The prospect of a thrilling two hour race through the tree lined swoops of Brands Hatch was somewhat smothered by an early Safety Car deployment which, through no particular fault of the organisers, could have brought an early conclusion to the Championship.
Fine conditions prevailed for the penultimate British GT4 Championship round, but cooler, overcast conditions at the start were in contrast to the better track temperatures during free practice and qualifying. With the two cars ahead of them on the grid due time penalties during their pit-stops, the Twisted Team Parker Ginetta looked confident in third on the grid if they could manage a race without incident and stay in touch with the pace of the Aston Martins.
A clean start saw Ross Wylie lead from pole in the Beechdean Aston Martin as behind second-placed Rick Parfitt came under pressure from Adrian Barwick on the run up to Druids hairpin, the Century car keeping the #46 Ginetta at bay. Out of Graham Hill bend the Twisted car was under pressure from Paul McNeilly, looking feisty in the #48 Fox Motorsport Ginetta. This pressure continued around the woodland Grand Prix loop, but it was Barwick that came to grief early as the field emerged through Clearways, losing it into the gravel trap and beaching the car. A sad outcome in an otherwise up-beat weekend and probably the end of their championship challenge, the car lost all contention as it was recovered.
Andrew Jarman passed Paul McNeilly for second as the #42 Ginetta of Parfitt started to lose touch; the reigning champion bringing the car into the pits soon afterwards with a puncture, rejoining last and two laps adrift.
The order established itself as an Aston 1-2 – Wylie 2s ahead of Jarman – with the field comfortably split behind: #48 McNeilly , #77 Yusuf, #43 Schjerpen, #45 Wyatt, #86 Fletcher, #44 Baxter bringing up the rear.
With The two leading Aston Martins starting to drop the chasing Fox Motorsport Ginetta, Paul McNeilly was coming under pressure from Oz Yusuf’s Lotus.
Jeff Wyatt brought the #45 BMW into the pits after rear impact from Colin White’s GT3 Aston Martin, the BMW a casualty of the GT3 speed differential not for the first time.
Meanwhile Ade Barwick had extricated himself from the gravel and was back in the race, albeit three laps adrift.
With the #407 Beechdean car seeming settled at the front and into an unflustered rhythm, the following five cars were evenly spread, a seven-second gap for each position. Oz Yusuf trailed the #86 Toyota two seconds behind in sixth after being deposed by the #43 Century Motorsport Ginetta of Aleksander Schjerpen and then the steady looking GPRM GT86, albeit in its own class. Barrie Baxter’s Team Parker Porsche was the last of the ‘untroubled’ runners.
The Safety Car, being sent out courtesy of the 888 GT3 BMW being stranded on the racing line at Clearways, picked up the leader who was soon to catch and lap the leading #407 Beechdean car, throwing an early one-lap advantage to Ross Wylie as the field compressed. As the race went Green again, second on track behind the GT3 leader was Jarman’s TF Sport Aston.
Adrian Barwick made another exit, backwards onto the grass at the exit of Clark Curve adding further misery to his day and extending the safety car stint. The car rejoined and drove back to its pit just as the pit stop window opened. However, the car was pushed back into its garage.
Wylie was the last car in the Safety Car chain, but followed the TF Sport Aston into the pits early in the pit window to lessen its impending 20 seconds penalty.
The Team Parker Porsche took an early stop to try to hand a reduced disadvantage to Dan Cammish. All other cars made their pit calls and changed drivers, the exception being Parfitt, trying to reduce his deficit, knowing a 10 second penalty was there to add to the delay.
This meant the ‘Invitation’ #86 Toyota led the ‘GT4’ field for the first time. This wasn’t to last however as the car did finally pit, Stefan Hodgetts taking the wheel for a racing lap for the first time.
Parfitt finally brought his Century Ginetta in to complete the pit episode. The only beneficiary of the pit cycle was Morten Dons, who claimed third position in the #43 Century G55, 13 seconds behind Modell’s second placed Aston Martin, this now trailing leader Giddings by just shy of 50 seconds.
Bradley Ellis rejoined in the #46 Twisted Team Parker Ginetta, this now effectively a punt for points should anything befall its championship rivals in the final hour.
The positions were:
1. 407 Beechdean Aston Martin
2. 49 TF Sport Aston Martin
3. 43 Century Motorsport
4. 48 Fox Motorsport / Paul McNeilly Ginetta
5. 44 Team Parker Porsche
6. 86 GPRM Toyota
7. 77 ISSY Racing Lotus
8. 42 Century Motorsport Ginetta
9. 46 Twisted Team Parker Ginetta
10. 45 Geoff Steel / Declan Jones BMW
With 45 minutes to go Gav Kershaw’s Lotus made contact with the Armco on the exit of Hawthorns, the car pulling off immediately with left rear suspension damage; race over. The #77 Evora had apparently had some earlier contact and ‘the car just went.’
With things fairly well established at the front, the attention was now on Dan Cammish, who at 12 seconds adrift was starting to catch Jamie Stanley’s #48 Fox Motorsports Ginetta for fourth. Trading times in the 1:36’s, this was a battle that had plenty of time to develop.
Devon Modell wasn’t giving up either, taking four seconds out of Giddings’s lead as the pair traded laps in the 1:36.4’s, a slow lap by Giddings allowing this to reduce further. However, the Beechdean car had plenty in hand with 30 minutes to go. “It was all over after the safety car,” said Modell. “I’d pushed hard and caught half the lap back up, but couldn’t do much more from that position.”
Andrew Jarman: “It was all set to be a really good race, and we probably would have come out ahead after the stop – we had no penalty – so it’s frustrating. For everyone that’s come to watch a race, GT3 and GT4, they want to see cars racing. We’ve got sponsors here and I have to explain our result was down to a stewards’ decision. I know that’s racing but it’s disappointing that it’s not only spoiled a race but it’s probably ended our championship run too. We knew as long as we could stay close to Beechdean we could go past them.”
Further back, Jamie Stanley had responded to the challenge from Dan Cammish, finding consistency to keep the Porsche some 12 seconds away in fifth, the #48 Ginetta visibly strong as it pressed on to extend this to 16 seconds, Cammish also having to contend with traffic and picking up a warning for exceeding track limits.
With 15 minutes to go Tom Oliphant found himself ahead of the #86 Toyota, which had made an additional pit call for tyres to hand over sixth place on the road.
Meanwhile Jake Giddings was amusing himself at the front by posting fastest lap of the race, a 1:35.329, and had extended the Beechdean Aston Martin’s lead to 57 seconds from the TF Sport car as the chequered flag fell:
“It was a bit of a lonely one”, said Giddings, “But we couldn’t have asked for a better weekend.
“They asked me to back it off and be sensible, but the more conservatively I drove, the more I felt I was at risk of lapsing into a mistake with the power I was getting. We did some testing earlier on and have learned a lot about the tyres specifically for these last two events. We’ve also put in a bit of time on the simulator to familiarise ourselves with the circuits too, which is all useful.
“We have a nice safety blanket for the last round, so even if we have a nightmare we’ve only got to aim for eighth which makes it all a bit easier, but you just never know what can happen with this.”
Jamie Stanley however, would be delighted with the third podium step. Morten Dons had lost two places in the closing laps with a broken front left wishbone. The Fox Motorsport pairing of Stanley and McNeilly had looked in control all weekend, the #48 Ginetta’s third place well deserved.
Jamie Stanley: “My stint was hard work. We only took rear tyres to try to hang on to some time. It wasn’t that we didn’t have the pace – that was there – but every time I made a step forward I seemed to get held up or would have to accommodate a Ferrari or something. It wasn’t an issue with quality of driving on their part, just the regularity of the GT3s closing in. I seemed to take a step forward but then get knocked back. With the #43 Ginetta I was getting a bit panicky and I thought, ‘that’s it, I’m running out of time and I’m never going to catch him,’ but then they had a problem and dropped back.
“We were always going to take some time to get the package right, it’s been hard work all year for everyone involved. So this is more than our reward, it’s theirs.”
As the Championship heads towards the final round at Donington, it looks to be going Wylie and Giddings’ way; eighth or better will take the GT4 driver’s title. The teams’ championship could yet be harder fought but this too looks well within reach.
Martin Little
