Rockingham Provides New British GT Race Winners.

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.

Rockingham Ready for British GT Season Resumption.

British GT Race Start at Spa last time out - the series heads to Rockingham this weekend.

September is all set for an adrenalin-fuelled kick start thanks to the resumption of the 2011 Avon Tyres British GT Championship, following the song summer break since the last round, at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

The top Sportscar drivers in the UK go head to head in a pair of one hour races at the Rockingham Motor Speedway in Northamptonshire, driving supercars from Ferrari, Porsche, Corvette, Aston Martin, Mercedes, Audi and Ginetta. A field in excess of twenty two cars is expected, with sixteen cars entered in the GT3 Category.

Heading to Rockingham, the Championship battle couldn’t be any closer or exciting. Currently, the points are being led by Mike Guasch and Matt Bell in their Audi R8 GT3, run by United Autosports, but they only have a two point advantage over father and son pairing, Jim/Glynn Geddie in their CRS Racing Ferrari 458 Italia. The Scottish pairing has been a regular visitor to the podium in 2011.

Matt Griffin and Duncan Cameron in their MTech Racing Ferrari 458 are coming up the standings fast and they secured the victory out at Spa last time out. They secured a strong seventh place finish out at the Slovakia Ring recently in the FIA GT3 European Championship. That was despite some technical issues.

“It was a tough weekend in Slovakia,” said Griffin, “and I hope we can put all that behind us for Rockingham. We need a couple of good, solid finishes there to keep the ball rolling having turned our season around a bit. But it won’t be easy because British GT is so competitive and because Rockingham has historically suited the Porsches more than it has the Ferraris.”

Rockingham marks the last double header of the season for the British GT field. Their next outing, at Donington Park is a three hour endurance style race while the season finale at Silverstone is a two hour race. Benjamin Franassovicci believes that it will be a fascinating season finale:  “The three circuits coming up all offer their own unique challenges, as will the format of the races at each. The championship is wide open and will be, I think, all the way to the final round. We are expecting to see 27-plus cars on the grid at Donington, which is even more exciting.”

Also lining up in the GP3 Category will be reining Champion David Ashburn in his Trackspeed Porsche. He has secured two victories this season while the teams’ second 997 will be driven by Gregor Fiskin and Tim Bridgman, who secured victory at Brands Hatch.

CRS Racing will also have their second Ferrari 458 out, with Andrew Tate and Alex Mortimer. Both the Geddie’s car and the Tate/Mortimer car will have a striking new livery for Rockingham.

2009 Champions, David/Godfrey Jones will be out in their Team Preci-Spark Mercedes AMG SLS, fresh from coming seventh overall out at Spa during the Spa 24 Hours, while Oulton Park victors, Michael Lyons and Charles Bateman will be looking to secure yet more success for the young Scuderia Vittoria outfit.

Andrew Howard and Jonny Adam will be driving the Beechdean Motorsport Aston Martin while Corvette is also represented by Piers and Ron Johnson, who are piloting the Speedworks Motorsport car. The duo collected a season’s best sixth last time out.

Ginetta will be represented by three G55’s, at the hands of Century Motorsport’s Julien Draper and Freddie Hetherington.

In the GT4 class, the battle for the title is just as fearsome. Currently leading the way is the ABG Motorsport duo of Peter Belshaw and Marcus Clutton, in their KTM X-Bow. They have secured GT4 honours three times already this season.

Spa-Francorchamps saw maiden class wins for Dan Denis and David McDonald in the Scuderia Vittoria run Ginetta G50 and the Lotus Sport UK run Lotus Evora for Ollie Jackson and Phil Glew. Jake Rattenbury and Josh Wakefield have also secured a class victory in the Century Motorsport G50, during the second Oulton Park race. After their maiden GT4 Podium finish at Spa, Peter Erceg and Chris Holmes will be hoping to repeat the feat in their Secure Racing Aston Martin.

In GT3B, the class will be contested by MTech Ferrari drivers John Dhillon and Aaron Scott while the GTC Category will see Jordan Witt and Anthony Reid in their Chevron GR8.

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.

British GT Rockingham Schedule:

Saturday, 3 September:

09.00 – 10.00: Free Practice 1
11.45 – 12.45: Free Practice 2
16.20 – 16.55: Qualifying

Sunday, 4 September:

10.00: Warm Up
12.50: Round Seven (60 Minutes)
16.25: Round Eight (60 Minutes)

Picture Credit: British GT Media

BTCC Top Fives: Finales.

Following up from my first top five list which I covered my top five races in recent BTCC History, in this instalment I will cover my top five season finales since 2004.

I’ll dig deep and inform you of why certain ones have been chosen compared to others which could have been chosen.

Finale Five:

Brands Hatch GP, 2005. It was Team Halfords and Matt Neal against VX Racing’s Yvan Muller for the crown while Team Halfords also had Dan Eaves in contention for second overall.

The previous race weekend at Silverstone had seen both Neal and Muller struggle and Neal left the Northamptonshire track with a 30 point advantage. With only a maximum of fifty-two points available in the final weekend, it appeared that everything would go Neal’s way.

Qualifying saw another Halfords car qualify on pole – Dan Eaves set the fastest time to claim pole for round twenty eight of the season – Yvan Muller had the advantage over Matt Neal.

Yvan qualified third, with team mate Gavin Smith ahead of him while Neal was down in sixth, and the third of the Halfords cars – Gareth Howell lined up fifth. Jason Plato lined up fourth on the grid.

For Muller to take the title battle to the second race of the day – he had to outscore Matt Neal – if Neal scored three points more than Muller, it was over.

Race one – Muller made his way up to second behind Eaves while Neal could only finish fourth, thus the Championship lead of Neal’s was reduced by four points to twenty-six. Eaves, however secured the maximum of eighteen points – pole position, leading a lap, fastest lap as well as the fifteen for winning – and took six points out of Muller.

Race two, round twenty-nine of the season – the maths was simple. Race three would provide a maximum of seventeen points – Muller had to outscore Neal by nine points. If Neal finished third or higher, it was all over.

It was Jason Plato who took the victory in the second race of the day, having taken the lead from Eaves exiting Westfield at the half way point of the race. It wasn’t plain sailing for Plato nor Muller. Off the line, Muller tried to give himself the best chance he could of taking the title to the final race of the season by challenging Eaves around the outside of Paddock Hill.

Neal, however had dropped back to sixth off the line – his spirits were lifted when he saw Plato pass Muller for second. Neal moved into fifth when he passed James Kaye before a scary moment at the exit of Hawthorns.

Fourth was Neals with ease, passing Muller’s team mate Gavin Smith at Druids.

Next up for Neal was title rival Muller and a few laps later, there was contact at Westfield between Neal and Muller, giving the Frenchman a puncture and a first BTCC crown for Neal in the process.

At the flag, Plato took his third win of the season ahead of Eaves and Champion Neal, who had built an unassailable points gap to Muller – Neal claimed eleven points – ten for third plus one for Fastest Lap – to leave him thirty-seven ahead with seventeen to play for.

Eaves has closed up even more to Muller and was within four points on the Frenchman – his thirteen points from the second race meant he had taken nineteen points out of Muller.

The season finale saw series debutant Andy Neate due to start on pole but he pulled into the pits, leaving WSR’s Rob Collard up front by himself.

The battle for second overall lasted a lap – heading into the braking zone for Paddock Hill, Jason Hughes braked earlier, catching out the chasing pack. Muller hit the back of Eaves, who was pitched into the wall and as he came back across, took out Plato. Muller and Plato ended up in the gravel at Paddock Hill while Eaves stopped on the run up to Druids.

This meant that Muller had second sewn up by four points from Eaves. Neal won the title by forty-three points.

Picture Credit: Ian Forinton

Finale Number Four:

Brands Hatch 2008, Fabrizio Giovanardi versus Jason Plato. VX Racing against Seat Sport in what would be Seat Sport’s final BTCC race weekend as a fully fledged manufacturer.

Giovanardi went into the final round with a forty-four point advantage over nearest rival Plato, with a maximum of fifty-two points to race for. Plato faced a huge battle to overhaul Giovanardi and he had to outscore the Italian by ten points to have a hope of taking the title fight to round two.

Qualifying sprung a surprise – Team RAC and Stephen Jelley stuck their BMW on pole alongside BMW Dealer team UK’s Mat Jackson. Jason Plato and Fabrizio Giovanardi had nightmare qualifying sessions leaving themselves down in tenth and eleventh.

Race one – Jelley got away from pole with Jackson hot on his heels. Jackson took the lead at the end of lap one and never looked back as he took his fourth race victory of the season.

Behind Jackson, Giovanardi was involved with an early race incident with Adam Jones which damaged the Italians Vauxhall Vectra and dropped him down to fourteenth – giving Plato the opportunity to claw back some of the points he needed to keep the title alive.

He fought his way up to fifth – which wasn’t enough and Giovanardi secured his second BTCC crown, down in fourteenth. Ahead of Plato, there were four BMW’s, Jackson, the Motorbase duo of Steven Kane and Rob Collard and Colin Turkington.

Plato had the gap down from forty-four points to thirty-eight with two races left. Jackson had closed the gap to Plato as well, but had his eyes set on third overall.

Race two – Jackson took his second win of the day from pole position and added in the fastest lap for good measure. With Giovanardi failing to start and Plato retiring with steering rack failure, it gave Jackson the opportunity to grab win number five for the season.

Picture Credit: Ian Forinton

Matt Neal and Colin Turkington completed the podium, the two of them worked together to pass both Motorbase BMW’s.

It also meant that Plato and Giovanardi would start alongside each at the back of the grid for round thirty… while Jackson would start eighth, five points off Plato and taking second away from the Seat driver.

The final race of the 2008 season saw Tom Onslow-Cole start from pole – it was Team Halfords Tom Chilton who made the best start and flew into the lead by Paddock Hill bend. The safety car was deployed for the first time at the end of lap one as John George had been turned into a barrel roll along the back straight – his Honda Integra was completely destroyed.

Right at the end of the race, the Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch of Arkas Racing’s Martyn Bell blew an engine, leaving oil on the track from Paddock Hill bend to Druids – all hell broke loose as drivers hit the oil and went off the track. Steven Kane benefitted from the oil to take second from Onslow-Cole while Jackson finished fourth to secure second overall by three points from Plato.

Giovanardi secured the point for fastest lap – the only point he scored all day!

Giovanardi won his second title by thirty-six points from Jackson, who finished three points ahead of Plato.

 

Picture Credit: Andrew Jackson

Finale Number Three:

Donington Park 2004, the battle of the Vauxhall team mates Yvan Muller and James Thompson and Anthony Reid. Reid was a very outside bet for the crown, he needed to win all three races with bonus points and hope Thompson scored very few points. If Thompson scored five or more points, Reid was out of the running.

Qualifying ahead of the final race day saw Seat Sport’s Jason Plato set the fastest time of the session to take pole. Championship contenders Thompson, Muller and Reid lined up third, fifth and seventh respectively.

Race one; round twenty-eight saw Plato convert his pole position into win number seven for the season as Thompson extended his Championship lead over Muller. Reid was knocked out of the title battle in race one.

Thompson’s second place compared to Mullers seventh meant that Thompson had a thirteen point advantage heading into the second race of the day. Thirteen points was the biggest advantage Thompson had had all season over Muller, while Plato’s win ensured he’d end the season as the driver with the most wins.

At the start, it was Matt Neal who took the lead as Plato made a slow getaway. The lead was short lived though as Thompson forced the Honda Civic driver wide. Lap two saw contact between Thompson and Muller, dropping Muller down the field and outside the top ten.

Muller had a fight to get any points from the race but he worked his way back up to seventh by the flag.

Plato took the win from Thompson with Turkington third.

Race Two – the reverse grid saw Rob Huff start on pole with race one winner Jason Plato in tenth. James Thompson would start eighth – Yvan Muller started in fourth position.

Huff led into the first corner but his time in the lead came to and end at the Old Hairpin as he ran wide and let Chilton and Muller through. Dan Eaves made it from fourth to second before the end of lap one, firstly passing Huff after his moment then Muller. Muller retook the place at Redgate on lap two.

For Thompson, he was running seventh at the end of lap one having gone off onto the grass at the Craner Curves – he was involved in a five car fight for positions four to eight.

Towards the end, Muller was chasing down race leader Chilton and set three fastest laps as he closed in on the youngster – taking 4 tenths of a second out of Chilton per lap. Chilton took the victory by less than half a second from Muller. Thompson finished fifth and the gap was down to six points…

Race three – round thirty. One race, two drivers and six points in it and the added interest of Jason Plato’s Seat Toledo. The final race was all set for a winner takes all contest between VX Racing team mates Muller and Thompson.

Starting from pole was Tom Chilton, after his race two victory. Muller lined up alongside him with Thompson slightly further back on the grid.

Chilton didn’t make the most of his starting position and it was Muller who took advantage to lead off the grid while Thompson was boxed in and forced onto the grass – dropping him to fourth. End of lap one saw Muller lead Eaves, Plato and Thompson. Chilton was fifth.

Both Thompson and Plato passed Eaves to complete the podium – Thompson setting the fastest race lap in the process. Plato set about chasing down Muller until the Safety Car was deployed to clear up the accident involving Gavin Pyper and Michael Bentwood.

Once the Safety car was withdrawn, Plato went back to attacking Muller for the race lead while Thompson sat back in third and let the two arch rivals get on with their battle. Thompson knew that if he stayed in third, he’d be Champion.

Plato was trying everything to take the final win of ’04, and at the chicane on the penultimate lap forced Muller into a half slide. Thompson looked to the outside but backed out and sat back and accepted third and his second BTCC crown.

A point for fastest lap is all it came down to… Thompson beat Muller by a point with Plato finishing third overall.

Finale Number Two:

Thruxton 2007 saw Jason Plato in his Seat Leon up against VX Racing’s Fabrizio Giovanardi. Both VX Racing and Seat Sport UK brought in a third driver to help with their drivers’ title bid – Vauxhall called in fellow GM Racer Alain Menu to drive the third Vectra while Seat Sport called upon fellow WTCC driver Tom Coronel. For Coronel, it was his BTCC debut.

Going into the weekend, Plato held a slender nine point advantage over Giovanardi, even though Giovanardi had taken more race wins. Plato had been the model of consistency and hadn’t suffered a DNF all season.

The week before however, saw Plato suffer substantial burns to his neck, arms and face after a car he was testing for Fifth Gear caught fire.

Qualifying ahead of the first race saw a Vauxhall lock out as Tom Chilton took pole ahead of Giovanardi and Menu. Plato was fourth on the grid for race one, while his Seat Sport team mates were seventh and twelfth.

Race one – punctures ruled the way as both Chilton and Menu suffered while Darren Turner also had a puncture. Off the line, Giovanardi wasn’t able to take the lead away from Chilton while Menu settled into third, defending from Plato.

It took Giovanardi a couple of laps to find a way past team mate Chilton, who had set the races fastest lap and thus taking away an extra point which Giovanardi could have claimed.

First to suffer the tyre problems was Chilton, thus promoting Plato to third. On the final lap, Menu suffered a similar fate which gave Plato second and a slightly bigger point’s margin. Menu finished fourth as Shedden took advantage of his puncture.

One race down, Plato’s advantage was down to five points.

Race two saw Giovanardi and Plato finish in the same positions – they were joined by matt Neal, who had been challenging the two of them for the race win. Twice during the second race did the two title protagonists make contact, once saw both cars off the track while Neal stayed on track.

It left a last race shootout – one point separated Giovanardi and Plato going to round thirty.

The top seven were reversed – meaning the WTCC guest drivers of Menu (Vauxhall) and Coronel (Seat) were on the front row with a pair of BMW’s behind them. Plato lined up sixth, ahead of Giovanardi.

Both the BMW’s used their superior startline ability to jump the front row starters with Jackson ahead of Turkington. Further back, there were problems for Plato and Menu at the chicane, Menu bumped down the order.

With rumours of a move to VX Racing going round the paddock, Team Halfords driver Matt Neal did nothing to dispel these rumours as he waved both Chilton and Giovanardi past before getting in Plato’s way.

Up front, Jackson continued to absorb the pressure Turkington threw at him until Turkington spun at the chicane – thus promoting Giovanardi into second. With Plato in fourth, the title was Giovanardi’s, by three points.

The win was Jackson’s second of a very impressive debut season in the BTCC.

Giovanardi became 2007 Champion by three points from Plato, Gordon Shedden held on to third by five points from Matt Neal.

Picture Credit: Ian Forinton

Finale Number Five:

Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit in 2009 saw a three way shootout for the title between Team RAC’s Colin Turkington, Fabrizio Giovanardi for VX Racing and outside bet Jason Plato of Racing Silverline.

Turkington arrived at Brands Hatch with a thirteen point advantage over Giovanardi while Plato was twenty eight points behind Turkington, meaning Plato was the outsider… but when has that stopped Plato?

Qualifying saw another surprise – Tom Chilton popped up and put his Team AON Ford Focus on pole with Plato lining up alongside him in second. Behind Plato came the three VX Racing cars of Giovanardi, Matt Neal and Andrew Jordan. Plato’s team mate Mat Jackson lined up sixth. Turkington had a shocker of a qualifying session and was down in tenth.

Race One – Chilton made the textbook start to take the lead into Paddock Hill, a lead he’d hold until Clearways on the final lap when Plato passed him to take victory by 0.015 seconds.

Behind the front two, Fabrizio Giovanardi secured third place and the important ten points that went with it as Turkington was only able to make it up as high as eighth fron tenth.

Giovanardi’s two wingmen, Jordan and Neal finished fourth and fifth while Jackson was down in twelfth – having been involved with some panel bashing early in the race.

There were two Safety Car periods in race one – the first one to clear up the Paddock Hill gravel trap after Matt Hamilton and Martin Johnson came together and both retired. The second was to remove the Honda Civic of Johnny Herbert from the Druids gravel and the Seat Leon of Gordon Shedden – Shedden had gone off at Sheene Curve.

So after race one, Giovanardi had closed the gap to six points while Plato was fourteen behind with thirty-four to play for.

Race two – as in Race one, Tom Chilton made a textbook start and took the lead from Plato at Paddock Hill bend while Giovanardi settled into third.

It was Turkington who was having to pull off the risky moves – lap one he had to squeeze down the inside of Matt Neal into Westfield – so he could catch up with the leaders.

Neal was also in the wars – Paul O’Neill shoved the VX Racing driver out of the way at Druids, a move which sent the 2005 and 2006 Champion down to fourteenth place. He recovered to eighth and pole for race three.

The defining moment of race two came on lap fifteen when Plato forced his way past Chilton for the race lead and that started a chain effect of events with the chasing pack getting backed up. Giovanardi made a risky move to pass Chilton round the outside of Surtees. This move held up both Airwaves BMW’s – allowing Turkington the opportunity to slot into third by Westfield.

The end result saw the three title contenders on the podium in reverse order – with Turkington taking a four point advantage into the final race – eight points covered the top three.

Race three saw Neal on pole with Giovanardi starting behind Turkington. Let the games begin. At the start, the two Airwaves BMW cars of Jonny Adam and Rob Collard were both flying, Collard was taken out by Chilton along Cooper straight and Matt Neal spun Adam out at Surtees.

Adam rejoined but a long way back. Meanwhile, Turkington had made it into second behind Neal with Giovanardi third… Neal slowed down to allow Giovanardi to attack Turkington. In turn, Plato got involved and he started to attack Giovanardi, which allowed Turkington to fight Neal.

Picture Credit: Ian Forinton

Lap nine saw a race and Championship decided moment. Turkington went on the attack and forced Neal wide, but not hard enough – so he needed another hit which damaged the Team RAC BMW. The move forced Neal off the track and put Turkington into the lead.

The move meant that Turkington was defending from Giovanardi and Plato, who had made his way into third. Giovanardi tried to attack Turkington at Clearways but had to back out of the move – thus giving Plato the chance to take second from Giovanardi. He found himself on the outside of Turkington at Paddock – yet that didn’t worry him as he took the lead at Druids and from there on, never looked back.

Giovanardi attempted the same move a lap later but again failed and dropped down to fourth as Chilton took third away. From there, the order stayed as it was and thus Turkington took his first BTCC crown, Plato became the second person in history to take three wins in a day and Giovanardi ended his full time BTCC career with a whimper and in third overall.

Plato came within five points of a famous comeback and set down a marker for 2010 while Giovanardi finished four points behind Plato.

 

 

Why have I chosen these five finales as the best?

The reason I have chosen these five season finales as my top five is down to the fact they show the BTCC at its best – unpredictable, suspense filled and exciting.

Yes, the 2006 and 2010 finales were interesting but they were pretty much sorted before the field arrived at the final rounds.

2004, 2007 and 2009 all went down to the final corner of the final lap of the final race of the season and you couldn’t predict what would happen and who’d become Champion.

In 2008, the battle for second went down to the final lap again while 2005 saw the battle for second ended early due to contact – something else the BTCC is known for.

However you look at it, the BTCC is what it is due to things like this and the interest it generates – and it can only improve with the new regulations which are coming in for this season.

 

 

Wrathall closing in

Having finished runner up in 08 and 09, is 2010 Wrathall's year?

Pic Credit – Dad (as normal…) 😀

Ginetta G50 Cup:

The 2010 Ginetta G50 Cup has been all about two drivers – Frank Wrathall and Carl Breeze. Between them they have collected 12 of the 25 race victories. Guest drivers Rob Huff (three), Jonny Adam (one) and Nigel Moore (five) have all taken victories while Tom Sharp (two), Adam Morgan (one) and Benji Hetherington (one) have all tasted the winners Champagne.

As the guest drivers don’t score points, it has been Wrathall who has benefitted the most from the guest drivers winning as he jumps from five thirty-five point hauls to eleven, while Breeze hasn’t benefitted at all from the guest driver wins to take maximum points.

Driver Stats after Donington:

Driver	Pole Position	First	Second	Third	Fastest Lap	Points
Frank Wrathall	1	5	9	1	8	679
Carl Breeze	3	7	4	5	4	619

The season can be split into a season of three thirds – The opening two weekends belonged to Wrathall and his Dynojet team – five wins from six races with Wrathall and WTCC star Huff while the middle part of the season belonged to Breeze and it was here that it looked like he would be Champion.

Silverstone proved to be a turning point – Wrathall took the win in race one before clashing with Breeze in race two, putting himself out while Breeze recovered to seventh – since then, all the wins have gone the way of guest drivers and Wrathall has benefitted the most.

There are three races and 109 points to play for. Wrathall has a sixty point cushion due to dropped scores and a 40 point penalty awarded to Breeze, however the title is by no means certain – a brace of DNF’s for Wrathall and two wins for Breeze swings the title the way of the Kings Lynn man.

Colin White has the Chairman’s Cup honoured sewn up for the second consecutive season and is sitting solidly inside the top ten.

Brands will prove to be exciting – and with the ultimate crown up for grabs and a works endurance race drive at stake – everything is to play for.