It’s sunny and dry here at Donington, warming up nicely despite a slight southerly breeze. Conditions were good for morning warm up, this set to continue for the race, due to get underway at 13:20.
Warm up went fairly cleanly, the only noticeable issue a fluid leak for the #44 Optimum Motorsport Ginetta which was brought in early by Rick Parfitt Jnr.
The pole sitting BMW Z4 of Lee Mowle and Joe Osborne was out briefly, Joe seemingly a little underwhelmed that his co-driver had used rather too many tyres in setting his pole time, but otherwise happy with the car’s pace and reporting no issues this morning; “It’s great to be on pole, everything having come together here. Lee went out in the warm up, did a few laps and brought it back in. The car is fine and we have nothing to lose in the race really so we’re well up for it – I’ve had a couple of people come up to me this morning and remind me there’s a championship on.”
There’s a feeling of last day of term around the paddock, but all nevertheless aware of what’s at stake today. Will Beechdean AMR run steadily and defensively from fifth on the grid, or will they have to fight the Ecurie Ecosse #79 BMW Z4 all the way to the title? As well as the pole sitting 888 Optimum car the Trackspeed Porsches are there to mix things up potentially, the drivers championship wide open.
Lee Penn, Race Engineer #33 Trackspeed Porsche: “Donington is probably the least abrasive circuit of the year on tyres, so we can expect a reliable race pace. The Porsche has a 10 kilos BoP penalty for this race, which means the tyre degradation goes up as well as pad wear, but it would be good to maintain a steady position. We’ve suffered a bit this year with consistency; losing good track position and then having to make it up again, but we’ve always managed to make up ground. There’s no real strategy to support the 31 car, which will have a 20 second pit penalty, but we expect a strong performance and we’ll see where it takes us.”
Brad Ellis, Twisted Team Parker Ginetta G50: “Team Parker is a Caterham team originally, Twisted being our sponsor. We are here to test the water before we commit to a full season next year. We’re on pole in GT4 at our first attempt, nine-tenths faster than anyone else, so obviously we’re pretty happy. We were P4 in the damp in Free Practice 1, then in Free Practice 2 we didn’t gain. We knew what to do to improve the car, put on new tyres, did a couple of laps and did the time. We just had a shakedown before this event and Ade had done a couple of test runs but that was pretty much it. Looking at the data the apex speeds at Redgate and Coppice are similar to GT3, they just get into the corner quicker and their getaway is obviously faster, but the GT4 car is good. We’re not here to score points this weekend and it would be silly for the other GT4’s to try to race us, but we’re in at the deep end with a two hour race and we’d just like a clean run.”
Mike Simpson, Team LNT Ginetta GT3: “We’ve got a 5mm increase in ride height unfortunately. Apparently we looked too quick in Practice 1 and this hurts us a bit. Out of eight manufacturers we are at the bottom, even though 9 out of the 32 cars on the grid are Ginettas and this is a massive support to the championship. All we want is a chance to compete. We still have good race pace though and are quite light on the tyres. If we can string a few good laps together we could do well. The Ginetta has good mechanical grip and we can manage the tyres as everyone else is losing their rubber. We’ve seen how we can push towards the end of the stint and gain in the last 20 minutes while everyone else starts to struggle.”
Rob Smith, Team LNT Ginetta GT3: “At Zandvoort the car wasn’t quite right, but here it seems totally planted. We’re very confident.”
Luke Hines, MTECH Ginetta GT3: “We’re starting from 19th, so we’ve got everything to gain. We’re really fired up for it. I’ve had about twenty other drivers coming up to me today and asking me to cool it..!”
Richard Westbrook, #32 Trackspeed Porsche: “Gregor is going well and feeling happy. If we can get through the opening stint without any dramas I am confident we can put in a strong run and deliver a good result. Whether we have to support the David and Nick remains to be seen.”
Martin Little
