British GT Rockingham – Preview
Glorious Racing In Prospect – And Wailing And Gnashing Of Teeth?
© Mark Howson

Whatever your personal opinions on the GT3 format – and many have been expressed this year – the 2007 British GT Championship has been the hardest fought and most entertaining for a number of years. It’s had it all; six different winners from twelve races (in both classes); nine different marques in GT3 – shortly to become ten – and five in GTC; close fighting; big crashes; and lots of controversy.

The only things it lacks at this moment are its champions.

Barwell Motorsport clinched the Teams’ Championship at Croft three weeks ago, and two of its cars go to Rockingham as the main contenders in the Drivers’ Championship.

GT3 Driver Points
1 Ben de Zille Butler 69
= Guy Harrington 69
3 Paul Drayson 68
= Jonathan Cocker 68
5 Alex Mortimer 61
= Bradley Ellis 61
7 Hector Lester 60
8 David Jones 55
= Godfrey Jones 55

Guy Harrington and Ben de Zille Butler have been the revelation of the season in the #3 Aston Martin, and could not have expected to be in this situation when they signed on the dotted line before the season began. Harrington in particular has put in some storming drives, displaying speed and control to dazzling effect in the two Yorkshire races.

One point behind, Jonny Cocker and Paul Drayson pose the biggest threat to the #3, as they seek to claim the championship title for both themselves and, for the first time ever, a bio-ethanol fuelled car. Should they succeed, Cocker will be only the second two-time overall winner in the Championships history (the other being Steve O’Rourke in 1997 & 1998), while Drayson will be the first Minister of State to claim the title.

While such tags are very nice, there is no doubt that Drayson’s driving ability has improved markedly over the season, and he and Cocker comprise a formidable obstacle to Harrington & Butler’s title hopes.

But others still have a claim on the title, although theirs is a harder task this coming weekend.

Alex Mortimer and Bradley Ellis were devastated and angry when punted out of the second Croft race by an over-ambitious Phil Burton. The retirement left them eight points adrift of the leaders, with only a maximum of twenty points remaining. But they are not ones to harbour a grudge, and will respond in the way that they do best; by hustling the big #6 RPM Viper round the twisty (and fast) Rockingham circuit as rapidly as possible.

The final contender is Hector Lester, fresh from double victory at Croft in his CiM Ferrari. He surprised a lot of people in the Sunday race, driving out of his socks to win the race in style, after Allan Simonsen had done a similar job on the Saturday. Now just nine points from the lead, will ‘the man upstairs’ be listening to his prayers this weekend?

But there is much more to this weekend’s meeting than just the championship being decided.

21 GT3 cars are on the provisional entry list at the time of writing, and the prospects for two great races are droolsome - and uncertain. Of this year's GT3 collection, only Porsches raced at Rockingham last year. The relative performance of the GT3s is a complete unknown here. 

As you will have read already, the Jaguar XKR finally gets the opportunity to flex its muscles and bare its fangs, two of the Apex-entered cars being present this weekend for their first real races. Cunningham / Ryan and Keen / Kane are very interesting line-ups.

As an interesting aside, the furry type of Jaguar is, rather spookily, an example of an “apex predator”; with Wikipedia offering this definition:

Apex predators (also alpha predators, superpredators, or top-level predators) are predators that, as adults, are not normally preyed upon in the wild in significant parts of their ranges.

Will this be the case with the metallic, noisy versions?

Elsewhere in the field, we have the return of a Damax Ascari (Keating / Erdos – the former anticipating that the white KZ1R will be competitive in ways that it wouldn’t have been at Croft); Fluxie in a Viper; Ollie Bryant (along with Rollcentre ace Stuart Hall) in his third GT3 of the season (Eclipse’s Mosler); and a determined Matt Harris in a much improved Tech 9 Porsche. All have the potential to seriously interfere with the title challenge - as does the Team Modena Lamborghini, which Adam Jones shares with GT newcomer Jason Templeman. Jones expects Rockingham to suit "the brilliant balance and aerodynamics of the Gallardo".

The other Joneses, the Jones brothers, are still mathematical title contenders in the Preci Spark Ascari, but the sequence of events required to bring about such an eventuality do not bear thinking about. It would only be right, however, if they claim a victory this weekend after coming close on several occasions.

Things are not so uncertain in GTC, with RSS pretty much only having to turn up to claim the title for Graeme Mundy and Jamie Smyth.

GTC Driver Points
1 Jamie Smyth 88
= Graeme Mundy 88
3 Andrew Howard 68
= Aaron Scott 68
5 Steve Hyde 53
= Keith Ahlers 53
7 Nick Marsh 26
= Richard Hollebon 26

One point is all they need after an excellent and consistent season. Andrew Howard and Aaron Scott have given them a good run for their money in the Beechdean Ferrari (up for sale after the weekend, with its sister car), but, sadly, the GTC class is likely to exit the Championship on Sunday afternoon.

Having entered every meeting since the class’s inception, Team Aero will be present in Northants this weekend; but, alas, the mighty Aero 8 has fallen at the last. Having run out of engine parts after a very challenging season, the team’s faithful old steed will be sitting this one out.

But Keith Ahlers is not easily defeated, and the organisers have accepted an entry for Keith’s Plus 8 in the Invitational Class. This car has accumulated almost a hundred victories in its owner’s hands and also completed the Britcar 24 Hours in 2005. Steve Hyde again shares driving duties.

Farewell too to the Richmond Racing Ginetta G20 GTR. After a very difficult season for the team, a strong run and finish would go some way to repaying all the hard work that has been expended this year.

This weekend’s races have the potential to provide some glorious racing; but also much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Let’s hope that there is rather more of the former than the latter.