Charles Bateman and Michael Lyons secured their second victory of the 2011 Avon Tyres British GT Championship on board of their Scuderia Vittoria Ferrari 458 Italia in the three hour endurance race into the darkness at Donington Park.
Having finished eighth in qualifying, the duo played their strategy right and the appearance of the Safety Car late on didn’t hamper them as they secured their first win since Oulton Park, which held the opening round of the season.
In the GT4 class, the honours went the way of British Touring Car Championship race winner James Nash and Phil Glew in their Lotus Sport UK Lotus Evora ahead of the Century Motorsport Ginetta G50, piloted by Jake Rattenbury and Josh Wakefield.
The three hour endurance race got underway in wet conditions after earlier rain and this led to tricky conditions for the opening stint of the race. The early running was made by the Beechdean Motorsport Aston Martin, which had Jonny Adam at the wheel, while most of the teams had started with their professional driver watching on from the pit wall.
Adam and the team had lined up sixth on the grid but by the end of the opening lap, they had climbed their way into the lead and they started to pull away to the tune of three seconds a lap until the conditions started to improve and this led to the gap stabilising.
Behind Adam, Gregor Fiskin in the Trackspeed Porsche had got ahead of reigning Champion David Ashburn and the two of them ran in tandem, rounding out the podium positions. Behind, Duncan Cameron in the MTECH Ferrari led the next little gaggle of cars, which included Bateman and the United Autosports Audi of Mike Guasch.
Just before the twenty minute mark, Bateman made a move on Cameron for fourth place and this move brought Guasch into play – subsequent contact between the Ferrari and Audi saw Cameron demoted to eighth while the Audi lost two laps in the pits due to bodywork damage sustained in the contact.
As the first round of pitstops occurred, it was the Aston Martin which continued to lead but it was soon all over for Adam and Andrew Howard. The field swapped onto slick tyres as the track dried out and on his outlap; Howard spun down to fourth at Redgate and soon lost more positions as the faster ‘pro’ drivers moved ahead. Howard then spun out at the Esses and this saw the deployment of the Safety Car for the first time. Howard recovered the car to the pits but it was soon retired.
This saw the race suddenly swing in favour of the Scuderia Vittoria as they had called Lyons in for their second stop and this kept them towards the front of the field. When the Safety car was deployed for a second time due to Andrew Tate’s CRS Racing Ferrari being stuck in the gravel, Bateman pitted and handed the car back to Lyons for the final stint – he was then back in control as the three cars ahead of him all pitted.
Lyons saw his final stint last for just over an hour and he also had to save fuel, he was able to maintain an advantage of over twenty seconds – until, with sixteen minutes of the three hours remaining, the Safety Car made its third appearance due to David Back’s MTECH Ferrari being stuck in the gravel.
Lyons saw then able to hold onto the victory as he had three lapped cars between him and the chasing pack – those behind were starting to get caught up in a heated battle for second.
“The pit stops and the safety car worked out really well for us, and then at the end it was real heart-in-the-mouth stuff for me,” Lyons said. “The tyres went through a phase, they started to come back to me and then the safety car came out again, and I was thinking ‘please don’t do this’, but actually it helped save the tyres a bit and at the end I was matching the boys behind me.”
Behind Lyons at the chequered flag was Matt Griffin in the MTECH Ferrari and Tim Bridgman in the Trackspeed Porsche. The two of them had moved to the front of the pack at the mid way point of the race – for Griffin, this was in spite of the earlier problems for Cameron.
When the second Safety Car was called for, it had been Bridgman who was leading and he dived for the pits as did Griffin, who was second. They completed their second of three mandatory stops and rejoined still in first and second, with Fiskin and Cameron having taken over the driving duties.
While they were behind the Safety Car, the duo suddenly found themselves stuck behind the GT4 Aston Martin, which was being piloted by Sergio Lagana. He was suffering from gearbox gremlins and as they were under the Safety Car, they couldn’t pass the struggling Lagana.
Having already been delayed by Lagana, there was further drama for Fiskin as he exited Goddards to take the restart – Lagana suddenly dived for the pits which meant that Fiskin had to slam on the brakes and this allowed Cameron ahead.
“The guy in the Aston Martin, I now discover, had a problem: his car was stuck in third gear,” explained a rather annoyed Fiskin. “When you have a problem with your car you should come into the pits. We were both stuck behind him and we lost everything. He was struggling and he would not come in, and then when he finally decided at the last minute to duck into the pits, I had to swerve to avoid him. The Cameron/Griffin car took advantage and passed us.”
This incident meant that the Ferrari would lead the Porsche through until the final pit stops, when they were both jumped by Lyons – Griffin and Bridgman then set about chasing down leader Lyons during the closing forty minutes.
With the appearance of the Safety Car for the third time, everything was set up for a grandstand finish; Griffin however found himself behind the lapped cars of British Touring Car Championship regular Gordon Shedden and Adam Wilcox, and this denied him the opportunity to challenge Lyons for the lead – any challenge would have been immaterial though as the race stewards awarded Cameron and Griffin a time penalty for their pass on Fiskin as it was still under yellow flag conditions – this ultimately meant that Fiskin and Bridgman were promoted to second ahead of the MTECH duo of Griffin and Cameron.
“This penalty is a difficult one because for sure the rule is that under a safety car you can’t pass until the start line but the Aston decided late to go for the pits and nearly took Gregor out,” Griffin said. “Duncan had no choice: he had to go past or hit Gregor. To dart into the pits like that was dangerous and could have caused a crash, so I think the penalty is harsh. You have to look at the circumstances.”
Outside of the podium positions, Ashburn and Porsche Carrera Cup GB regular Stephen Jelley finished fourth overall after having their challenge hampered by a number of small mistakes by Ashburn.
Jim and Glynn Geddie were the final drivers to finish on the lead lap in their CRS Racing Ferrari 458 Italia. They took the flag fifth overall – having served a drive through penalty during the opening stint for a starting procedure violation.
Sixth overall was the brand new Rosso Verde Ferrari 458 Italia, piloted by BTCC Championship contender Shedden and Hector Lester. It was an encouraging debut for the car and Shedden was soon up to speed with it, matching the times of the leaders as he looked to recover the lost time from earlier in the race when Lester struggled in the wet conditions – Lester hadn’t sampled the car in the wet before the start of the race.
Seventh overall was the sole Autosports Audi of Guasch and Bell. The second car had been ruled out of contention after an accident in qualifying – and having lost two laps during the early moments of the race, Bell and Guasch were unable to make up both laps and finished a lap down in seventh.
The top ten was completed by Phil Burton and Adam Wilcox in the 360 Vision Ferrari, Piers and Ron Johnson in the Speedworks Motorsport Corvette and the Rollcentre Ginetta of Ginetta GT Supercup Championship contender Tom Sharp, Martin Short and Matt Nicoll-Jones – Sharp had been one of the early stars as he took the G55 into the top five with a number of daring overtaking moves. Burton was awarded the Sunoco Driver of the Weekend award for his efforts at the wheel of the 360 Vision Ferrari.
Lotus Sport UK dominated the GT4 category with BTCC race winner Nash and former Clio Cup Champion Glew leading from lights to flag in the Evora, despite a late stop/go penalty. Glew produced a strong opening stint as he challenged a number of the GT3 cars in the Lotus and they took the class victory a whole lap ahead of the Century Motorsport Ginetta G50 of Rattenbury and Wakefield.
“It was a fairly straightforward race, really,” Glew said. “We got a good start, we had great pace in the wet and pulled a massive lead and we kept that lead pretty much all through the race. We had a scary moment towards the end with the stop-go penalty, but we had a big lead so it didn’t matter too much. James and I got on really well, we have a good team around us, and it’s been a great weekend. All thanks to the Lotus Sport UK team.”
The GT4 podium was completed by the KTM X-Bow of Marcus Clutton and Peter Belshaw – they had to ride their luck though as they had to serve two stop/go penalties. Dan Denis and David McDonald had been set for third in the Scuderia Vittoria Ginetta G50 before suffering a misfire in the final half hour, which saw them drop right off the pace.
Freddy Nordstrom and Leyton Clarke fell by the wayside in their Lotus Sport UK Evora while the Barwell-run Secure Racing Aston Martin suffered from gearbox gremlins and did make an appearance late on but some twenty nine laps down.
Running inside the top ten during the early part was the JRM-run Nissan GTR GT3 – which was entered in the invitational class for the Donington Park race – that was before it lost ten laps in the pits while a mechanical issue was resolved. Once sorted, the car returned to the track but failed to see the flag as it was left stranded on the side of the circuit when Nick Catsburg encountered a loss of drive.
Finishing eleventh overall was the GT3B Ferrari of Aaron Scott and John Dhillon, less than three seconds ahead of the GTC Chevron of Jordan Witt and Anthony Reid – Witt and Reid were another car to get a drive through penalty, this time for a refuelling infringement.
Heading into the final two hour race of the season at Silverstone on the 9th October, 18.5 Points cover the top nine drivers while in the GT4 class, Belshaw and Clutton head to Silverstone leading by 26.5 points.
Filed under: British GT | Tagged: Century Motorsport, Charles Bateman, Donington Park, Duncan Cameron, Gregor Fiskin, Jake Rattenbury, James Nash, Josh Wakefield, Lotus Sport UK, Matt Griffin, Michael Lyons, MTECH, Phil Glew, Scuderia Vittoria, Tim Bridgman, Trackspeed | 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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