Two caution periods consumed a large chunk of the second British GT race at Spa on Saturday afternoon, but there were still plenty of notable performances and incidents in the racing that did take place.
A fantastic start from Wolfgang Reip saw the #80 Nissan GT Academy Team RJN GT-R go from third to first in the space of four corners on the opening lap, and not even Alexander Sims could close the gap in the #79 Ecurie Ecosse BMW thereafter. Tom Onslow-Cole had made an equally excellent start to go third – Jonny Adam enduring a nightmare first lap that saw him drop from second to eighth – while Tom Sharp found himself in fourth in the #40 IDL-CWS Ginetta G55 GT3 after starting ninth. Sharp clearly didn’t have the pace of many of the cars behind him, but he was doing a great job of keeping them behind him; while also allowing the top three to break away.
On Lap 5, however, the Ginetta got out of shape on the run up Eau Rouge and the car was into the tyres. The driver was quickly out and unhurt, but the recovery operation would require the intervention of the Safety Car to enable its safe completion.
The caution lasted just a few minutes and Reip made a good restart to hold onto his lead. Although the top three stayed the same, the removal of the gap to fourth suggested that Joe Osborne would soon be challenging TOC for third, but instead he found his mirrors full of blue and white Ferrari as Toni Vilander instead took the fight to the #88 Triple Eight BMW and took fourth within a couple of minutes. Further back, the United Audi of Matt Bell was dropping down the order after being hit from behind by the #3 Ferrari of Benny Simonsen and picking up a puncture.
Several other place changes occurred down the order, before the pit window opened after 25 minutes. The first stopper was Luke Hines, who handed the #888 Triple Eight Z4 over to Derek Johnston, who then proceeded to have an unaided shunt at Malmedy and brought out the Safety Car once more. Again the driver was unhurt, but the car was not.
As the Safety Car came out, the leader and the majority of cars that had not already pitted, headed for the pitlane, leaving the #69 GT4 Porsche as the first car in the queue behind the SC. Sir Chris Hoy came out ahead of Marco Attard and was eventually picked up by the SC with about 15 minutes remaining after a wave-by. The race went green with just seven and a half minutes left and Hoy made an assertive move to keep Attard in his wake. The Olympic hero would have to defend for just three laps and it was clear that the Nissan would not be an easy car to pass. But the lead had changed by the end of the second sector, with Hoy telling SRO’s Andy Stobart later that he had had to give Attard the lead as a result of the pitstop – the details are still unclear as to why this should be. In any event, Attard now led and went on to take the win by about two seconds from Hoy, who was able to celebrate his first BGT podium.
The fight for third went down to the flag, with Lee Mowle in the #88 Z4 being chased down by the #18 FF Corse Ferrari of Gary Eastwood and the #12 Trackspeed Porsche of Jody Firth, who had fought his way up from 11th after the restart. The three arrived at the Bus Stop chicane together and Eastwood made his move; the Ferrari being forced wide before coming back to cross the line third. On top of that, Firth just got the nose of his Porsche ahead to snatch fourth from Mowle.
The Beechdean Aston made quick progress at the restart, but began to fall back again in the final couple of minutes for reasons unknown and was eventually brought back to the pits on the end of a tow rope.
Things were happier for the team in GT4, where Jake Giddings and Ross Wylie took the win in the #47 Aston.
With the #55 Academy Motorsport Ginetta failing to make the grid after its Race 1 retirement, Bradley Ellis in the #46 Twisted Ginetta and Gavan Kershaw in the #77 Lotus were left to fight for the class lead at the start. Kershaw grabbed the lead early on, while Dan Cammish was third in the Team Parker Porsche. Ellis slipped to fourth on Lap 3, as Cammish and Giddings came through.
The order was shaken up by the pitstop penalties from Race 1 and by the second Safety Car, with Giddings able to gain an advantage by being the last to pit. Wylie now led from Oz Yusuf in the Lotus, but the third placed APO Porsche was still behind the SC and a couple of minutes adrift in third. Happily the wave-by allowed the Porsche to catch up by the restart, but less happily a spin for James May cost him several places. He had already lost third to the #49 TF Sport Aston of Andrew Jarman by this point, but the Aston had been handed a stop/go for a pitstop infringement that would also drop it down the order. Thus it was that Wylie took the win from Yusuf, with Rick Parfitt Jr able to grab third in the #42 Century Ginetta.
So with two races to go – Brands Hatch in August and Donington in September – Marco Attard now regains the championship lead in GT3 (points still to be confirmed) and the Beechdean duo retain the lead in GT4, but it’s still all up for grabs.
Full reports on DSC on Monday.
MH
