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GT4 European Cup - Race 1 Report The first racing action of the “Silverstone Supercar Showdown” was the first GT4 event, on Saturday afternoon. A field of 16 cars was an encouraging enhancement over last year’s opening event. Conditions were tricky: cold, light rain and swirling winds, but it had to be slicks as it never got more than greasy. The winner was Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof, laying the foundations for the win right from the start, muscling his way past the second place Corvette and pole-man Mallock in the first couple of corners.
Mallock looked likely to make a re-pass for the first two laps, but was to go no further than the top half of Hangar Straight on lap three. The Aston Martin emerged from Chapel on the grass on the inside, was pitched into the air, slid across the track to the right, then back across the track again and hard into the wall by the bridge, with the front right wheel already ripped off. It was an odd looking incident and one that brought out the safety car. A shaken Mallock explained: “The leader made a mistake, I had to dab the brake to avoid him, hit the kerb hard and the car launched into the air. I bounced off the wall on one side and then back across into the other.” Behind them the Corvette had been holding third whilst Kenis had been entertaining in the slidy looking Z4, challenging Van Hover’s Aston and De Doncker’s Mustang ahead. A De Doncker mistake in the complex saw the Aston and BMW through, but then the safety car put a 10 minute break on the fun.
At the restart Andrew Howard brought the Beechdean Aston Martin into contention with the above group, whilst the top three strung themselves out for the podium. Kenis did go as high as third but lost the back end through Club, a neat pirouhette putting him back in the pack.
A spin off at the inside of Club for Howard a few laps later was a disappointment as he seemed to be the man on the move. Howard’s team mate Jamie Smyth will take encouragement from this showing for tomorrow’s race. At the flag, Mayr-Melnhof rounded off a solid drive three seconds ahead of the Van Dongen Corvette, Van Hover completing the podium five seconds further back. Engelhorn was a lonely fourth but De Doncker and Kenis, who were the most entertaining drivers of the race saved their best scrap for last with a drag race out of Woodcote.
In a script that has been rehearsed many times the all-American muscle car won by a nose, probably because a Mustang’s nose is a foot or so longer than a Z4’s, or at racing speeds, 0.025 seconds. It had its moments, but
without the safety car and with an added smattering of Ginettas, this would have
been really good fun for drivers and fans alike. The cars all seemed well
matched over a lap, with different strengths and weaknesses through different
sections being quite clear, perhaps due to not having aerodynamics blurring the
picture. The cars are, however, not fast or loud enough to be dramatic when they
are on their own, so even at this level equalisation is a key issue. The KTM
Xbows finished 1-2 in the Lights class - but they were the only starters.. very
odd looking ones too.
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