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British GT, Spa –
Race Report The glorious weather at Spa was still very much unrelenting when the 64 British and Belgian cars assembled on the track for the start of Saturday’s 150-minute race, with the field split into two groups. The Belcar contingent would start the race first behind one safety car, while the British GT and Aston Martin Challenge runners would follow the second safety car at an interval of 45 seconds; the Astons being ordered to hang back from the BGT pack. Because of the length of - and particular rules applying to - this race, the starting drivers were a mix of professional and amateur as follows (in grid order): #124 Reiter Engineering Marc
Hayek This would clearly result in a most unusual race pattern for at least the first part of the event. The ‘Belgian’ safety car peeled into the pits at 11:10 and the Belcar race began; and when they had all cleared Eau Rouge and Radillon safely, the signal was given to start the British GT race.
As expected, Richard Westbrook’s start was much better than the inexperienced Marc Hayek and the lead changed shortly after Eau Rouge had been crested for the first time at racing speed. Michael Bentwood also got past the Lamborghini on the opening lap and was up to second behind the #107 Porsche at the start of lap two. Both Hector Lester and Philip Walker began to quickly drop back through the field as the quicker drivers zipped by, while Tom Ferrier was alone amongst the pros by finishing his first lap lower down the field than he had started. Before the second lap had been completed, the leading British cars had already caught the Belgian tailenders and so traffic would come into play as a factor almost immediately. By this point, Dan Brown had moved up to third and was challenging Bentwood’s Aston for second. Having to deal with traffic at such an early stage of the race meant that the laptimes of the BGT cars were some way adrift of the Belcar leaders, who had a clear track still; but Westbrook and his pursuers were not encountering problems and were continuing to move up the overall standings. Matt Griffin was relishing having a fully fit Scuderia at his disposal and was quickly recovering the ground that the wheel-bearing failure had cost him in qualifying the previous afternoon. He deposed Hayek’s Lamborghini on lap three and quickly closed up on Brown’s Ferrari; which, it must be said, had just developed a misfire, believed to be related to dirty fuel. The MTECH driver was through into third on lap five and caught up with Bentwood’s DBRS9 two laps later; taking second on lap eight. In G4, Christian Dick had made a good start in the Speedworks Ginetta and began to immediately move away from Benjamin Harvey in the ABG X-Bow; the KTM being good through the corners but a long way down on straight-line speed.
Osman Yusuf was soon some way adrift of his class competition on his Spa debut, but this race was essentially all about increasing his experience and he was unlikely to figure. Aaron Scott was doing his best in the evil-handling GT3 Viper, but still managed to get by Phil Burton’s Predator Scuderia on lap two. Jose Balbiani was also making the most of his situation in the Chad Ferrari 430 by catching and passing Hector Lester for eighth on lap six. Ferrier had recovered from his poor start and was up to fourth as Griffin took second. But the car behind him at this point was the Reiter Lamborghini, with Hayek closing up on the Ferrari instead of continuing to fall back down through the pack. This was significant as it meant that Peter Kox would potentially take over with the car in a strong position; particularly when Hayek took fourth from the struggling Brown on lap nine as he reacted to the threat from a closing Olly Bryant in the #106 Porsche. At the head of the British race, Griffin was closing down on Westbrook at the rate of two seconds per lap, and traffic was not hindering his progress in any way. As the cars began lap 11, the gap was almost nothing as the two began the run down to Les Combes nose to tail; and at the end of that lap it was Griffin who crossed the line first, having already opened up a 1.2s gap.
Suddenly the #103 Scuderia started falling down the (three) timing screens and it looked as though he had retired somewhere out on track. However, the TV cameras showed a quick glimpse of a slow-moving Ferrari (very slow moving, with several Belgian cars having to take drastic avoiding action to get round it) trying to get back to the pits. He eventually made it, but his rear right tyre was in shreds by this point. The car rejoined a long way down. With 35 minutes gone, the order was 102 (15th overall), 107, 118, 110, 124, 121, 106, 111, 105, 112, 104, 148, 144, 149 and 103. Westbrook appeared to have responded to Griffin and on lap 15 looked to be closing the gap slightly. Griffin managed to put a Belgian car between himself and the second-placed Porsche and the gap stayed at three seconds. Behind the GT3 R, however, it would be 19 seconds before Bentwood passed the same part of the track in third.
The fight for fourth was developing nicely, with Hayek staying with, and sometimes closing on, Ferrier’s Ferrari – not bad for someone in only his second season of racing and on his debut in the LP560. The gap between the two was less than a second when the Lamborghini driver headed for the pits to hand over to his Dutch teammate; “It’s a fun car,” said the Swiss driver (whose day job is CEO of Blancpain). “It’s not too different from the (Lamborghini) Super Trofeo - but that car has no downforce, so going through Eau Rouge in the LP560 was interesting; “Ooh, it works!”. I only did two lots of seven laps yesterday, so needed a few laps to get more confident with the car, which is when I started catching back up. There’s a lot of traffic, but we’ve had no issues with it; everyone’s behaving themselves.” Hayek’s excellent stint meant that Peter Kox was very much in contention, especially as the Gallardo had not needed to take on fuel during the stop; and it wouldn’t be long before the #124 was the quickest car on track.
Phil Burton and Philip Walker also stopped at this point in the race, to hand their cars over to Adam Wilcox and Alex Mortimer respectively. Both new drivers had much work to do to make up ground in the time remaining, however. Hector Lester also stopped – this time to hand over to Allan Simonsen. Matt Griffin ended an excellent stint after 50 minutes and began the process of strapping Duncan Cameron into the #102 Ferrari. The car took on a full fuel load, and only at this point did it become clear how long a fuel stop would take – 164 seconds in the case of MTECH. Two of Chad’s Ferraris – numbers 110 and 111 – had each been stationary for just five seconds less during their stops, but the Lamborghini had needed just 77 seconds. Clearly, the advantage would swing massively to any cars that could get away with only one fuel stop. Bentwood and Brown stopped next, as did Scott. However, a fuelling problem meant that the Viper only took on 30 litres of fuel and Craig Wilkins would be forced to stop again before too long. And Rosso Verde’s day wasn’t getting any better; Simonsen somehow getting his Scuderia back to the pits having suffered punctures in both rear tyres on the same lap. A power-steering failure with 30 minutes remaining would make his life even harder, but the team persevered and eventually finished the race, albeit out of the points and seven laps down; “Allan looks like he’s been in a wrestling match,” said an impressed Hector Lester after the race. On lap 25, Kox set a 2:25.863; a time that would not only be the fastest in the British race, but overall. This was on Avon rubber, let us not forget, while the Belgian cars were on Michelins. This represented a huge improvement for the British control tyre over the last 12 months and kudos is due. But Westbrook still led and showed no indication that he was about to head for the pits as the 70-minute mark approach; could it be that the #107 would only need to fuel once? Paul Whight was in third place in the Barwell-Cadena Aston, but coming under pressure from both Cameron’s Ferrari and Bryant (who had stayed in at his stop) in the #106 Porsche. He resisted for several minutes but succumbed on lap 26 as both his pursuers went by. On lap 27, however, he repassed the Porsche; but alas for Whight, he had done this just as a safety car was coming out on track and the move would have consequences later in the race. The safety car was out because of a burning Belgian Viper at La Source, and also to allow a crashed British Challenge Aston Martin to be recovered from Eau Rouge, where it had just shunted. It also brought to an end a closely fought contest for ninth between the Ferrari of Wilcox and the Ford GT of Mortimer; the two black cars finally being separated only when the pursuing RPM car took advantage of the caution period to take its refuelling stop.
Westbrook stayed out for two more laps behind the safety car before finally pitting, having by this point passed the half-way point of the race. The car took on fuel, but the former factory driver stayed aboard the Porsche. Kox also used the opportunity to take on fuel and complete the second mandatory stop and rejoined without incident; although the timing screen seemed to suggest that the car was in trouble for a time before correcting itself. The safety car would stay out until just under an hour remained, but regrettably the #110 Chad Ferrari ground to a halt on track before the race went green again and was towed away – the only British retirement up to that point. Prior to the caution period, Paul Warren had been defending sixth place from Chad teammate Chris Hyman in the #121 car. With 57 minutes remaining and with the race about to go green again, the order was 107, 102, 118, 106, 124, 121, 112, 111, 148, 104, 105, 144, 149 and 103. Olly Bryant and Paul Whight headed for the pits for their stops just as the race went green again, but the top two cars still had to stop for a second time. Kox wasted no time in taking advantage of his proximity to the MTECH Ferrari and was up into second place by the end of lap 33; but, just a couple of laps later, Westbrook was almost at his maximum driving time and had to pit to hand over to David Ashburn. When the big man rejoined, Kox was just 19 seconds behind and lapping considerably quicker than the Porsche. Cameron – having been unable to pit under the safety car due to his car’s thirst – handed the MTECH Ferrari back to Matt Griffin on lap 38 and the car fell to fifth. A dozen seconds ahead, Bentwood was closing on the #106 Porsche of Oliver Morley at the rate of four seconds per lap, but almost immediately was awarded a drive-through penalty for his teammates pass under yellows earlier. This allowed Griffin through into fourth and the Irishman started to close on the Porsche. With 37 minutes remaining, the inevitable happened as Kox finally made his way past the Trackspeed Porsche to take the lead; immediately building up a significant advantage. Ashburn was secure in second due to the fact that he was a long way in front of the third placed car and matching Morley’s pace, but third was still undecided. That changed just a couple of minutes later when the MTECH car dived for the pits with a front-left puncture; the result, the team believes, of debris dropped on the track by a small coming-together of two Belgian cars just ahead of Matt Griffin. The red car fell to seventh, with Barwell-Cadena, RPM and CCTV all gaining a place as a result. The Irish driver regained sixth before the end but had to be content with sixth. And that was pretty much it; the final quarter hour running out largely without incident. Craig Wilkins valiant fight with his uncooperative Viper ended just ten minutes before the end as it swapped ends and finished against the tyre wall; but considering that he wasn’t sure that he could even drive it due to its ABS problem, he certainly deserved more for his 80-minute stint.
But nothing could stop Peter Kox and he brought the Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 home after 150 minutes for a commanding victory; "Marc was fantastic, if you consider that really it was his first outing in a GT3 car," said Kox. "He kept the gaps small and didn’t lose too much time in traffic to the quicker guys, so it was perfect. We maybe lost some time with the safety car, but it worked out OK.”
David Ashburn came home for his third podium finish of the season; “I had no idea where the car was in the race,” said Ashburn, “because the team don’t tell me in case I panic!” With double points on offer at Spa, Ashburn is now just two points behind Griffin and Cameron in the championship positions. Olly Bryant was very pleased with third, and full of praise for his teammate; “It was a bit of a struggle out there,” he began, “and because of the electrical problem in practice we never managed to get a good set-up; the car was getting sideways and was all over the shop. Oliver did a fantastic job – he had hardly any running in the car on Friday, but managed to get the car home without drama.”
Despite missing out on a potential podium, Paul Whight was awarded the Sunoco Driver of the Day award for his efforts in the middle of the race which led to the car’s fourth-placed finish.
Alex Mortimer brought the Ford GT home in fifth place, but it was a disappointing day for the two surviving Chad Ferraris; the STP-backed #121 just making it home after the misfire returned, and with the Argentine car also having to suffer a drive-through. Christian Dick and Jamie Stanley led form start to finish in the Speedworks Ginetta, with the X-Bow finishing a lap behind'
“It might have looked straightforward,” said Stanley, “but in reality it was anything but. The tyres were going towards the end, and then I got tagged by a Ferrari through Blanchimont, which was an interesting moment for me. But we came hoping for a reasonable result, so to win is great.”
The Joe Osborne G50 failed to finish following refuelling problems in the final hour of the race. The 150-minute race at Spa was a fascinating encounter and introduced several new strategic elements that don’t apply in ‘normal’ BGT events. More please. MH |
