If the Snetterton round in June suggested that the ‘Amateur’ half of the British GT driver pairings was growing in stature, last weekend at Brands Hatch was a breakthrough event. The two-hour format gave the ‘Am’ field the opportunity to deliver a race within a race, and deliver it did. For some their race strategy would be to complete the first hour and stay out of trouble to hand the serious business over to their ‘Pro’ partners, but more so now that needs a big dose of speed and maturity to keep their cars in touch with the pace being pushed hard at the front of the field.
While much of the paddock comment surrounds the latest controversy of the Balance of Performance, there is also a clear sense of coaching and development between many driver pairings up and down the garages. It’s not just about sorting the car, but developing the package on track in every sense.
“It’s so important around here to get the power down cleanly in the corners,” explained FF Corse’s Rob Barff. “The Ferrari being mid-engined means it’s difficult to get the weight over the rear wheels. You need traction and grip at every corner of the car of course, but the Avon control tyre throws a different challenge at each circuit. Going through the data and the in-car footage with Gary (Eastwood) just now, there are points on the circuit where he can adjust his approach to get better tyre wear and traction over the course of his stint.”
Whereas the proven package of Andrew Howard and Jonny Adam in the GT3 Beechdean Aston Martin comfortably had the measure of the field on Sunday afternoon to take the win and put them ahead in the Drivers Championship, there were some other notable movers and shakers:
Despite carrying 75kg of ballast to counter the supposed advantage of a Silver / Silver driver pairing, the Von Ryan Racing McLaren MP412C showed pace and performance other campaigners don’t seem to have quite found yet from the same machinery. Grégoire Demoustier’s rapid ascent through the field to lead before the pit stops made exciting viewing, the young French driver clearly finding form and perfecting a particularly slick outbraking manoeuvre over several victims into the left-hander at Surtees. Despite rejoining the race just ahead of the winning Beechdean Aston, Duncan Tappy was quickly overhauled but spent most of the rest of the race comfortably resisting the two BMW Z4’s of Dan Brown and Ollie Bryant to take a convincing second place.
Another head turner was the progress of the CWS GT3 Ginetta. A 12th place finish was no reward for a fabulous charge from 16th on the grid by Colin White to lead the race before a puncture and pitstop penalty dropped him and Tom Sharp down the order.
By rights, both G55s should have led the race, but the Team LNT car of Mike Simpson and the debuting Rob Smith fell victim to a now-famous flying door that cracked the radiator and caused the car’s retirement just as Simpson looked odds-on to take the lead.
The BMW Z4 is establishing itself as one of the most consistent packages now in GT3. Pole position for the 888Optimum entry of Tandy and Brown wasn’t quite the ticket to the win, but the car was never out of contention for the podium before a stumble by Brown in the closing stages of the race; the third step handed to the Ecurie Ecosse Z4 of Attard / Bryant, strengthening their championship standings. A tangle with Gary Eastwood’s Ferrari half way through the first stint dropped Mowle and Osborne’s #8 car down the order after a strong early run, but they still finished 10th, the #79 Barwell BMW of Piers and Ron Johnson just behind.
The Ferrari camp still seems to have some work to do. Sadly missing one of its usual number, the best grid slot was taken by the #18 FF Corse 458 of Eastwood / Barff on Row 6. Good progress was made by Eastwood before ending his day in the gravel at Hawthorns. Jake Rattenbury didn’t even get to drive the MTECH car due to its first lap disagreement with the Preci-Spark McLaren, while Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin’s #29 AF Corse car fell victim to a collision that resulted in a broken splitter, leading to several stops and ultimate retirement; an unfortunate way to end their season. Eighth place for John Dhillon and Aaron Scott in the sister AF Corse ‘458 was a respectable finish after a spirited performance all weekend – best of the Ferraris and a sign of the increasing competitiveness of this pairing.
United Autosports had another ‘one of those weekends’ and seemed still to be chasing the game. Never really on the pace in qualifying, the #24 McLaren of Glynn Geddie and Jody Firth (also having to contend with an extra 75kg) seemed to come alive in the opening half of the race, with Firth making great progress from 28th on the grid to the top six by the pitstop.
Alas, Geddie would get just a handful of laps behind the wheel before an electrical issue forced the car into retirement.
“Jody did an outstanding job so I am really disappointed that we had to retire from the race,” said Geddie. “There was a definite chance of a podium today. To have another electrical failure is just frustrating especially when a podium was within sight.”
Zak Brown’s #23 McLaren didn’t make it that far, a nasty high speed tyre blow-out pitching the MP4-12C heavily into the Armco on the flat-out run down to Hawthorns, leaving the car with hefty rear damage. This left the sturdy #25 Audi R8 of Mark Patterson / Matt Bell to salvage sixth place for the team after a strong second half from Bell to continue their championship push.
So what then of the Porsche contingent? Certainly it could be said that the 20kg performance ballast handed out to all the 997 GT3’s this weekend levelled the playing field to some extent, though both Trackspeed and Motorbase were still quite vocal in their protest (although other teams also suggested that the ride-height break that was also handed to the Porsche negated the effect of the weight increase). The best of the Trackspeed cars still qualified third, however; half a second off the pole time, yet only 6/100ths shy of second.
The #31 crew had clearly adjusted to the penalty better than their team mates – third, ninth and 18th positions being the spread – while the Oman Air Motorbase Porsche sat 20th on the grid with its whopping 95kg ballast. “It’s like having both of us sat in the car,” said Ahmad Al Harthy.
Gregor Fisken would be the first to hit trouble in the #32 car, being knocked onto the grass and down to last place two laps into the race by Mark Patterson’s United Autosports McLaren. It was a difficult recovery from there, but the car fought back for 50 laps before it was retired with exhaust damage from the earlier incident.
The #31 Trackspeed Porsche’s tribulations are well documented elsewhere, but the car ran well in the top 10 until its calamitous pit infringement; the pitlane not being David Ashburn’s favourite place to do business this season. This left the #33 Minshaw / Keen car to pick up the pieces, 13th position being the disappointing conclusion to their eventful race after they too suffered punctures – a couple, in fact.
This race also saw the Minshaw brothers going head-to-head for the first time this season; the #14 Fortec Mercedes SLS of Jason prevailing in the battle for tenth place and going on to better fortune with a fifth-place finish.
Despite the extra 75kg, it was Motorbase who still had the better result, Ahmad Al Harthy delivering one of the star drives of the first half of the race to work his way up through to eighth place from 20th; just 11 seconds off the lead before the pit stops started to cycle. Michael Caine pushed the #1 car typically hard, taking the Porsche up to fifth; unaware of the fumes entering the cockpit from earlier exhaust damage, which later saw him needing medical attention.
Dave Bartrum, Motorbase Team Principal: “The car was on fire. We’d got a whack up the rear, which pressed the bodywork into the exhaust. Michael was getting fumes in the car. He radioed that he was doing well – consistent times and that it was okay – but we could see his times were dropping off. He got straight out of the car after the flag and collapsed in the pit!
“It’s important for us to take any points we can given the weight issues. We’re proud we’re the only car to have scored points in every race.”
Given how the team won the championship last year, that is an interesting comment.
Even though Trackspeed currently lead the Teams Championship by some margin, the GT3 Drivers Championship is still to play for.
In GT4 it was the Optimum Motorsport Ginetta G50 of Ryan Ratcliffe and Rick Parfitt Jnr that took class honours for the third consecutive time after a strong race that saw plenty of incident; Ratcliffe having to turn on the pace after a brave stint from Parfitt Jnr, who was still suffering the after effects of a bad episode of Crohn’s disease for which he had recently been hospitalised. The #44 car seems strong presently and certainly has the better lap times.
But there was also a strong performance from the #69 APO Sport Ginetta G50 of James May and Alex Osborne; the two repeating their 2012 second-place after a full-on push, despite having to carry an additional 40kg of ballast due to their driver gradings.
In fact, their car was a full 190kg heavier than in last year’s race (the G50 being given a 200kg BoP adjustment at the start of the year, later revised down to 150kg), resulting in laptimes about two seconds slower.
Matt Smith’s GT education continues in a positive direction under Dan Eagling’s mentoring, with the Redgate Lifetime Ginetta taking another podium finish…
…while both Century Motorsport and Complete Racing endured a difficult day – both cars separately finding the gravel at Clearways during the race – but did enough to be classified.
Optimum Motorsport leaves Brands leading the GT4 championship after Century Motorsport’s low points-score this weekend (although they, like Motorbase, are the only team in class to have scored points in every race), but the title race is still a long way from being settled.
The current championship standings can be found – here
Martin Little
