“A circuit suits the guys who know how to deal with it,” professed Adam Carroll, having just taken victory with the FF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia in Race One of the 2015 Avon Tyres British GT season.
Though his team’s celebrations were curtailed by a successful post race protest that dropped them to second place, these words were wisely appropriate for a weekend of incident-packed close, dynamic racing that so typically propelled the world’s premier domestic GT series into another exciting season with no loss of momentum whatsoever.
Race One
Pole sitter Liam Griffin led away from the rolling start, his Oman Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 being challenged by the Ferrari 458 of Gary Eastwood who was trying hard for the line into Turn 1 at Old Hall, himself under pressure from 2013 Champion Andrew Howard’s Beechdean Racing Aston Martin.
All three tucked in and got through cleanly as the field compressed through the tricky 90 degree right hander in sequence. The steadiness was never going to last long however, and three cars found the squeeze into the quick left hander at Cascades too much to bear, the #12 Von Ryan Racing McLaren of newcomer Salih Yoluc ending up in the gravel with Mark Farmer’s #11 22 GT Aston Martin and one of the Academy Motorsport GT4 cars, Farmer dragging a front splitter around to the pits and retiring soon after.
The McLaren would make it back to pit lane with no obvious damage but well out of contention, losing two laps before rejoining. The other significant loss of track position was for the RAM Racing Mercedes AMG of Alistair MacKinnon, who had dropped from eighth to fourth after a splendid first qualifying performance.
So, one lap completed, British GT 2015 saw its first Safety Car period… thankfully withdrawn with little time lost. At the green flag the order re-established itself as:
1st, Liam Griffin; Oman Racing Aston Martin, 2nd Gary Eastwood ; AF Corse Ferrari, 3rd Andrew Howard ; Beechdean Aston Martin, 4th Andrew Watson; Von Ryan McLaren, 5th Ahmad Al Harthy; Oman Racing Aston Martin.
Tucked in behind the top five at the restart were two GT3 graduates: Andrew Jarman’s TF Sport Aston Martin, being pressured by Rick Parfitt’s Team LNT Ginetta, then the older guard of Derek Johnston’s TF Sport Aston Martin and Marco Attard in his championship winning Ecurie Ecosse BMW, the Barwell run Z4 having had a somewhat patchy start to its 2015 season.
Griffin had made the best of the restart, putting the hammer down early and pulling an immediate gap at the front. Andrews Watson and Howard were at it for third and the experience of the 2013 drivers champion seemed enough to keep the young pretender at bay for a while. However, the slippery McLaren made it through and set about catching Eastwood’s second place Ferrari. Griffin was making some space in the lead, his advantage up to 1.5 seconds.
Further back, Jon Minshaw (who had been the second of the brace of BMW’s running 10th and 11th) pulled a fastest overall lap out of the bag, the distinctive Demon Tweeks liveried car setting a 1:39.764 and getting an even closer look at the back of his Barwell team mate Marco Attard. But the best fight was for second place, with Andrew Watson’s #10 McLaren now right up with the #18 AF Corse 458 Italia. Gary Eastwood defended cleanly, but had to give best to the scything McLaren, which quickly pulled clear and began to chase down the leader. Eastwood then had to gather himself to fend off Andrew Howard’s Beechdean Aston Martin, which had closed up behind.
Further back it was Rick Parfitt who was making his presence felt in the LNT Ginetta, chasing down the #30 RAM Mercedes to take seventh. The 2013 GT4 champ was bringing his trademark charging style to the GT3 category, though the familiar fight at the front seemed a little way off for the moment. Derek Johnston’s TF Sport Aston Martin had also passed the Mercedes down the pit straight and was running tidily in eighth.
Then, trouble at the front: Andrew Watson was in the tyres at Island Bend. Continuing his charge, the young McLaren driver had closed down on the leader and decided to make a move as he and the #6 Aston Martin came up to pass the slower GT4 Toyota. The move was ambitious at best and didn’t come off, and Watson sat on the tyre wall, head in hands; “I did a couple of good passes to get amongst the leaders but made a mistake challenging for the lead, which was a great shame. I felt really bad for Ross, and for the team who had to do a lot of work to ready the car for the second race.”
This effectively bunched up the field again. Eastwood had caught leader Griffin, but the Oman Racing driver soon got back to work, sticking in a fastest lap of 1:37.773 to extend his lead to over a second. None of these margins were dominant however, the GT3 field quite well grouped; the following eight cars line astern, five different marques represented.
Howard resumed his pressure on Eastwood for second, Liam Griffin getting a warning for exceeding Track Limits as he built the #6 Aston Martin’s lead to 2.8 seconds and started work on the back markers. The following GT3 pack was getting bunched up as it did the same and it was here the controversy started. The #12 Von Ryan McLaren 650S was circulating two laps down in the hands of rookie Salih Yoluc and had been something of an obstacle.
Regrettably it was Andrew Howard who got the worst of this though as he tried to pass the black McLaren, which turned in on him into Hislops despite being heavily blue flagged.
The Beechdean car had nowhere to go and was punted hard into the tyre wall, as Howard later surmised: “I had heard he was two laps down and that he was being warned about traffic, but he still turned in on me. I think it will be very hard to get out for Race Two to be honest. It’s done the front chassis leg and the radiator, so in terms of where we sit with that we’ll struggle.
“What’s interesting is that the front three or four cars are all different yet we’re all showing a similarly good race pace – the Ferrari has great straight line speed but can struggle a bit through the corners, for example, but we know that. And what’s great is with Liam coming into it there’s great racing and still a good standard of racing. The problem is you can’t have people causing that sort of chaos at this level.”
Ahmad Al Harthy, who had made big improvements through the field to run fourth in the #2 Oman Racing Vantage GT3, was also caught up in all this and headed for the pits to retire as the Safety Car was deployed, coinciding with the pit window opening. Griffin and Eastwood were in clear space, with Rick Parfitt now behind having gained an advantage to run third before his stop.
As the field started to make its pit calls, Derek Johnston was seen being walked to the Medical Centre as his TF Sport Aston dropped down the order alongside the two Barwell BMW’s of Marco Attard and Jon Minshaw. Johnston had stayed out and was running fourth on track during the early part of the pit window, but Alistair MacKinnon had tried a move up the inside after Old Hall and into the kink at The Avenue in the #30 RAM Mercedes which, according to the Aston driver, was never going to work: “I turned in as normal on my line not knowing the Mercedes was even there, was pitched into the barrier and bounced down the tyre wall – the car is totalled.”
To add to the carnage, the approaching #1 BMW Z4 of Marco Attard hit the brakes in avoidance of the spinning cars in front, which in turn caught out Jon Minshaw in the #63 sister car right behind, thumping the #1 car in the rear; a busy couple of hours ahead for the Barwell garage.
Adam Carroll had climbed aboard the #18 FF Corse Ferrari and jumped the lead car in the pitlane, Rory Butcher now installed in the #6 Oman Racing Aston Martin. At the green flag it was Carroll that got on an immediate charge to set a new fastest lap. The big surprise though was Joe Osborne’s Triple Eight Racing BMW which had been hauled up the order from the seventh row of the grid by Lee Mowle and had gained under the safety car. With Osborne now aboard, the #888 car set about Rory Butcher, closing the gap by a tenth a lap, eventually taking the #6 car for second.
There were gains and losses caused by the awkwardness of the safety car / yellow flag period, but the order as the race started to settle with the ‘Pros’ aboard was:
1. Carroll / AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia
2. Osborne / Triple Eight Racing BMW Z4
3. Butcher / Oman Racing Aston Martin Vantage
4. Jackson / Oman Racing Aston Martin Vantage
5. Simpson / Team LNT Ginetta GT3
6. Simonsen / Rosso Verde Ferrari 458 Italia
7. Jones / Preci-Spark Mercedes AMG
8. Fannin / TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage
9. Oliphant / Team LNT Ginetta GT3
10. Sims / Barwell Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4.
Godfrey Jones had run as high as sixth in the #22 Preci-Spark Mercedes AMG before Benny Simonsen’s persistence paid off to take the place for the popular Hector Lester / Rosso Verde Ferrari. Jones then lost seventh place by spinning onto the grass at Cascades under pressure from Sims. Team LNT weren’t getting the breaks they needed either despite finding good pace. Tom Oliphant had received a stop / go for overtaking under the Safety Car, spoiling what had otherwise been a challenging but decent run for the #44 Ginetta. Mike Simpson had set a blistering fastest lap for the #32 car, a 1:35.794, having really charged down Mat Jackson’s Aston, but copped the same penalty for the same offence. All of which promoted the #1 Barwell Ecurie Ecosse Z4 to sixth at the flag.
Matt Carroll responded with a fastest lap of 1:35.589 as the AF Corse Ferrari went on to take the chequered flag, the lead battle having closed up in the GT4 traffic.
The back markers were to deal a late blow to Joe Osborne, who lost second place to Rory Butcher in traffic in the closing few minutes.
After the podium celebrations however, an appeal by Oman Racing was upheld by the stewards; the AF Corse car’s exit in the pits was deemed to have blocked the #6 Aston Martin, promoting it to the win. The #18 FF Corse car was classified second.
Post race quotes (prior to the news of the appeal to the stewards):-
Adam Carroll: “Gary handed me over a good car – it’s been going well all weekend to be honest. We qualified well and knew we were in for a good race if we could stay out of trouble – and there was a lot of trouble out there today. But generally we kept our nose clean, we were at the sharp end and that’s really where you need to be to get the result. It’s a narrow track here but you have to know how to use that to your advantage. You tend to create a yo-yo effect; work hard and create a gap, then you can lose it coming up to the slower cars, but it is what it is and it’s the same for everyone. They have to know how to pass as well. If you can control your gaps and know where the car performs you can work that to your advantage.
“It’s tight out there time wise and you can’t just drive away from people. It’s really close; the BOP seems to be working and I hope it stays like that.”
Gary Eastwood: “A lot of pressure, but Liam drove great. I got beside him a couple of times but it was a fair fight and we were having great fun. But the guy in the black McLaren really, genuinely has got to be stopped and taken to learn to drive it. He hit four times in front of me and when I got to him he hit me twice. He took out four or five cars, was two laps behind and would take no notice of blue flags, he just continued racing. He really was absolutely dangerous. These cars are too quick and too expensive to have someone like that out there – I reckon he’s done half a million quid’s worth of damage this weekend.
“But, that said it was a great race and I enjoyed my stint. Adam did an incredible job, the team worked really hard – and the Ferrari did us proud.
“I’ve been getting a lot of one-to-one coaching in with Adam and I feel I have improved. I have experience of these cars on this circuit too which helps. But there’s also an element of trust between us out there. When Andrew Howard was having a pop at me, particularly into Old Hall and at Cascades, it was tough and there are areas where every one of us plays to our individual strengths. You note this and it shows you where you need to improve yourself, but as hard as guys like Andrew are you also know they won’t take stupid risks.”
Liam Griffin: “We were jumped at the pit stops. We went as well as we could and just hoped we could turn it around, but we got a bit held up. There were a lot of blue flags being waved out there that not enough people saw…”
Rory Butcher: “We caught a lot of traffic early in the race, but managed second in the end. I’m really happy with the result this early in the year – the pressure is on the Ferrari right now.”
Joe Osborne: “Obviously when you start P13 it’s a bit frustrating when you’ve hauled the car up and been challenging for the lead to finish third. However, third place is a great reward for Triple Eight, Lee and the team. GT4 traffic? Yes, we know it’s going to be mad this year – there’s lots of them – but I feel a little hard done by; the guy that pulled across the front of me cost me a position in the end. I had to slam on the brakes and Rory’s gone right past. But, swings and roundabouts, hopefully it will happen to the other guys too. In the end the car was fast and in Race Two we’re starting a lot higher up.”
Race Two
Beechdean AMR had worked feverishly to repair their heavily re-modelled Aston Martin against the odds during the two hour intermission, and Jonny Adam promptly presented the #007 car at its pole position. The grid behind showed revisions: the #32 Team LNT Ginetta of Steve Tandy and Mike Simpson had taken a drop to fifth due to a drive through penalty incurred at the end of Race One, while the #30 RAM Mercedes had been judged to have caused an avoidable accident in its lunge up the inside of the #17 Aston Martin, which had long been packed onto the TF Sport truck. Lewis Plato therefore sat at the helm of the Mercedes on the seventh row.
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, depending on one’s perspective), the #12 Von Ryan McLaren had been excluded from the meeting by the stewards because rookie driver Salih Yoluc had been judged to have also ‘caused an avoidable accident’ in the opening race.
Warmer, brighter conditions graced the 2015 British GT3 field as Round Two thundered its way into Old Hall from its rolling start. Adam led cleanly away from pole, with Phil Keen’s BMW taking Adam Carroll’s Ferrari for second into the right hander. But the Ferrari driver soon re-passed the #63 Demon Tweeks Z4, Mike Simpson’s Ginetta following for fourth and Rory Butcher’s Aston Martin up two places in fifth. Joe Osborne had held his grid position in sixth, but probably the biggest loser at the start was Alexander Sims who had dropped from fourth to seventh.
Adam was clearly on a mission, no doubt channelling the frustrations of Race One to put the car into a firm position of advantage. But Tom Oliphant had taken his #44 Ginetta off at Shell Oils corner, bringing out the Safety Car, and though this was only to last a lap as the LNT driver got going again Adam’s early advantage had been negated.
The compressed field got back into its rhythm, the leading Beechdean car able to pull a gap out of just under a second to Adam Carroll’s AF Corse Ferrari. The order behind was unchanged, but Rory Butcher in sixth was coming under pressure from the two Barwell BMW’s.
As the GT3 train came up on the backmarkers Carroll’s Ferrari put a huge move on the Beechdean AMR car that started way back at the exit of Lodge to take the lead into Old Hall, extending this to over a second as the experienced Northern Irish driver made the better job of the slower GT4 cars. Jonny Adam then started to feel Phil Keen’s presence in the #63 Barwell/Team Russia BMW Z4. This excitement was to be spoiled however as Godfrey Jones, running last having pitted with a puncture, pulled across the front of the BMW to put Keen into the barrier at Cascades. The #22 Preci-Spark Mercedes got back to the pits with damage to its rear quarter, the contact under the Stewards’ investigation as the pit window opened.
The #007 Beechdean Aston Martin was first in, Jonny Adam’s loss of performance evidently due to a serious drop off in his tyres. Despite the additional work fitting new rubber Andrew Howard was sent back out in a very tidy turnaround to assume a lead of some margin.
Lee Mowle’s #888 BMW Z4 now sat second on the road after Joe Osborne had pushed the Triple Eight Racing entry hard in clear air as others pitted to present his team mate with a better opportunity. Mowle was starting to leave Steve Tandy behind in third, the #32 Ginetta six seconds back. Marco Attard meanwhile was fronting a tight cluster of cars in Tandy’s mirrors; Gary Eastwood’s Ferrari and Ahmad Al Harthy’s Oman Racing Aston Martin bunching up.
Andrew Jarman was on a bit of a charge too, continuing his steady graduation into GT3 with the Eurostar liveried TF Sport Aston Martin in a lonely but untroubled eighth place.
Then a nine second gap back to the #11 22GT Racing Aston of Mark Farmer, two seconds in front of an interesting dice developing for tenth place between the third string Oman Racing entry of Phil Dryburgh and the Mercedes AMG of Alistair MacKinnon. The sole Von Ryan McLaren of Andrew Watson was having a fairly subdued race all on its own 30 seconds adrift, with Hector Lester’s #21 Ferrari bringing up the rear a further 25 seconds behind.
Marco Attard had caught right up with Steve Tandy again in traffic and was trying hard to wrong foot his familiar adversary: the fight for fourth was great to watch, notably without any silly moves.
Andrew Jarman meanwhile was starting to consider Gary Eastwood’s Ferrari: the seventh place #2 Oman Racing Aston had gone into the pits, Ahmad Al Harthy getting out of the car as mechanics inspected its front end. This meant the #27 TF Sport Vantage had caught and was harrying the FF Corse 458. Jarman had a look into Old Hall, but Eastwood kept the door closed. Things spilled over though as the two made contact through Cascades, the TF Sport car dropping time as a consequence and having to pit with a smoking rear tyre.
At the front Lee Mowle had been trying hard to reduce his deficit to Howard in the lead. Meanwhile their respective team managers were both being summoned to race control, along with a representative of all three Oman Racing cars. This little get together was probably without coffee; its conclusion being the issue of Stop / Go penalties to the two leaders and all three Oman Racing Astons for making short pit stops. With just ten minutes to go the race was being thrown up in the air.
Andrew Howard’s crew got him in immediately to avoid any loss of time to Mowle, who faced the same obligation. This proved to be a slick move, the #007 car having enough in hand: Howard re-took Mowle as the #888 car served its time a lap later, which then rejoined in sixth.
Howard’s lead was over 11 seconds at the chequered flag, a well deserved win testimony to the Beechdean Team’s resilience. Tandy held off Attard to keep second place for the LNT Ginetta, though the 2014 Drivers Champion had clearly found his form again in this race.
Things weren’t over yet though as Gary Eastwood’s #18 Ferrari went missing as the lead cars crossed the line. The AF Corse driver had encountered Hector Lester’s trailing Ferrari on the last lap, which was gasping for fuel. Eastwood had to take avoiding action at Cascades, which on shot tyres forced the car onto the grass through Island bend, allowing Griffin and Mowle through for fourth and fifth.
Andrew Howard: “The guys were unbelievable – not only in getting the car out after the accident but they also had to change all four tyres at the pit stop. How Jonny kept that car going on those in the last four laps of his stint was incredible; we had to do it. I was panicking getting installed in the car and they’ve changed them quicker than I could do my belts – unbelievable.
“The team don’t tell me where I am or what I’m doing; they just tell me whatever they need to keep me on a pace. So if you get a stop/go you just do it and get on with what needs to be done.
Anyway, the younger crew have outshone the older crew today, haven’t they? They finished both races!”
Steve Tandy: “It was a trying weekend for us with no running on Saturday, which certainly compromised my qualifying. Then in Race One I picked up a penalty for a very marginal pass under the safety car. It was only about half a yard on the picture, but rules are rules. That was difficult, as it could have been a fourth place, but we made up for it in Race Two. Mike did an incredible job and proved that the Ginetta is a great car. Towards the end I had Marco behind me, but he’s a fair driver so I knew I could drive from a position of knowing he wasn’t going to do anything stupid on me. I’m really pleased for Lawrence and all the effort he has put in over the winter. He’s given us a decent car and we’re going to go on and do better.”
Mike Simpson: “Three years of hard work has led to this result. I’m so happy I could cry!”
Marco Attard: “Having had a slow start to the weekend we’re pleased to get this result. Alex was on the pace and the car was in good shape when I took it over. There was no pressure from behind, but it was hard work trying to get past Steve.”
Never a dull moment and, quite literally, excitement right up to the last minute. With the opening two races done the GT3 form is starting to reveal itself. Some will have cause for optimism; others could be re-thinking their approach. Intriguing as that is, the Avon Tyres British GT series certainly shows no loss of depth and dynamics as we look forward to the next round, the two hours of Rockingham, in four weeks time.
Martin Little
