Saturday evening’s race in the darkness is the final round of the championship, and the overall title will go down to the wire, with the two main protagonists already having sewn-up their respective class standings.
Ian Loggie and Chris Jones top the points table in the Team Parker Porsche 997, and with 155 points notched up, have bagged Class 2 honours, while Class 1 champions-elect, Paul Bailey and Andy Schulz in the Horsepower Racing/Scuderia Vittoria Aston Martin Vantage, are just two points adrift. Both squads will be out for the class win and fastest lap to maximise their status, but the Aston faces some intense class rivalry, and Spanish duo Manuel Cintrano/Javier Morcillo in the Neil Garner-run Mosler MT900R won’t be paying them any favours; it has been an atypically up-and-down year for the Mosler squad, and they will be looking to end the season on a high. Mike Millard will run his venerable Rapier SR2 prototype, with as yet no co-drivers identified, and Class 1 is boosted by a couple of non-scoring invitation entries; Century Motorsport’s Ginetta G55 driven by BGT ace Nathan Freke and Tom Oliphant, and the MacG Racing Ultima, with Jonny MacGregor and Damian Hudes looking to make amends after a non-start at the Silverstone 1000kms.
Class 2 is boosted too, though with some tactical last-minute championship registrations, which the more savvy bean-counting enthusiast will work out is to do with stealing points in the title race. Joining the aforementioned Team Parker Porsche, and the steadily-improving BPM Racing Renault Megane Trophy (with regular Ash Woodman joined by BGT regular Matt Smith for this event) in the points-bagging entries, are the JWB Motorsport Porsche 997 of Cheshire-based Nick Beaumont and Chris Levett (perhaps assisting Cheshire-based Porsche protagonists Loggie and Jones?), and a Horsepower Racing Ferrari 458 Challenge, piloted by Charlie Hollings and that man Schulz again, no doubt expecting to do exactly the opposite. Staying out of the points fight, but no doubt hoping to queer the pitch in race position, are crack father-and-son duo Grahame and Oliver Bryant, bringing their near-classic Marcos Mantis out for an autumn treat.
The Webb brothers, Tom and James, will be absent for this final race, but have clinched the Class 3 crown in the GTS Motorsport BMW M3 GTR. Thus, the class on Saturday will be an invitation-only situation. Benny Simonsen and Nathan Morcom will be driving the Optimum Motorsport Ginetta G50, and the latest batch of Nissan/Playstation GT Academy graduates get their chance on the track in a pair of RJN Nissan 370z machines – Lee Cunningham (USA) partners Germany’s Florian Strauss, while Miguel Faisca from Portugal teams up with Russian Stanislav Aksenov. The quartet will also tackle the preceding Britcar Production Cup race to gain maximum track experience.
Looks like it’s going to be an intriguing two-hours in the darkness.
Steve Wood
