The setting for the opening morning of the 2014 British GT Championship couldn’t have been finer at Oulton Park: Glorious sunshine, a packed pitlane and 34 fantastically presented GT cars; and it was a nice touch that the first to cross the line as Practice 1 got underway was the #1 Beechdean Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Jonny Adam and defending champion Andrew Howard.
There were just a couple of amendments to the expected entry list, with Rembert Berg subbing for Humaid Al Masaood in the #17 M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3 and Richie Stanaway doing likewise for Andy Ruhan in the #47 Silverstone auctions AMR Aston Martin GT4. Stanaway and Harry Whale raced to a podium at Donington last year on their one appearance of the season, and will be hoping for similar fortune this coming Monday, despite having to carry an additional 40kg on account of their driver gradings.
After a little bit of shuffling in the opening moments of the first session, Jonny Adam established himself in P1 in the #001, but Matt Bell went quicker in the United Autosports Audi R8 LMS ultra after nine minutes. Phil Keen was at this point second-quickest in the #33 Trackspeed Porsche. Two minutes later, both cars fell behind John Gaw’s PGF-Kinfaun AMR Aston, which stopped the clock at 1:35.829; but this too was just a temporary residency as Adam was soon back ahead, but only by two-tenths.
Bell pitted his Audi after eight laps, but Mark Patterson failed to complete his outlap after battery failure stranded the R8 at Lodge.
This was to be the only casualty of the session.
GT4 was headed by Gavan Kershaw in the #77 ISSY Racing Lotus Evora in the early stages, before Dan Cammish took the #44 Team Parker Porsche into the class lead.
Richard Lyons may do most of his racing in Japan, but this didn’t prevent him from lapping Oulton Park at 1:35.746 a third of the way through the session to go second in the #29 AF Corse Ferrari 458. Sir Chris Hoy, meanwhile, had just begun his British GT career after taking over the #80 RJN Nissan from Alex Buncombe and proceeded to lap consistently as he worked his way up to and past the 1:40 barrier.
Several cars made gains in the next few minutes, including the #4 Oman Racing Team Aston of Michael Caine and the #40 IDL-CWS Ginetta G55 GT3 of Tom Sharp – which both went P6 in quick succession – but a 1:35.511 from Luke Hines took the #888 BMW to the top of the screens. A couple of minutes later, however, his time had been removed from the screen and the Z4 was to be found further down the page; “I did the time, but was then adjudged to have crossed the line on my next lap, which was my in-lap, so they took my fastest time away,” said Hines. “I wasn’t very happy, because I’ve seen others do the same thing without penalty, but it’s only vanity at the end of the day.”
As the session entered its final 15 minutes, Jake Giddings took the #407 GT4 Beechdean Aston into second in class with a 1:45.440, but was bettered by Devon Modell in the #49 TF Sport Aston, who went P1 with a 1:44.878. Even more of a surprise, however, was a 1:35.630 for John Hartshorne in the #5 Oman Aston, although it later turned out to have been Rory Butcher behind the wheel; a very good effort from the Scottish youngster.
90 minutes later, the second session got underway, but this would prove to be a more dramatic hour.
Things started well enough – Rob Barff setting the early pace in the #18 FF Corse Ferrari 458, before Jonny Adam regained P1 in the #001 Aston – and the first 15 minutes went by without dramas. The Audi was back out, although clearly still not happy, while Jake Giddings was back at the top of GT4 in the #407 Vantage, suggesting another good session for the Prodrive-built cars was on the cards.
With 18 minutes gone, however, the red flags were out for the first time after a coming together resulted in the Preci-Spark McLaren finding the Lodge Corner gravel, while the #40 Ginetta of Colin White entered the pitlane in smokey fashion and with front-end damage.
The McLaren was recovered and the session resumed after six minutes, although neither car involved would take further part.
The resumption saw several quick improvements, with the #17 M-Sport Bentley improving to third and then second, while Marco Attard was going well in the #79 Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 and up to seventh with a 1:36.313. GT4 was similarly changing, with Dan Cammish going quick in the Parker Porsche, before Bradley Ellis went quicker still in the stablemate Ginetta.
Back to GT3 and Aaron Scott took the #13 AF Corse to third with a 1:35.863, but Joe Osborne was quicker still in the #8 888 BMW and Purple, Green, Green sectors saw him set a 1:35.346 to go top; and then he went quicker on the next lap to set the bar at 1:35.248.
At this point, the two 888 cars were topping and tailing the timing screens, with the #888 in 34th position after sitting out the first 40 minutes after a radiator needed to be changed. Derek Johnston did a few exploratory laps before Hines came back out again to bang in a 1:35.677, which was 10th quickest.
Alexander Sims had taken over the Ecosse BMW and was the latest to be splashing colour across the timing screen, moving up to second with a 1:35.522; but the Astons hadn’t gone away and Rory Butcher – “Of course he’s quick; that’s why we brought him in,” said David Bartrum – again impressed with a 1:35.471 to usurp the BMW factory driver.
John Gaw, meanwhile, went sixth in his own Aston.
But as the session neared its end, Jody Firth in the #12 Trackspeed Porsche had an off at the far end of the circuit and ended up backed onto the tyre wall. Firth was unhurt, but suddenly the recovery team were faced with Lee Mowle’s #8 BMW hurtling towards it and the resulting collision was a biggie. “I saw the Porsche in the tyre wall and radioed back to the team to see if I should come in, but they said to stay out until the red flags were shown,” said Mowle.
“Next time around there were no yellows so I kept my foot in, but I put a put a wheel on the grass and found myself going sideways towards the Porsche. It’s done the chassis on both cars – I’m okay, but have sore ribs. I don’t know why they didn’t just red-flag it!”
The loss of two cars in such seemingly unnecessary fashion was a huge shame and meant that we wouldn’t have a capacity grid after all on the Monday. 888 were definitely out, but it may yet be possible for Trackspeed’s third car to be wheeled out; we awaited developments on that one.
Things were rather more positive over at the Rosso Verde garage, where Benny Simonsen had set a 1:36.088 to finish 15th on the combined times. This may not sound too impressive, but it was; “It’s pretty much my first time in the car and my first time here for a long time,” said the Dane.
“I’m comfortable in the car and I’m confident that there’s a bit more to come.” To be under a second off the pace after such a time away from racing is quite an achievement.
Steve Tandy was similarly content after his morning’s work in the Generation Bentley Continental; “The car had electrical issues at the Media Day that scuppered us, but we managed to take part in a general test at Snetterton last week.
“That’s all the running we’ve done before today, so I’m happy with how things have gone; I went quicker this morning than I did in the BMW here last year, so I can’t complain.” The car’s fastest time of 1:37.043 was set by James Appleby.
Gavan Kershaw, meanwhile, took the Lotus from 12th to second before the second red flag was shown, and this was enough to also secure second in the combined times.
The two qualifying sessions would be next up, beginning at 16:40.
MH
