British GT, Spa – Race One Report
Short & Fisken Prevail

Martin Short and Gregor Fisken celebrated their new BGT partnership with a hard-earned, but highly entertaining, victory over the Preci Spark Ascari of David and Godfrey Jones.

The combined Belgian/British GT fields moved off for the long (7 km) formation lap at 12:17 and were greeted by the green lights four minutes later.

With 26 cars filing into the La Source hairpin, it was no great surprise when there was contact; Andrew Howard’s #7 Barwell Beechdean Aston and Paul Warren’s #3 Chad Ferrari coming together, and leaving the 430 significantly delayed.

As the field passed the old pits, pole-sitter Dan Brown found his way blocked in the #9 Mosler by a Belgian car and David Jones had no hesitation in diving through into the lead, followed immediately by Craig Wilkins. But as the first–lap shake-up continued, Brown retook second, with Gregor Fisken third in the white Mosler. Andrew Smith came through in fourth in the Barwell Ginetta G50Z, followed by Wilkins in the #22 ABG Viper – his priority being to look after the tyres after hurting them in qualifying.

The fight for places was destined to continue for some while yet, and in both classes.

Smith – who knows the circuit well through his Historics racing – went past Brown once more on lap three after Fisken had done the same, but two laps later the MOMO car was back up to third.

In GT4, the three Ginettas were enjoying a great scrap in the early stages, Ian Stinton leading Gary Simms and Jody Firth around the Belgian track in the Stark racing version. The three-way fight sadly became a duel on lap four when Firth found the gravel and lost a lap.

By lap six the top three in GT3 had broken away, with a nine second gap having opened up to fourth place.

Brown was now breaking away from the sister car and closing up on to the tail of the Ascari; on lap 11 finally retaking the lead from David Jones and then pitting to hand over to Stuart Hall.

By this point in the race, the pitstops were well underway, with Hector Lester’s #23 Rosso Verde and Phil Burton’s #12 VRS Ferraris having already stopped; together with Craig Wilkins’ Viper and, significantly, Gregor Fisken’s Mosler.

The last two BGT stoppers were the Ascari and the Stark Racing Ginetta; and when Godfrey Jones brought the Preci Spark KZ1R back out, he found himself just ahead of Martin Short – who was now fully up to speed after two laps in the #8 Mosler. “Godfrey was naturally tentative on his outlap, whereas I was right on it,” said the Rollcentre boss. “We came through Bus Stop with my car right up his chuff, and I positioned myself right behind so that he couldn’t see me. I kept the line to La Source and then popped out and squeezed through – probably the cleanest pass I’ve ever made on a Jones; we never even swapped paint!

“After that he was caught in my backwash and started to slide around. He was quicker than me through Blanchimont and Eau Rouge, but I kept him behind me.”

Stuart Hall was enjoying a ten-second lead after taking over from Dan Brown, but the #9 Mosler had left the pits a second too early and was awarded a ten-second stop/go penalty – a fate which was also handed down to the leader of the Belgian race at the same moment - which demoted the car to fourth.

Aaron Scott was finding great pace in the ABG Viper and began to pull away from Hall; but the Mosler driver’s attention was on the ever-growing shape of a red Ferrari 430 in his mirrors; Allan Simonsen well into one of his trademark charges by this stage.

The #90 Ginetta was still running, albeit in sixth place after problems that affected the later stages of Andrew Smith’s stint. “It was quite a hairy start, but I managed to grab a few places back,” he said. “But the tyres started to go off and then we had a fuel pressure problem. But the real set-back came at the stop when Ollie couldn’t restart and we lost 30 seconds in the process.” Bryant recovered well, attaining good pace on the fading tyres, before a stability problem further hampered his progress. These were mere new-car niggles and both drivers could see the potential of this car.

Simonsen, though, was flying – setting a new BGT lap-record on his way to fourth; taking position from Hall on lap 21. Mike Wilds was similarly enjoying his drive in the new MTECH Ferrari Scuderia; chasing down Jamie Smyth’s DBRS9 and taking sixth near the end.

But the day belonged to Martin Short and Gregor Fisken, as the Rollcentre man repeated his 2003 win at the circuit. “That race was the turning point in my career,” reflected Martin. “When Joao Barbosa jumped in the car and instantly went two seconds a lap quicker than me, I realised that the best of my driving days were behind me and I began to focus more on the management side.”

Gregor Fisken had enjoyed his race also; “Martin prepared me for a rough and tumble start and I came out of Eau Rouge with both my wing mirrors folded back – I couldn’t see behind me at all and being in amongst the Belgian cars was a bit daunting as I didn’t know if anyone was about to pass. There was so much scrapping going on in the early stages that I just had to hang on.

“I caught the Ascari quite quickly, but every time I had a look the door was very firmly shut – I’m from the Maserati 300 school of racing and unused to such tactics – so I decided not to risk things.

“I have to thank Martin and the guys for giving me such a great car, and aside from shifting to neutral in the hairpin one time, I didn’t make any mistakes.”

Aaron Scott hung on to take a fine third place in the ABG Viper, but he and Craig Wilkins were ruing a slow stop that had lost them a significant chunk of time; “We don’t know how yet, but we lost 17 seconds at the stop,” said Scott. But despite the #20 finishing 15 seconds off the lead, “I don’t think we could have finished any higher up even if I’d caught the Ascari.”

The GT4 battle was resolved in favour of the Rob Austin Ginetta after Hunter Abbott continued Gary Simms’ sterling work as the Stark challenge faded. "The first couple of laps were pretty hectic," said Simms. "There was a bit of pushing and shoving, but I came out of that on top and took the lead, and then it was a question of getting my head down and trying to take it easy on the tyres."

Added Abbott: "I took the car over in great condition. My stint was easy, I just had to keep it on the black stuff. I kept the reins in and short-shifted my way to victory.”

Despite the curious circumstances of the race, the British cars had again produced a dramatic and entertaining race. The second race would begin early the next morning.

MH