Rounds seven and eight of the 2011 Avon Tyres British GT Championship saw a brace of new race winners etch their name into the winners’ roster while the Championship lead also changed hands after the two races at the Rockingham Motor Speedway.
The two races were held in differing track conditions – the Beechdean Aston Martin pairing of Andrew Howard and Jonny Adam came out on top in the wet opening race while the dry second race saw Andrew Tate and Alex Mortimer lead home a CRS Racing 1, 2 as team-mates Jim and Glynn Geddie finished second. With their podium result, the Geddie’s now lead the Championship.
Round Seven: Tyre Choice Paves the Way for Beechdean Victory.
Andrew Howard and Jonny Adam secured a famous victory during the wet opening British GT race of the weekend as they brought home their Aston Martin DBRS9 home in first position, with an advantage of forty one seconds over David/Godfrey Jones in their Preci-Spark Mercedes AMG SLS.
Round seven started in confusing and extremely dramatic fashion – Pole Sitter Mike Guasch and his United Autosports Audi R8 LMS struggled to get off the line and thus dropped down to back of the field, and then more than half the field realised that they had made the incorrect tyre choice. This meant that they had to crawl round the 1.9 mile Rockingham circuit – if they hadn’t spun out of contention or slithered off the circuit.
Beechdean and Preci-Spark had chosen wisely – Howard had ventured out on the formation lap on slicks but made the call to switch once on the grid, after seeing how slippery the track was – and it was the Mercedes that lead into the banked turn one as the Scuderia Vittoria Ferrari 458 of Michael Lyons and the sole Trackspeed Porsche of David Ashburn fell back.
Howard, in the Aston Martin was in the lead before leaders reached in the infield and from there, he started to pull away from the Mercedes.
Lying third after also starting on wets was the Stark Racing Ginetta G55 of Ian Stinton and Ginetta boss Lawrence Tomlinson must have been delighted to see three of his cars inside the top five – Jody Firth in the Century Motorsport G55 was fourth while leading GT4 runner, the Scuderia Vittoria G50 was lying fifth.
The cars which had chosen to start on slicks on the damp, slippery track were soon in even more bother as the rain started to fall again, just a few minutes into the race. They all had no choice but to pit and change to wets, with Ashburn being the first driver to switch and minimised the damage in the process.
After just six laps, Howard had opened up a seven second advantage and had already put a lap on Guasch. After ten laps, the gap had been extended to over ten seconds. What wasn’t obvious though was the fact that the DBRS9’s windscreen wipers had stopped working and it was only the pace of the car which was keeping the screen clear.
The GT3B Ferrari 430 of John Dhillon had started at the rear of the field but in just a few laps, he had moved into the top six and when he handed the car over to Aaron Scott, the duo were lying seventh overall.
The opening laps and the weather had turned the order upside down and once the pit stops had taken place, drivers like Allan Simonsen, Matt Griffin and Alex Mortimer were all well outside the top ten and at least one lap down on the leaders.
Twenty eight minutes had gone when Howard came in to hand the car over to Adam, having completed a flawless stint, this left David Jones leading by thirty three seconds from Firth. Jones pitted five minutes later and this left the Beechdean Aston leading by eleven seconds. Adam repeated the form of Howard and set about pulling away from the pack.
As the race continued, the conditions continued to change. Phil Keen soon got a grasp on the ever changing track conditions and he soon moved ahead of the Stark racing Ginetta and set about closing down Stefan Hodgetts in the #28 Ginetta.
Keen, at the wheel of the #1 Porsche caught the #28 G55 at Deene on lap twenty nine and dived down the inside but Hodgetts had the door closed and contact was the end result. Both cars spun but were undamaged and continued.
Simonsen had taken over the Rosso Verde Ferrari Scuderia from Hector Lester while lying down in fifteenth but he recovered to snatch sixth away from Charles Bateman on the final lap.
Adam had reduced visibility to contend with for the closing few laps but he was cheered across the line by the team at the end of the thirty sixth lap.
“Lucky it was wet for the warm-up because that was the first time I had ever driven the car in the wet all the time I’ve had it. First time I have raced it in the wet,” said Andrew Howard. “Thank God it did rain for the warm up otherwise we wouldn’t have had a clue. We got a good set up and the car felt really balanced. We went out on slicks on out lap and changed on the grid. There was that much difference. It’s a big day, really cool; and its Jonny’s birthday.”
Finishing a lonely second was the Mercedes SLS; seventeen seconds clear of the Trackspeed Porsche.
“I didn’t think there was a choice when it came to the tyres,” said David Jones. “This place is slippery enough in the dry! I thought those who started on slicks were bonkers, all of them.”
“We lost about three quarters of a lap because we started on slicks and had to change, otherwise we could have maybe had a win,” said Phil Keen, after his first race in the Porsche. “The wipers stopped working half way through my stint, so I couldn’t really see where I was going.”
The Century Motorsport Ginetta G55 came home fourth, the result giving the team and marquee a huge fillip. “I knew we had good pace in the wet but it took so long to get temperature into the tyres,” said Jody Firth. “It was a very bitty sort of few opening laps but once the tyres came in it was OK. Then the car totally steamed up and I couldn’t see a thing. I just had to do my best.”
Top Ferrari in the race was the GT3B MTech 430 which finished fifth overall. This gave Aaron Scott an unexpected result, while the GT4 honours went the way of Dan Denis/David McDonald in the Scuderia Vittoria Ginetta G50.
“We made the right choice on tyres by sticking to the wets because it started raining pretty much as soon as the race got going,” said Denis. “It was great because both the Lotuses were on slicks and had to pit; we were about a lap ahead when I came in and David did a good job to get it home.”
“I struggled a bit because the windscreen wipers stopped working so I was struggling to see where I was going,” added David McDonald. “Thankfully I had enough of a lead and I did not have to worry too much.”
Coming home second and third in GT4 were the two Lotus Sport UK cars, Freddy Nordstrom/Leyton Clarke led home the Ollie Jackson/Phil Glew car.
The Speedworks Motorsport Corvette Z06R of Ron Johnson/Piers Johnson was the sole retirement as it suffered diff failure during the first lap, while the second Trackspeed Porsche of Gregor Fiskin/Tim Bridgman failed to take the start after losing an engine during the morning warm up.
Round Eight: Another New British GT Race Winner.
The second Rockingham race provided the second new winner in British GT in as many races as Andrew Tate celebrated his first podium in style after sharing the CRS Racing Ferrari 458 with 2007 Champion, Alex Mortimer.
The professional driver kept the car in close contention during his stint – he never allowed early race leader Phil Keen to escape – Tate actually had the harder job as he had to manage a healthy but not insurmountable advantage while rarely having his pursuers in sight.
Compared to the opening race of the weekend, the second race started on a bone dry track and under late afternoon sun. Matt Bell took up Pole Position in the absence of the engineless Trackspeed Porsche. The Audi R8 LMS driver backed the whole field up before making a great start as the lights turned green.
Keen, however, made an even better start and was into second by turn one and then the race lead by the end of the opening lap. Mortimer had also gained a position during the opening lap and then spent the next thirty five minutes harrying race leader Keen, never letting up for a moment as they negotiated the traffic.
Throughout the opening half of the race, there were battles and duels all down the field and the Ferrari 458s were much more effective in the dry than the wet, as Glynn Geddie and Matt Griffin were making progress in their Italian machines – before their progress was halted after being issued with drive through penalties for not observing the track limits at the exit of Tarzan.
Allan Simonsen was also given the same penalty – this just helped the Rosso Verde’s drop down the field as the Danish driver was unable to live with the pace of the newer cars.
Before his drive through, Griffin and Bell had been locked in combat over the final podium position, with the Ferrari on the tail of the Audi for several laps of the 1.9 mile Rockingham Motor Speedway. The United Autosports driver remained cool under pressure and was still ahead when the Irishman took his penalty at the mid way point of the race.
In GT4, Phil Glew had been the early leader in the Lotus Evora and he was unable to pull out much of an advantage over the ABG KTM X-Bow while two penalties for not respecting the track limits meant that Jake Rattenbury/Josh Wakefield in the Century Motorsport Ginetta G50 were left in third at the end of the race.
The majority of the mandatory pit stops came towards the end of the second race pit window. Keen pitted his Trackspeed Porsche at the last possible moment and Mortimer pitted four seconds later. Both stops went well but with the Porsche having a five second success penalty for the earlier result; it was Tate who held the slender advantage over Ashburn as the pair of them exited the pit lane with twenty two minutes of the race remaining.
Everyone was expecting the 2010 Champion to take the lead sooner rather than later but this wasn’t the case – on his outlap, he spun on School straight and lost himself ten seconds and thus gave the advantage to Tate.
Over the next few laps, the advantage between Tate and Ashburn was reducing by a second to two seconds a lap and by the end of lap thirty, the gap was down to seven and a half seconds. Two laps later and the Porsche returned to the pits to have some bodywork removed after the spin and this dropped Ashburn down to sixth.
Jim Geddie suddenly found himself second in the second CRS Racing Ferrari 458 but was involved in a battle with race one pole sitter Mike Guasch in the Audi. The American driver appeared to be quicker but lap after lap, his attempts to pass at Deene were rebuffed.
This allowed Duncan Cameron and Michael Lyons to catch up in their Ferrari’s and with just five minutes left on the clock; it was a four way fight for second.
Having fought for so long, ultimately it was the Audi which lost out after a mistake at Gracelands allowed the two Ferrari’s past. Lyons continued to push Cameron for what had become the final step on the podium. Lyons sneaked through for third at Tarzan but Cameron was back ahead by Brook, having got the better drive out on the hairpin.
Up at the front, Tate was controlling the race from the front and he completed the final two laps without making an error. He crossed the line 3.866s ahead of Geddie to secure a dream 1, 2 result for the CRS Racing team.
“I got a clean start, though I couldn’t believe how fast the Porsche was off the start,” said Alex Mortimer, who had clinched his BGT championship-win at the same circuit four years earlier. “Big thank you to the CRS guys, the set up was fantastic. My job was to keep the tyres as good as possible for Andy.”
“The best bit was seeing the sign that said last lap,” smiled Andrew Tate. “Alex is a fantastic driver and I’ve had a lot of help from my driver coach Glynn Geddie. The team did a great job. All thanks to CRS and also to Alex.”
The 1, 2 finish for CRS Racing was their first for almost three years and Jim Geddie took a well deserved second place finish.
“All credit to the CRS team for their hard work,” said Glynn Geddie. “Obviously, taking the lead of the championship has turned this into a great weekend for us.”
“We weren’t happy this morning,” added Jim. “Things went wrong, we made a few mistakes, but we’re delighted with this afternoon.”
Holding onto third and the final podium position was Cameron in the MTech Ferrari while Lyons rounded out a Ferrari 458 top four – and Cameron joked: “It’s amazing how being in P4 and seeing P3 right ahead of you makes you put your foot down!”
Having fared well during the wet opening race, Jonny Adam and Andrew Howard could only finish tenth in the Beechdean Aston Martin, although their cause wasn’t helped by the additional fifteen seconds they had to spend in the puts after their race one success.
The Preci-Spark Mercedes of Godfrey/David Jones finished second while the Rosso Verde Ferrari, piloted by Hector Lester finished eighth in what could be its final outing.
Neither of the Ginetta G55’s finished the second race – the #28 Century Motorsport car suffered mechanical problems on the opening lap while the #25 Stark Racing car retired later into the race.
The second half of the race saw the GT4 battle change completely. The early pace setters, Lotus Sport UK and their Lotus Evora pulled off at Tarzan after twenty six laps, giving the advantage to David McDonald in the #50 Scuderia Vittoria Ginetta G50. The double penalty for the Century Motorsport G50 allowed Peter Belshaw to retain his second position and with it, the GT4 Championship lead.
The British GT Championship is sponsored by UK tyre manufacturer Avon Tyres and is further supported by Sunoco Racing Fuels, Anglo American Oil Company and OAMPS.
Filed under: British GT | Tagged: Alex Mortimer, Andrew Howard, Andrew Tate, Beechdean Motorsport, CRS Racing, Jonny Adam, Rockingham | Leave a comment »
The 2012 Avon Tyres British GT Championship calendar has been released with seven race weekends announced, with a mixture of one hour, two hour and three hours races scheduled at some of the best circuits in the UK.
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