With a strong and varied entry there was intrigue and expectation for the opening two rounds of the 2014 British GT4 Championship at Oulton Park on a packed Easter weekend for endurance racing in the UK.
The Ginettas that provided close competition that had been the foundation of the series’ success in 2013 were back for more, now upgraded to G55 spec and with more horsepower and better aero among other improvements. But this time out they had company. A 12 car entry (and a likely 13th to follow later) welcomed the Aston Martin, BMW, Porsche and Lotus marques to the fray, some driven by rising stars of the future who have identified British GT4 as a viable career step. With a few of these entries having a degree of factory guidance, 2014 could well be a pivotal year for this championship.
Ultimately the outcome of both one-hour races was influenced by Safety Car intervention, but nevertheless the cars were able to deliver a great spectacle on the leafy, swooping Cheshire circuit. Some clear comparisons could be drawn and potential stars identified, even if this weekend was something of a learning experience for everyone.
An early disappointment was the loss of the Silverstone Auctions AMR Aston Martin of Richie Stanaway and Harry, Whale which had crashed heavily in Saturday’s Aston Martin GT4 Challenge race and was subsequently withdrawn from the rest of the meeting.
So in front of a healthy crowd enjoying perfect spring weather conditions, pole-sitter Ross Wylie spearheaded the 11 car GT4 field into Old Hall to start Race 1, and although not having run in an endurance race before firmly established his Beechdean Aston Martin at the front despite pressure from Rick Parfitt Jnr.’s Century Motorsport Ginetta G55, Andrew Jarman’s TF Sport Aston Martin and Oli Basey-Fisher’s Academy Ginetta G55, which had made up a place from Oz Yusuf’s Lotus Evora.
Peter Belshaw’s ABG Motorsport-entered BMW M3 dropped to the bottom of the order on the opening lap having been punted off by Rembert Berg’s GT3 Bentley which was on a frantic dash from the back of the grid. This incident at Shell Oils Corner lost the #45 car time, and Belshaw rejoined 12 seconds behind the back of the GT4 train. He was able to make up the lost ground, however, passing Barrie Baxter’s Team Parker Porsche and Paul McNeilly’s Fox Motorsport Ginetta and posting strong lap times as he re-established his place in the pack.
Wylie started to create space between his car and Parfitt Jnr.’s, the gap fluctuating between 0.5 and 0.8 seconds as the pair traded tenths; these two drawing away from the rest of the field. But the 2013 champion went missing in action with just 11 laps completed, explaining “I came out of Knickerbrook and the engine just died. It was a fuel pump problem, the sort of thing you can’t account for. It’s a shame because I felt I was just taking the fight to Ross. Oulton is a place where it’s hard to pass and he was going defensive. I was trying to force him into a mistake, but he wasn’t making any. It’s a team game and I was at least expecting to hand a strong car over at the stop.”
Around this time, the #46 Twisted Team Parker Ginetta arrived over the crest at Deer Leap with a tyre smoking badly and obvious suspension damage. The car missed the pit entrance despite driver Adrian Barwick’s intent, who later commented dryly, “I had no steering… and then the brake pedal went straight to the floor… it started to go downhill after that.” This was the result of contact with the Generation Bentley GT3 earlier in the lap. Barwick had been running sixth but described what he viewed as a racing incident: “I gave the Bentley room, but I don’t know whether there was oil down or what, but we just collected each other. It was a 50/50 situation and I doubt there was anything either of us could have done about it. It’s all part of the experience; we’re still on a learning curve – we’ve been getting quicker all weekend though.”
After the Safety Car was sent out to help the recovery of Parfitt Jnr’s stricken Ginetta, the pit lane opened and all remaining runners immediately dived in to follow the GT3 field in a frenzied procession. The Safety Car then positioned itself sufficiently to hand a one-lap advantage to the #407 Beechdean Aston Martin, which Jake Giddings was able to control comfortably to the finish: “All I had to do was bring the car home,” he explained modestly. “Ross’s lap time was consistently two to three-tenths quicker than the Ginetta, but he still did well to keep him back and he managed to jump into the pits in good time. It was a clear run after that. Andrew (Howard) has made a big commitment bringing this car to GT4 – the least we can do is to try to bring it home well without damaging it.”
Ross Wylie: “The Ginetta kept me on my toes, but I kept it at bay. Qualifying on pole was good and for sure the Safety Car helped us, but a win is a win. This race was really about just bringing the car home, so I guess the pressure’s off now! Seriously though, we’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us. We’re not the quickest, but we’re consistent and we know we have a good solid car to take forward for the season. A lot of it is about finding the sweet spot with the Balance Of Performance. We have the 15 second penalty next and we’ll see how we get on with that too.”
After their stops the following four cars were Devon Modell’s #49 TF Aston Martin, Matt Draper’s #41 Optimum Ginetta (which had made up three places), Gavan Kershaw’s #77 Lotus Evora (under investigation from the stewards for allegedly overtaking under yellows) and Aleksander Schjerpen in the other #43 Century Ginetta.
The #48 Fox Motorsport Ginetta had been retired by Jamie Stanley, a fuel relay giving “one of those cheap parts failures that can take you out,” per co-driver Paul McNeilly.
After its earlier misfortune a visibly committed Declan Jones pushed the #45 ABG BMW hard, rising to fifth at the flag having overhauled Aleksander Schjerpen and getting within five seconds of Matt Draper’s Optimum Ginetta : “Peter is a very quick Gentleman Driver but unfortunately got taken out and lost time. The Safety Car bunched us all up so that helped a lot. When I took over I was catching fourth but a Ferrari tried to come around the outside of me and we got tangled up and I had to settle for fifth. The Ginetta is a racing car, and this is a road car converted to GT4 spec, so is a very different affair. I got to within three point-something of him before the Ferrari incident, so considering those things and that we weren’t hooked up in qualifying (water circulation problems) we’re moving forward.”
Draper’s Optimum Ginetta had been passed by the rapidly circulating Kershaw Evora and then Devon Modell’s Aston Martin, these two snatching the remaining silverware and providing the post pit-stop action.
Oz Yusuf: “The grid position could have been better. I only got one clear lap in qualifying, so that was my flying lap – I wanted to bide my time but I ran out of track space. It would be a nice idea to have an individual GT4 qualifying session.”
Gavan Kershaw: “ I had to get in front of the Ginetta. I couldn’t shake Modell, but still held him off comfortably. We were pulling away well and without the Safety Car we could have got a win.”
For Race 2, Kershaw’s confidence would have probably unsettled some other competitors who were already claiming the GT4 Evora was the fastest thing out there. The car had a better qualifying session in his hands, putting it on pole by over half a second. With a 10-second penalty now to consider, would this be enough to keep a race advantage over the Beechdean Aston Martin which sat third on the grid, just 0.7 seconds off pole, but now with a 15 second pit penalty to add to its 30 kgs Performance Balance?
This intriguing prospect came to nothing, though, as the Beechdean car ground to a halt at the chicane with an electrical gremlin on the formation lap. Jake Giddings managed to get the car going again and took the start a long way back from the field. After the lights went green, Kershaw immediately pulled out a one-second gap to Dan Cammish’s Team Parker Racing Porsche, the 2013 Formula Ford champion holding on to his grid position and clearly more comfortable at the sharp end of the field. Next up was Devon Modell in the white #49 TF Sport car, the official Aston Martin Racing Partner team entry looking like an increasingly well-sorted package as the weekend progressed.
Modell was followed by Matt Nicoll-Jones, who had made a great start in the #55 Academy Motorsport Ginetta, making up two places to fourth and heading a string of Ginettas. Tom Oliphant’s Century car (complete with working fuel pump) had jumped Jamie Stanley’s Fox Motorsport G55 to run fifth, then Bradley Ellis in the repaired #46 Twisted Team Parker car followed in seventh.
Declan Jones had punched through from the back of the grid to run seventh in the ABG M3, pressing on well ahead of Matt Draper’s Optimum Ginetta and Aleksander Schjerpen’s Century Ginetta. Giddings still trailed but was closing the gap.
At the end of Lap 2 Kershaw had a lead of 1.4 seconds, and posted the fastest lap of the race on Lap 4; a 1:45.606. Kershaw’s qualifying time was 1:43.678 and given the car was in fairly clear air, albeit with a race fuel load, it would be interesting to see what was possible to offset the upcoming 10 second penalty.
In the Ginetta chain Ellis took Stanley for sixth, while Nicoll-Jones had now slipped back down to eighth having had an incident on Lap 6 that resulted in a laptime of 1:53.017. This caught the attention of the stewards, who summoned the Academy Motorsport team manager (Nicoll-Jones) to Race Control.
Half way through the opening stint the positions were:-
1. 77 Lotus / Kershaw
2. 44 Porsche / Cammish (- 3.067s)
3. 49 Aston Martin / Modell (- 4.118s)
4. 42 Ginetta / Oliphant ( – 3.9s)
5. 45 BMW / Jones ( – 0.53s)
6. 46 Ginetta / Ellis ( – 0.93s)
7. 48 Ginetta / Stanley ( – 1.14s)
8. 55 Ginetta / Nicoll-Jones ( -7.83s)
9. 41 Ginetta / Draper (- 0.36s)
10. 43 Ginetta / Schjerpen (- 4.4s)
11. 407 Aston Martin / Giddings (- 1.4s)
Yellow flags appeared five minutes later as Tom Oliphant went straight on at the fast right-hander at Old Hall, burying the car in the tyre wall to conclude a disappointing start to the #42 Ginetta’s 2014 campaign. All would not be lost for the Century Motorsport team, though, when the Safety Car was deployed on the next lap. Kershaw’s 6.6 seconds lead was wiped out and the field neutralised.
When the pit window opened shortly afterwards, the #41 Optimum and #43 Century Ginettas were able to take immediate advantage of their track position and with well executed, unrestricted stops rejoined at the back of the GT3 queue. The Safety Car came in and all GT4 cars bar the #55 Ginetta took to pit lane, Nicoll-Jones following a lap later. The Team Parker Porsche had a long stop and lost time, while Oli Basey-Fisher got just two laps in the #55 car before retiring with a hydraulic pipe failure.
Morten Dons now led the field by a healthy 33 seconds, with the Century Motorsport early pit call paying dividends; but the Ginetta’s laptimes were dangerously shy of the chasing #49 Aston Martin’s. A very quick Andrew Jarman had overtaken Oz Yusuf for second place and was rapidly closing the gap to the leader.
Ross Wylie had now jumped into the Beechdean Aston and despite the 15 second pit penalty from the first race had hauled the car up to fifth. Tania Mann, who had been running second to Dons after their early pit calls had dropped to sixth in the #41 Optimum Ginetta.
A second Safety Car period compressed the field again, and with it came the prospect of a late dash to the finish for any one of the top five cars in contention for the remaining four laps. But Andrew Jarman was too strong for Morten Dons at the re-start and soon pulled a lead of over two seconds. Yusuf and Wylie were hard at it, too, just 0.6 seconds covering them in second and third. The Peter Belshaw-driven ABG BMW had lost out, however, having had to take a 10 second stop / go penalty for earlier speeding in the pitlane. Now 30 seconds behind the battle at the front, the car had nevertheless shown potential.
So it was Andrew Jarman who took the flag for TF Sport team in style, with Morten Dons holding second in an impressive strategic turnaround for the Century Motorsport team.
Andrew Jarman: “Moving up from the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge, which is a great championship, to British GT, I didn’t know how much of a jump it would be. TF Sport and I wanted to show that we could run at the front and, today, we have done that. It has been a fantastic effort by the TF Sport team and by Devon all weekend. We are a strong pairing and today is a great platform on which to build upon.
“We will be looking for more wins at the next meeting, but I’m under no illusion. We’ve had a great weekend, but it has been a lot of hard work and it’s a long season with long races, so it starts all over again at Rockingham.”
Devon Modell: “It has been a very positive debut British GT outing and I don’t think you can argue with third and first-place finishes, can you? I was a little disappointed to lose out on P2 after the pit stop and finish race one in third, but the Safety Car didn’t work out in our favour. It is what it is. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
“The car definitely suits my driving style, but there’s still a lot to learn about it and the championship. I feel that TF Sport and I are making huge strides forwards and there are still a few more tricks up our sleeves. Once I have more experience, we’ll be laughing.”
Morten Dons: “The whole weekend has just been a real challenge. Obviously we struggled with the setup after the balance of performance test, which changed a lot for us. During the weekend we tried to find the best combination with the setup so we can have an average speed through the whole race. Qualifying didn’t go that well, but at the end of today I’m very, very happy!”
Aleksander Schjerpen: “It’s been a really good weekend. We struggled a little bit with the setup of the car, but we found a way to cope with it and the new BOP regulations. But finally it all came together in race two and we had a good weekend!”
The #77 ISSY Racing Evora added another podium place to its weekend in third, keeping Ross Wylie at bay to the finish.
Martin Little
