knock in the opening lap melee and a great cloud of smoke was emanating from the car’s rear left each time it rounded Chapman Curve. His speed did not appear to be unaffected by this and he continued in seventh, with Walker’s Ford now in close proximity; and the (second) black car would itself soon have the blue and red Ferrari of the recovering Chris Hyman for company – just 1.5s covering the three on lap eight. 

By this point in the race, Wilkins had taken fourth from Warren when the Chad driver ran wide at Gracelands. The Viper driver – whose confidence in the car, by his own admission, had taken something of a knock in the earlier rounds of the season – was clearly having a much more enjoyable time of things on the ‘Roval’ and was driving well.

Up at the front of the field, Fisken was relishing his return to the series and delivering a quick and consistent stint; in the process eking his lead out to almost five seconds by lap 12. Ashburn, however, was also driving well in the GT3 R – clearly a car very much to his liking – and the gap then began to close down again; at first by a few tenths, but then by almost two seconds on lap 16, when the Mosler caught two sparring back-markers at a disadvantageous spot on the circuit.

However, this coincided with the imminent opening of the pit-window and Ashburn was straight in. Fisken stayed out, but only for one more lap; and when Martin Short took to the track, he found that he had a huge lead over Glynn Geddie – the Mosler’s stop being 12 seconds quicker than the Porsche’s. 

After his poor start, Duncan Cameron found the handling of the Ferrari coming back to him as his stint progressed and he had improved to fifth by the time he stopped 16 seconds after Ashburn; the MTECH car being just two-tenths behind the Viper at the time. Wilkins stayed out for one more lap before handing over to Aaron Scott. But the star of the first half of the race was Juan Garriz.

The young Argentine had never been to the circuit before and only managed a handful of laps on the Saturday due to a brake servo problem. And yet – in a 2009-spec car – he not only hung on to third, but managed to stay within a dozen seconds of the leader throughout; and it was only right that he enjoyed several laps in the lead before becoming the final stopper on lap 23 to hand over to José Balbiani.  

Chris Bialan had completed a similarly impressive stint some laps earlier, when he handed the Lotus 2-Eleven over to Simon Mason. And he now had Michael Mallock to contend with in the Chad X-Bow; both open-topped cars having completed stops of equal duration. Christian Dick, meanwhile, would find that his main worry was keeping Nathan Freke’s Century Motorsport Ginetta behind his own, much heavier, Speedworks G50.

With all the stops completed, the order on lap 24 was 8, 7, 2, 11, 10, 4, 5, 12, 21, 55, 50, 48, 47 and 49.

Alex Mortimer had taken over the black Ford from Walker at the start of the pit window and had wasted no time in getting up to pace. He immediately went past the CCTV Ferrari of Adam Wilcox, and on lap 24 took sixth from Scott’s Viper after some vigorous defending from the silver car.

And soon it was clear that we had battles building at the head of both classes, with Geddie closing on Short – at the rate of 1.5s each lap - and Mallock now on the tail of Mason; but while the X-Bow passed the Lotus on the track on lap 28, the lead changed hand in the GT3 class in less satisfactory circumstances, as the Mosler became one of three cars assessed a stop/go for a too-short pitstop. The penalties were two seconds for the Rollcentre car, three for the MTECH Ferrari and one for the luckless #21 Chad Scuderia; and all three cars stopped within two laps.

This left Geddie in the lead by 19 seconds from Short, with Tom Ferrier – who had just taken position from Balbiani – a further ten seconds adrift in third in the #10 Chad Ferrari. However, Mortimer was bearing down on the red car with great haste – his Ford clearly being much more sympathetic to its tyres than the Italian car – and took third in a drag-race across the line after 36 laps.

It all looked done and dusted – at the front at least – but on lap 36 Geddie’s laptime was 1:26; and a second slower on lap 37. Was he in trouble? News from the pits suggested that concern was growing in the Trackspeed pit over the Porsche’s fuel, but while its pace wasn’t improving much and the gap was coming rapidly down, its lead was still seven seconds as he began the 42nd lap. If he was in trouble, he would have to ensure that this would be his final lap and eyes flitted between the timing screen and the car.

As he approached Brook to take to the banked track at the end of that lap, the car looked strong and the seconds were ticking away; and the Scot crossed the line less than two seconds after the hour was up to take a fully deserved victory – Trackspeed’s first overall win in the series.

“I had enough of a gap just to back off and save the car for the next race,” said Geddie. “I found it quite easy; David did a great job in his stint and I was able to catch the Mosler within a few laps, then they got their penalty.” Added Ashburn: “It wasn’t a bad first stint; they told me not to try to pass the Mosler but to leave that to Glynn, and that’s what we did.”

Martin Short took second just five seconds later, while Alex Mortimer took an excellent third place in the RPM Ford on an emotional day for the team; the race being preceded by a two-minute silence in memory of his father.

“I don’t think I’d have held off young Geddie,” said the Rollcentre boss. “He was catching me and we were struggling with the handling, so we saved ourselves a bit of a wheel-banging session.”

“I’m very happy with that,” said Fisken. “I took pole and fastest lap for the race, so I’m delighted; and the car was very good and consistent in my stint.”

Ferrier came home fourth in the #10 Chad Ferrari, with Matt Griffin fifth and Balbiani sixth. Adam Wilcox almost took seventh from the gripless Aaron Scott, but fell three tenths short, while Dan Brown finished a frustrated, and distant, ninth in the #21 STP-backed Ferrari.

Simon Mason found himself unable to respond to the X-Bow as his tyres rapidly faded on the Lotus, leaving Michael Mallock to take a maiden G4 victory for himself and Athanasios Ladas in the Chad-run car.

“Athanasios learned the circuit really quickly and drove a great first stint; my job was to chase down the Lotus,” said Mallock. “I had to be very cautious with the gearbox because of some issues, and with the tyres, which are an unknown quantity to us, but fortunately today we had the upper hand.”

Nathan Freke was the final podium finisher, having caught and passed the Speedworks car with just a few laps remaining. The Joe Osborne G50 had earlier become the race’s only retirement after 25 laps.

MH