Avon Tyres British GT Championship – Rockingham - GT2/3 Race 2 Report
All Change For Race 2

With none of the three Saturday winners crossing the line first in the three classes on Sunday (this time it was Team LNT’s Panoz, #19 Lotus Sport Cadena Exige and RPM’s #96 Porsche – see separate race report for the GTC Class) there was an altogether different feel to the second race result at Rockingham, on Thunder Sunday.

But some of the thunder was reserved for after the race, when the Panoz was granted a penalty of a solitary second, which was enough to drop it to second place, behind the closely following Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari. An appeal was registered by LNT against the penalty, so this one might run for a while yet. Lotus Sport Cadena and RPM were clear-cut winners of GT3 and GTC.

Despite rain overnight, and the threat of more during the day, a reasonable crowd appeared by lunchtime, to see a mixed bag of racing, on three different circuits. The GT warm-up at 10.00 was held on a wet track, and everyone involved seemed to be hoping that it would either stay wet or dry-up. It did the latter, despite the odd flurry of rain before the 15.00 start of the GT race.

The system of Saturday’s finishing drivers starting the second race played a considerable part in determining both the pattern and the result of this one.

GT2 was a race-long squabble between the Panoz and the Ferrari, and with the Monaro failing to finish (yet apparently setting the fastest lap of the race, a 56 second lap, after straight-lining the first hairpin and not waiting to rejoin in the right order at Turn 4, after a lap of the oval), it was a ‘simple’ two-horse race.

That was initially Tom Kimber-Smith against Tim Mullen, and it was TK-S taking the lead in the charge through Turn 1, a lead he clung onto for five and a half laps.

Mullen and the Ferrari were always right there, half a second behind, and the 430 eventually found a way past, exiting the long left hander in the infield – having taken longer than expected to get by.

“The Panoz had serious straight-line speed and was difficult to pass,” said Mullen. “Once my tyres had warmed up I could challenge. Tom understeered wide and I slipped up the inside.”

Contact with the left rear of the Panoz left LNT surprised that their car finished the race.

Tom Kimber Smith: “I did Mullen off the line and I had enough straight line speed to hold him off on the Oval. He hit me though on three consecutive laps into turn 2. He finally got by me by giving the car a real clout and pushing me wide: he hit so hard that it bent the steering, and after that I was holding the wheel at almost 90 degrees just to keep it in a straight line.”

Tim Mullen admitted to some “rubbing” at the hairpin (turn 2).

Mullen didn’t immediately charge off into the distance, although he did pull out over a second in less than half a lap – as TK-S wondered what damage he’d incurred. Both Mullen and TK-S set their best laps on lap 7, and the Panoz’s was the best of the race, a 1:22.872 against a 1:23.045.

The gap stabilised at around a second or so, only growing to two and then three at the end of laps 12 and 13 – then four and five on the next laps. That was more what we’d expected, although Mullen’s laps were unusually inconsistent towards the end of his 25 lap stint. At the end of it, his margin was just over ten seconds: Tom Kimber-Smith pitted on the same lap.

But passing the timing line, both cars still in pit-lane, the gap was suddenly down to a fraction under four seconds: Chris Niarchos had stalled the Ferrari. A faster out lap for Luke Hines and the gap was 1.8 after one tour from each of them – and then the tussle unfolded, for now, much as it had done towards the end of their first stints on Saturday. The highly consistent Niarchos – every lap between 1:25.6 and 1:26.1 – drew the gap out to five seconds after 32 laps. And then all of a sudden, we had an odd Safety Car period, to remove the RSS GTC Porsche, which had been parked beside the track for at least seven laps.

The SC period became odder when the cars went racing again before they’d all formed up behind the grey Audi. Luke Hines flashed past the timing lime seven-tenths behind Chris Niarchos, having managed to pass the Ginetta – Richard Hollebon had missed a gear – before reaching the line, and grabbed his chance under braking at the Deene Hairpin.

“The Ginetta driver slowed down and put his hand up,” explained Luke Hines, of the re-start.

And the pass at the hairpin? “It was a little tap, nothing reckless. Chris tried hard to defend and drove it very well. It was a great race and the in-car cameras will be great for TV. It’s a shame we haven’t got six or seven cars battling like that.”

Could Niarchos find a way by in the remaining eight laps? He was definitely quicker, but Hines was very determined…

The conversation between them afterwards focused on a move exiting the squiggly section back onto the pit straight, completing lap 34. Niarchos firmly pointed out that Hines was “properly out of order”, the younger man replying to the effect that “I had to win the race. This is the British GT Championship and it’s going to be hard. I want it and I went for it.”

Hines moved across on the Ferrari, contact was made, and the 430 driver had to back out of it.

Niarchos chased furiously after that, but couldn’t find a way by, and so it seemed that each of the GT2 championship challengers had secured a Rockingham win.

The officials then decided to add a second to the Esperante’s race time: any penalty is at their discretion, and one second dropped the Panoz from three-tenths ahead to seven-tenths behind. That leaves the points all square, all four drivers on 45.

GT3 was altogether more clear-cut, with just one twist in the story. The #18 and #20 Lotuses started well back, and although they ran together for much of the race, they weren’t to play a part in the outcome of this one.

Initially it was Barrie Whight in #19 Exige against Jonathan Cocker in the Tech 9 997, and these two were never more than three seconds apart, running in third and fourth overall.

It was Cocker who set the best GT3 lap of the day, a 1:25.505 on lap 3, but Barrie Whight was almost as fast (a 1:25.7 on lap 4, almost matching Kershaw’s Saturday pace). Whight and Kershaw were absolutely thrilled with the pace of their Exige, but Cocker wasn’t a happy chaser: “I could catch the (#19) Lotus pretty easily but every time I got close I was being sprayed with fluid. On the one lap I followed him really close when I braked into turn two I just slid straight on and carried on around the oval.”

The Lotus guys reckoned that it couldn’t have been a significant fluid loss though. Barrie Whight: “There’s no way the car was losing fluid to the extent that Jonny claimed, we had no problems at all. Of course we’re delighted with the win. That was a good example of exactly where the car is in performance terms – that’s where we’re at.”

Whight pitted after 18 laps, and with Kershaw straight into the low 1:26s, he was catching the Porsche even before Leo Machitski got into it. A relatively slow out lap and then laps in 1:30 by Machitski sealed a comfortable GT3 win for the #19 Lotus. Fluid leak or not, the #19 Lotus dominated the second half of the GT3 race, and even had the Safety Car allowed the Porsche to catch up, the result wouldn’t have been in doubt.

Leo Machitski: “The Porsche was very good in qualifying but all in all I much prefer the Aston. It is way more consistent over the race distance. The main reason for being here though was to close the gap (over Blogg and Mackintosh) in the class championship and we’ve achieved that.” Machitski is four points behind (35 – 31).

Gavan Kershaw: “That was a great stint from Baz. The car was perfect when I got in it and in truth that was a reasonably straightforward run. The car is really beginning to show the results of all the hard work so far this season now and it has been very hard work from the whole team. The interest in the car is phenomenal. We have had a huge number of people in the garage this weekend taking a look at the car, taking a look at GT racing. It is looking very good for the future.”

Paul Whight eventually took over from Russell Treasure in the #18 Lotus (after the starting driver had been waved through on his first attempt to pit – at the same time as George Mackintosh), and chased home Sam Blogg’s #20, these two finishing 11th and 12th overall.
MC & GG