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Bute Motorsport GT
Cup, Silverstone – Race Two Report After the results of the first race were confirmed, it was time to dish out the success ballast to the top three in each group, as follows: Group 1 #6 Andy Ruhan 60
kg Group 2 #7 Tom Andrew 50
kg Group 3 #37 Barclay
Dougall 40 kg The grid lined up according to the second-fastest qualifying times set in the single session the previous day, and the field moved off to start the formation lap under a cloudy but dry sky. Group 1 Andy Ruhan led the field round the 3.666 miles of the Arena GP circuit in his Porsche 997 GT3 and exited Woodcote knowing that the gap to his right – caused by Michael Saunders’ absence – left him vulnerable to a challenge from Gary Eastwood. However, it was the Ferrari driver who was to lose out on the run down to Copse as he lost second place to a determined Stephen Ritchie, who had the nose of his Porsche 997 Cup ahead by the first corner and who followed Ruhan down towards Maggotts. Ritchie’s progress came to a sudden halt at Stowe just a few seconds later, however, with a significant spin that dropped him down to 13th overall.
This meant that we a repeat of the scenario from the first race, where Eastwood was biding his time a couple of seconds adrift of Ruhan and waiting for his Pirellis to reach their optimum conditions. Behind the leading duo came the Ferrari 430s of Toby Tarrant-Willis and David Tomlin, with the #28 seemingly able to maintain a one second-plus gap to the #66 quite comfortably; and behind these two it was again (Leon) Price v (Don) Grice – except that this time the Ferrari was clearly quicker than the BMW, and Price was up to fifth on lap six.
As Ritchie began to claw back some lost ground, Eastwood looked poised to start closing the gap to the leader; but the #8 430 slowed suddenly on Lap 7 and headed for the pits. Eastwood returned to the race soon afterwards, but with so little time left he had little chance to make up much of the 80 seconds that had been lost and went on to finish seventh in class.
The Ferrari’s sudden disappearance made life much easier for Ruhan in the lead, but he continued to push on and widen the gap to Tarrant-Willis. The 28 v 66 duel now looked set to provide the interest for the rests of the race, particularly when Tomlin was seen using much more than the width of the GP track in his efforts to get by his opponent. Shortly afterwards, however, the unfortunate Tarrant-Willis found himself parked up at Becketts after being forced out with mechanical failure; scant reward for his efforts. But as the excitement dried up at the head of the field, things were still happening further back; the most notable action being provided by the delayed Ritchie as he chased down Grice’s BMW. The #71 Porsche had caught and passed the #31 BMW of Michael Symons on Lap 7, but Ritchie’s spin had cost him too much time and his challenge for fourth ended up just half a second shy. A very good effort though.
But it was Andy Ruhan who took the winner’s laurels for the second time – on this occasion being able to accept them on the podium – after an excellent drive that belied the extra weight his Porsche was carrying. David Tomlin came home an equally comfortable second, while Leon Price atoned for his Race One spin by claiming third. Rupert Martin’s race was ruined on the second lap after a coming-together with the Group 2 Marcos Mantis that left him a long way adrift of the Group 1 action. Group 2 Benjamin Harvey was on pole for the second race in the KTM X-Bow, and he took the start with two quick pursuers lined up behind him; the Morgan Aero 8 of Tom Andrew, who had had a very good first race, and the Porsche 996 GT3 of Colin Broster, who hadn’t.
Harvey made a clean start and tried to put some air between himself and his Group 2 colleagues, but Andrew was noticing the success ballast in his silver car and was unable to prevent Broster taking second on the opening lap. Much worse was to follow for the Morgan on Lap 2, alas, as a coming together between Rupert Martin’s Group 1 Ferrari and Colin Simpson’s Marcos Mantis caused Andrew to be severely delayed as he took avoiding action. This dropped the #7 Aero 8 to the tail of the field, while the damage suffered in the shunt was enough to send Simpson to the pits on the same lap and into retirement.
The incident promoted Chris Bentley to third in his Porsche 996 GT3, with Francis Galashan fourth in his 996. Already though the leading pair were some way clear and getting ever closer to each other. Broster’s Porsche had been rebuilt to very good effect between the races and he now found himself with good pace, despite having struggled to find a set-up during practice and qualifying. The Group 1 BMW of Michael Symons briefly separated Broster from his quarry, but once this moved ahead of the X-Bow on lap four the gap disappeared. The #45 and #15 crossed the line just a thousandth of a second apart and a lap later it was the Porsche that exited Woodcote in the lead.
Tom Andrew was recovering from his delay and had already passed Philip Jones’ Porsche and Sean Winder’s Ferrari by the time the lead changed. He continued to make progress and took fourth from Bentley on Lap 6. The earlier incident had cost him too much time to challenge for the lead, but a podium finish was still very much a possibility and he closed on the third-placed Galashan. With the gap down to under two seconds by the end of Lap 9, a challenge looked imminent; but a sudden trail of smoke from the right rear wheel indicated that something catastrophic had happened on that corner of the car and Andrew had no choice other than to pull off. As Galashan began to relax, things were getting much closer up ahead and Harvey had managed to stay with Broster after the lead change. In fact, the Porsche’s lead rarely extended beyond a second at any point and Broster was having to work hard to maintain a gap. The two snatched several tenths off each other as they ticked off the laps, and as they started the final lap Harvey needed to find a second from somewhere. The very experienced Broster wasn’t going to slip up now, however, and completed a flawless final lap to take the win from Harvey after a fine race. Galashan completed the podium with a comfortable third. Group 3 Barclay Dougall wasn’t expecting life to be easy in the second race after fitting his success ballast – “they asked me to carry 20 kg after qualifying, and that put everyone else on the same pace as me, so I think the extra 40 kg will make a difference.” – but his BMW E46 GTR still managed to cross the line after the first lap more than a second ahead of John Thorne’s BMW.
Next time round, however, the gap had halved and Thorne was looking strong. Not for much longer, however, as the #83 peeled off into the pits and into retirement after just four laps. As Dougall concentrated on consolidating his lead, the two orange BMW’s of Adam Hayes and Mark Radcliffe and the Chevron GR8 of Andy Yool were in the midst of a highly entertaining three-way fight for position a little way further back.
At one point we had the rather incongruous sight of the three cars nose-to-tail, with the white car acting as the filler in the sandwich and appearing to be half the size of its opponents. But as we all now, size isn’t everything, and the GR8 demonstrated its potential by gradually overcoming the Munich machines. Yool finally managed to find a way past Hayes on lap 10,and this time he kept the car pointing in the right direction for the full distance. Dougall managed to deal with his extra lead in such a manner that his average race speed was actually higher than it had been in the first event, and he completed his twelfth lap to take the Group 3 honours. Andy Yool was just two seconds adrift by the close, while Adam Hayes hung on to third.
Results Group 1 #6 Andy
Ruhan Porsche 997 GT3 12 laps 26:57.295 Group 2 #15 Colin
Broster Porsche 996 GT3 12 laps
28:04.877 Group 3 #37 Barclay
Dougall BMW E46 12 laps 28:26.300 The next meeting of the GT Cup takes place at Oulton Park on May 14th. |
