British GT Rockingham – Monday Notes
Dry At Last

A cold, strong wind was blowing across Northamptonshire on Bank Holiday Monday morning; and although it was dry, the near-certainty of rain arriving appeared to have kept a large number of potential spectators away from the Rockingham circuit.

Sunday’s weather had prevented the Pickup Trucks from qualifying as scheduled, prompting a reshuffle of the morning’s timetable; with the ten minute GT warm up being put back half an hour.

The repercussions from the revised Knockhill results rumbled on; Paul Slinger picking up late on Sunday the fact that Preci Spark had appealed the Ascari’s disqualification on the grounds that David Jones was unable to see the yellow flags due to his track position. This appeal was rejected, with the result that the twins were reviewing their further participation in the series. As it was, the technical issues that blighted the car on Sunday would prevent any further participation at Rockingham.

‘Scoop’ also caught up with Chad Racing’s Anthony Reid, who seemed to be enjoying his first BGT outing since 2005; “I had planned to do the whole championship but the deal came together a bit late.  We’re here now and I’m very pleased with the way its going.  Richard [Marsh] is going very well, he’s a bit rusty and had a few spins but it’s a good start.  I enjoy driving the Ferrari and it’s clearly a competitive car as I showed by qualifying fifth for my first race. It’s just great to be back- yesterday was my first race of the year. It’s a great championship - a really competitive series and certainly not easy, with some very good drivers out there.

“The balance of where a certain manufacturer is strong seems to change a lot from one circuit to the next as well, which makes it interesting.  I’d like a dry race today because whilst I am comfortable in the wet, the Ferrari is a sensitive car and I want to really get to grips with it in the dry.  I think a dry race would help us find a lot of data.”

Ian Stinton’s participation in the warm up indicated that the Stark Racing team had managed to effect the necessary repairs (a new wiring loom having been required) to the #71 Ginetta G50 and taking the GT4 numbers back up to seven for the second race. Stinton is well prepared for a wet race, having installed a large towel in the Ginetta’s cockpit.

Only the 22GTRacing Aston Martin would sit out the session, which saw Adam Wilcox setting the fastest time (1:21.980) on the dry track; just ahead of Allan Simonsen who set 1:22.184.

The second race was due to start at 13.30; and with the rain now forecast to begin after 14.00, the prospects for a dry race were looking pretty good.