Sunny, warm conditions delivered a tremendous race for the healthy crowd assembled in the rolling green splendour of arguably Britain’s best race circuit. Following a close qualifying session in similar conditions late on Saturday afternoon, the top ten cars were covered by just over a second. Indeed, with the exception of Dan Brown’s mercurial pole time in the 888 Optimum BMW Z4, 19 GT3 cars were very evenly matched, less than two seconds covering the first to 20th grid slots.
The weekend was of course tinged with some emotion as the assembled grid paid tribute to its fallen hero, Allan Simonsen. A minute’s silence was held, broken by a fanfare of engine revs. All cars carried the Dane’s name beneath their entry numbers and the first row of the grid was left empty as a mark of respect; but the most fitting tribute would be to make the following two hours as exciting as he surely would have wanted.
At the green flag Steve Tandy made the most of pole position to take his 888Optimum BMW into the lead at Paddock Bend, holding this through the hairpin at Druids, under strong pressure from a charging Andrew Howard in the #007 Beechdean Aston Martin. Howard’s early aggression was too much for Tandy, however, as the Aston forced through on the inside to Graham Hill Bend in a frenzied first lap; a glorious spectacle of GT machinery perfectly at home on the twisting rollercoaster of the Brands Hatch GP circuit.
At first it appeared that all cars had made it round cleanly, but the #41 MTECH Ferrari was a pit caller, steering issues signalling the first retirement of the race, while Rembert Berg’s #5 WRT Audi was also in trouble – two new rear tyres needed as a result of an early punt into a gravel trap, losing it seven laps. This would not be the end of its race presence, however. A lap later Phil Dryburgh also dropped his PGF-Kinfaun Aston Martin, ending up 24th after a good start from third on the grid.
A strong start from Mark Poole in the Barwell Aston Martin from sixth was quickly undone by David Ashburn’s #31 Trackspeed Porsche, despite the extra 20 kgs of performance ballast. A lap later an attempt by Mark Patterson’s #25 United Autosports Audi R8 on Gregor Fisken’s Porsche on the entry to the Cooper Straight tapped the Scot into a spin towards the inside barrier.
With no obvious damage the Trackspeed car rejoined at the back of the field. Lee Mowle’s #8 BMW Z4 was also having a go, the second string 888Optimum BMW entry passing both the #33 and #31 Trackspeed Porsches for fourth place. As things started to settle (albeit only slightly) the top five was covered by 1.995s, Howard with a half second advantage which would extend to over a second at ten laps completed.
Gary Eastwood was the next driver on a mission – up to seventh in the #18 FF Corse ‘458, but having to defend hard against a charging Mike Simpson in the LNT Ginetta GT3. The ‘Amateur’ field was putting on a truly fantastic show. Simpson swept through the next four places before bizarrely being hit by a flying door from the #45 Blendini GT4 Ginetta and pitting with radiator damage.
This and the exit of Zoe Wenham’s GT4 Ginetta at Clearways was something of a distraction from the action continuing to build on track. Not least of this was the rapid ascent of the #40 CWS Ginetta G55 through the top ten, Colin White slicing his way up through the field to take a magnificent third into Druids on the eighteenth lap.
Meanwhile, Grégoire Demoustier had found a way of driving around his McLaren’s 75 kilos Silver/Silver ballast and was starting an aggressive assault on the two Trackspeed Porsches, themselves in their own battle with Mark Poole’s Barwell Aston for fifth. This ended badly for John Minshaw’s #33 car, which tangled with the #80 Aston – which had made a clean pass into Druids – and spun down to 11th.
The Preci-Spark McLaren was called in for a drive-through penalty despite the Jones brothers’ protest, allegedly having caused the first lap incident with the retired MTECH Ferrari.
Just before the half hour mark Gary Eastwood’s spirited run came to a premature end – the red #18 Ferrari finding the gravel at Hawthorns and taking the unfortunate Lee Mowle with him.
Both cars were recovered, but the FF Corse 458 would soon be a retirement, while the BMW had lost a lap. More gravel adventures befell the #78 Ecurie Ecosse BMW at Paddock, but Ron Johnson kept it going, this being the prequel to an identical excursion later in the race. Impressive progress was also made by Ahmad Al Harthy’s Motorbase Porsche, having started 20th with 95 kgs of performance ballast to contend with. Colin White meanwhile had made it through to second having taken Steve Tandy’s BMW into Surtees.
With just over thirty minutes gone the top ten was:
1. 007 Beechdean Aston; Howard
2. 40 CWS Ginetta ; White
3. 888 Optimum BMW ; Tandy
4. 79 Ecurie Ecosse BMW; Attard
5. 80 Barwell Aston; Poole
6. 9 Von Ryan McLaren; Demoustier
7. 31 Trackspeed Porsche; Ashburn
8. 1 Motorbase Porsche; Al Harthy
9. 24 United Autosports McLaren; Jody Firth
10. 29 AF Corse Ferrari; Cameron
In GT4 the order was:
1. 44 Optimum Motorsport: Parfitt Jnr.
2. 53 Complete Racing Ginetta; Chaplin
3. 69 APO Sport Ginetta; Osborne
The sole GTC car – Jacques Duyver’s #19 Ferrari was holding station in a steady 20th.
On lap 24 Colin White topped a blistering performance for the CWS Ginetta by catching and passing Andrew Howard for the race lead. But this was short lived as the car had an off at Surtees, dropping to sixth. The Von Ryan McLaren was also on a charge, Gregoire Demoustier having great fun at his first outing at Brands and finding a lot of confidence down the Cooper Straight and into Surtees.
A succession of bold moves into the left-hander carried him up to third position, with the #9 car clearly looking the most sorted of the McLarens despite its additional weight penalty. The same move again overhauled Steve Tandy for second, putting him now just 2.5 seconds off the leader. Within two laps the young Frenchman was right with the #007 Aston and looked to try the same manoeuvre. But Howard knew better, closing the door as the two headed off into the countryside. Their duel raged for two laps before Demoustier finally got the better of the Beechdean car, which soon afterwards stopped as the pit window opened.
Meanwhile there was drama on the Grand Prix loop as Zak Brown’s #23 McLaren blew a rear tyre on the flat out run down to Hawthorns and had a big incident – the rear of the car suffering major and race-ending damage, but with the driver happily exiting without injury.
With many cars now taking to the pits, the lead battle was still on; Demoustier now under pressure from Mark Poole’s Barwell Aston, which had found some space and was able to close in. Behind was the #24 United Autosports McLaren of Jody Firth in third – just 14 seconds off the lead, having started 26th – and the #8 BMW of Ron Johnson in fourth, these being the only cars still to stop.
It was around this time that David Ashburn instigated a bizarre pit episode, coming to a halt at the #19 FF Corse Ferrari’s pit box, almost the full length of the pitlane on from the #31 Trackspeed box at the beginning of the row of garages(!). Chaos ensued in quick succession as the Trackspeed driver failed to realise his error until the black FF Corse car had to avoid him, Jacques Duyver being pulled back by his mechanics, snagging the front bodywork of the misplaced Porsche. As this happened the PGF Kinfaun Aston Martin pitted in its rightful place, blocking the Porsche from behind. Ashburn was clearly frustrated but had no choice but to let his competitors’ pit stops take their course and rejoin the track for another lap before making the driver changeover, losing over three minutes.
The #31 car was later retired having lost drive (the car, not the driver), but had it finished it would have been excluded; the officials handing Ashburn a £500 fine and four points on his race license (and also resulting in the loss of 12 championship points) for inappropriate driving.
Having been given a first class race by any standards before the pit stops by the ‘Am’ field, we now had the pros strapped in – they would be hard pushed to follow what we had just seen.
Duncan Tappy took the helm of the Von Ryan McLaren, just clear at the front after a flawless stop, but was overtaken into Druids by a charging Jonny Adam, regaining the lead for the #007 Beechdean Aston.
So after the stops the race order was:
007 Beechdean Aston – Adam
9 Von Ryan McLaren – Tappy
79 Ecurie Ecosse BMW – Bryant
888 Optimum BMW – Brown
1 Motorbase Porsche – Caine
33 Trackspeed Porsche – Keen
14 Fortec Mercedes – Hetherington
80 Barwell Aston – Abra
24 United Autosports McLaren – Geddie
25 United Autosports Audi – Bell
GT4:
44 Optimum Ginetta – Ratcliffe
69 APO Ginetta – May
53 Complete Racing Ginetta – Wilson
50 Redgate Lifetime Ginetta – Eagling
Things looked good for Jonny Adam, his lead being over seven seconds after just fifteen minutes at the wheel. Dan Brown meanwhile mounted a characteristic charge in his #888 BMW Z4 to catch the battle for second and third between Tappy and Bryant.
Having disposed of Bryant at Surtees he set about Tappy’s McLaren, but Adam was extending his lead to over ten seconds.
Tappy’s defence of Brown allowed other cars to catch up, notably Keen’s Trackspeed Porsche and Hetherington’s Fortec Mercedes SLS.
Both had taken Michael Caine’s #1 Motorbase Porsche, which was starting to fade. Only after the race, however, did the full story come out – the #1 Porsche having suffered a small fire after contact in the first half of the race which also led to exhaust fumes being directed into the cockpit.
Caine carried on to the end despite feeling increasingly sick and recorded his 11th consecutive points-scoring finish. He virtually collapsed after the flag, but was given the all-clear by a doctor after an hour’s rest.
Meanwhile Warren Hughes’s pace had allowed him to unlap himself from the third-placed Olly Bryant. The previously delayed WRT Audi R8 was now circulating quickly and was clearly having fun with the group of cars fighting for second. This proved problematic though as Bryant’s BMW seemed unable to pass the Audi despite waved blue flags. Keen’s Porsche meanwhile took an extra stop with a puncture, taking it out of contention.
With 30 minutes to go Ratcliffe’s lead in GT4 was at 24 seconds, while Dan Eagling was up to third in class. Rick Parfitt Jnr had struggled during his stint with the leading car, having spent much of the previous couple of weeks in hospital with a flare-up of his Crohn’s disease, and was another to end his stint feeling shattered after a heroic effort. Alex Osborne pushed hard to reduce the lead to 17 seconds with 15 minutes to go.
At Clearways, Richard Abra’s Barwell campaign came to an unfortunate end in a GT3 / GT4 Aston Martin tangle with the #53 Complete Racing car of Tom Wilson, both cars rejoining but with the GT3 car soon retiring as a result of damage incurred.
Aaron Scott had moved up to eighth place after a typical charge, the #13 AF Corse machine being the highest placed Ferrari.
Back at the head of the field Duncan Tappy was fiercely resisting the relentless efforts of Dan Brown’s 888 Optimum Z4 for second. Lap after lap Brown’s onslaught was maintained, not helped by a thoroughly established Warren Hughes sitting just behind him, but several laps down; the #5 Team WRT Audi showing what might have been without its early misfortune. However, a minor error by Brown going into Graham Hill Bend was enough to allow Ollie Bryant’s #79 BMW through to third. Adam meanwhile had started to back off at the front as the chequered flag approached. Into the last lap and the fight for second continued, Tappy, Bryant and Brown now nose to tail as they headed off into the Grand Prix loop.
At the flag it was a comfortable win for Jonny Adam and Beechdean, with Tappy claiming an excellent second place for the Von Ryan McLaren.
Bryant took third for Ecurie Ecosse and BMW, while Dan Brown was no doubt disappointed at losing a podium position.
“It was chaotic at the start, but you try to ignore the chaos and see where you are as you come round the following lap,” said Howard. “For me it’s not just about race position, it’s about doing the times and the best stint I can.”
“This makes up for my near win last year,” said Adam. “The car is good and ran consistently today. There was a lot of debris on the track so I had to be careful, but once it settled down after the stops I found myself in a strong position. We are championship leaders now and looking forward to taking that to Zandvoort.”
“It was good fun out there for me – unbelievable actually,” said Demoustier. “I went out intending to do a safety drive with a good car, but I found that I could push and I made the most if it.”
“Greg handed me the car in the lead, it’s a shame I couldn’t keep it there,” said Tappy. “To be honest, I didn’t see Jonny in my mirrors and he caught me napping. But I know if you put the car in the right place here it’s hard to be overtaken. It was hard work though for sure.”
“It was a bit chaotic at the start, but good for us,” said Marco Attard. “I tried to get a smooth run on my stint, trying to move forward and stay in touch with Steve Tandy and Andrew Howard. I kept it together and thought I’d hand it over to Ollie and let him do the work.”
“The pace was good in the car,” said Bryant. “When I took over the car I was able to get onto Jonny initially but couldn’t stay with him. With the back-marker Audi it got a bit complicated. In the fight with Dan it allowed him to get right onto me, but then I got back on to Dan and he dropped his wheel on the exit of the corner and I jumped in.”
Benji Hetherington took fifth in a steady run for the Fortec Mercedes, while the top six was rounded out by Matt Bell’s United Autosports Audi R8, on a day when his McLaren team mates failed to finish; both drivers later claiming that the presence of the WRT Audi had prevented them from any further opportunity to progress.
Ryan Ratcliffe sealed the win for Optimum Motorsports in GT4, continuing his and Rick Parfitt Jr’s championship run, while Alex Osborne held on to second despite coasting across the line in the APO Ginetta. Dan Eagling and Matt Smith ended the day third for Redgate Lifetime Racing.
“That was an interesting race,” said Parfitt. “I was lucky to pull away a bit, but I was really struggling with my strength after only coming out of hospital earlier in the week due to Crohn’s disease.
“Now I have to go away and focus on building up my strength because I think I overestimated exactly what I could achieve. Ryan was superb today, the flying Welshman finished the race in a great way and we have to think about the points now.
“I think we’re in very good stead now for Zandvoort, let’s see where we’re at by Donington.”
Ron Johnson took the Blancpain Gentleman of the Weekend award for his fine efforts in the first half of the race.
So ended a fabulous two hour enduro, the most abiding memory of which has to be the performance of the Amateur drivers.
Next, on to Zandvoort. The teams are excited about the circuit and, given this kind of racing, so should we be too.
Martin Little
