From the evidence of the weekend so far, the three-hour race at Silverstone was going to be all about staying out of trouble and managing the tyres; but, as things turned out, strategy would be key to success on this fine June day in Northamptonshire.
The pace car led away the field of 36 – 23 of them comprising the GT3 contingent – bang on the scheduled start time of 14:10, and Andrew Howard approached the lights in pole position four minutes later; the #1 Beechdean AMR Aston Martin Vantage’s 6ltr V12 roaring as red became green. The defending champion – winner of this race in 2013 – won the drag race to the first corner, but the next few moments were to determine the fate of several of his competitors.
As the field rounded Copse for the first time at full pelt, Phil Dryburgh mounted a challenge on the #79 Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 of Marco Attard, opening up a corridor on the inside of the corner. Lee Mowle saw his opportunity and went for the space, but at that moment Dryburgh moved across and the #6 PGF-Kinfaun Aston forced Mowle’s #8 BMW onto the grass. Both cars kept going, but the engine temperature on the Triple Eight car immediately began to rise as a result of grass being sucked into the air-intakes and, for the second race running, the car had to make an unscheduled stop in order for the grass to be scooped out, dropping from fifth to 35th in the process.
Moments after this incident, John Dhillon found himself pointing the wrong way in the Becketts complex after being tapped into a spin. Along the way, the rear end of his #13 AF Corse Ferrari had struck the rear of Jim Geddie’s #24 United Autosports McLaren, ripping the rear wing off the MP4-12C and knocking the 458’s wing out of alignment. The 2011 champion pitted for a new wing, losing almost two laps in the process, while Dhillon continued, but with compromised handling that would hamper he and teammate Aaron Scott throughout the race.
All this left Howard with a lead of almost three seconds after just one lap. Ahmad Al Harthy had avoided the melee and had improved his position by two places to second in the #4 Oman Racing Vantage, albeit with a much slower lap than the leader, while Attard was third, Dryburgh fourth, Jody Firth fifth in the #12 Trackspeed Porsche and Mark Patterson up to sixth in the #23 United Audi. Sir Chris Hoy was seventh (from 11th) in the #80 GT Academy RJN Nissan GT-R, having apparently taken onboard some diabolical advice; “When I was sitting on the grid Bob (Neville) told me to take it easy, have a safe stint and keep the car in one piece. Then Alex (Buncombe) leant in and told me to stay on the inside, go for the gap and commit to the corner. It was like having an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. The devil won, I went for it and it paid off!”
Things settled down considerably on the second lap as the various drivers began the process of consolidating or improving their positions. Al Harthy was able to trim a third of a second off Howard’s advantage by the end of Lap 3, but the leader responded and the gap had risen to 3.232s two laps later. These two had pulled away from the fight for third between Attard (the #79 carrying exhaust damage that would be successfully repaired at the first stop) and Dryburgh, which was soon a four-way contest as Firth and Patterson caught up; the Trackspeed driver taking the #6 Aston for fourth on Lap 7, but with the Scot resisting the South African’s attempts to improve at his expense.
Further back in the field, a motivated Lee Mowle was charging through the field and the #8 Z4 was up to 18th by Lap 9. As he was doing this, the four-way fight for 10th involving the #17 M-Sport Bentley of Rembert Berg, #29 AF Corse Ferrari of Pasin Lathouras, the #888 Triple Eight BMW of Derek Johnston and the #33 Trackspeed Porsche of Jon Minshaw, was finally been resolved in favour of the Thai driver after several entertaining laps.
More importantly, however, the race had a new leader as a result of Howard tripping over the GT4 BMW out of the Becketts complex. Fortunately, the Beechdean Aston was undamaged in the incident, but the time lost was enough to hand the Omani driver a lead of 0.887s at the end of Lap 8. That became 0.444s a lap later as Howard responded, but Al Harthy increased his pace to stretch the gap back out to 0.813s by the end of Lap 10.
The #38 MP Motorsport AMR Aston had already made the first of its three mandatory pitstops by this point, Mark Poole handing over to Richard Abra from ninth place on Lap 8 after taking the gamble that there wouldn’t be a caution period in the first third of the race. Unfortunately for the team that had done so well in the Blancpain race a week earlier on the same circuit, a collision between the #28 Horse Power Racing Aston and the #77 GT4 Lotus on Lap 10 would see Paul Bailey ending his race in the Brooklands gravel with only three wheels attached to his car and the Safety Car summoned to assist with the retrieval process.
Just prior to the caution beginning on Lap 13, Patterson had finally taken fifth place from Dryburgh. but unforeseeable consequences were to follow, as the Aston ran into the back of the Audi at the entrance to the pitlane as both cars headed in on that lap. The force was enough to end the Aston’s race on the spot, while the Audi would undergo lengthy – but ultimately unsuccessful, repairs. This was an unfortunate way to end the race for both cars, and Dryburgh would be handed severe post-race penalties as a result of the incident. “It’s a real shame for us and a real shame for my guests as I think they would have been in for a good show today,” said a crestfallen Matt Bell. “We could have been fighting for the lead if it wasn’t for the crash. I just hope we finally have some luck when we get to Snetterton so I can reward their support with some better results. The championship has gone now, through no fault of our own. We need to treat the remainder of the season as a series of one-off races. If we can just get a little luck I think it could be a lot of fun!”
This incident was all the more unfortunate as both cars stood to gain massively from the decision to pit at that time. Ahmad Al Harthy was immediately summoned into the pits by his team and Michael Caine stood poised to take over; but the Beechdean, Ecurie Ecosse and Trackspeed cars that were next in line opted to stay out and this was the moment that the balance of power swung decisively in favour of the #4. Howard and Attard stopped on the next lap – still under caution – but the slow lap behind the Safety Car had lost each of them a good 50 seconds to the Oman Aston.
Several other cars had also stopped at the earliest opportunity and gained an advantage as a result, but Firth and Mowle stayed out of the pits and were thus in P1 and P2 respectively as the race resumed on Lap 15. It should also be noted that the caution period had been executed flawlessly by the officials.
The order at the restart was 12, 8, 40 (in pits), 4, 33, 18, 29, 888, 17, 1, 79, 5, 80, 22, 38, 21, 30, 26 (in pits), 13 and 24 (in pits).
Firth’s lead over Mowle was just under four seconds at the end of Lap 15, but immediately began to grow at the rate of two seconds per lap. However, Caine was just four seconds further back in third and the Aston passed the BMW on Lap 17; and, with fresh rubber onboard, the gap to the Porsche soon began to shrink.
As the fight for the lead intensified, another significant contender was falling by the wayside. Just prior to the caution period, Gary Eastwood had taken position from the #17 Bentley and #33 Porsche before pitting from 10th to hand over to Rob Barff on Lap 13. This left the #18 FF Corse Ferrari in a strong fifth at the restart, even though Phil Keen had brought the #33 Trackspeed GT3 R back into the race just ahead of the 458. Barff was thus second in a nine-car train of GT3s that had the misfortune to catch the #45 GT4 BMW of BGT newcomer Alain Schlesinger into Becketts on Lap 16. Keen was able to get by successfully, but as Barff went to the outside he found the Frenchman completely off the racing line and the Ferrari was punted off into the grass; rear suspension damage ending its day. Schlesinger – who had already served a drive-through for the earlier incident with Howard – would also suffer at the hands of the stewards after the race, but this was no consolation for the Rockingham victors.
The crippled Ferrari was able to be recovered with the assistance of waved yellows and the Nissan Juke Safety Car held station in the pitlane. Barff’s retirement promoted Alessandro Pier-Guidi to fifth in the #29 Ferrari, but he still had Alexander Sims breathing down his neck in sixth. Jonny Adam was now seventh in the #1 Aston, having passed both Alex Buncombe’s #80 Nissan and Luke Hines’ #888 BMW, while the top 10 was rounded out by the second Oman Racing Aston of Rory Butcher, who had just taken over from Liam Griffin. Within two laps, however, he would lose that place to the #17 Bentley of Steven Kane. Buncombe, meanwhile, got by Hines for eighth on Lap 18, while Kane did the same for ninth on Lap 20.
On Lap 21 Firth finally stopped for the first time – Warren Hughes resuming in 16th place – leaving Caine in the lead. By this time (47 minutes gone) the 2012 Champion was 14 seconds clear of Mowle, who had yet to stop, and a full minute ahead of Keen in third. Sims had managed to find a way past Pier-Guidi and the Ecosse BMW began to erode the three-second advantage held by the Porsche. the Italian’s efforts weren’t being helped by the extra 85kg he was obliged to carry and he lost another place to Adam as the two cars went either side of a GT4 Ginetta along the Hangar Straight. One lap later, Kane caught and passed Buncombe for seventh.
Tom Onslow-Cole had ambitions to break into the top 10 and was making great progress in the Strata21 Vantage that he had received from Paul White. From 16th at the restart, he had risen to 11th by Lap 22 after passing the #22 Preci-Spark McLaren of Godfrey Jones and the MP Aston of Richard Abra. The #38’s Pro driver was, however, nearing the end of his stint, and handed back to Mark Poole after 53 minutes. Tom Sharp was also progressing in the #40 CWS-IDL Ginetta, and took 13th from Jones on Lap 22.
Kane’s progress in the M-Sport Bentley continued with a pass for sixth across the line at the end of Lap 24 at the expense of Pier-Guidi. but it was the fight for third that was the most entertaining, with Sims – now having caught Keen – having to work hard to find a way past and into the podium positions. The BMW poked its nose into several interesting-looking holes, but each time the Porsche would rudely close the door. This allowed Adam to close right up on the duellists and the Beechdean driver was perfectly placed to benefit when Keen’s resistance finally gave way on Lap 27; the BMW going through at the entrance to Club Corner and the Aston following suit at the exit.
By the time Lee Mowle ended his marathon first stint on Lap 33 (74 minutes in), he had been caught and passed by Sims for second. Joe Osborne took over and brought the car back out in 16th, and immediately started pushing. It was difficult to work out what the strategy might be for this car, but it soon became clear that Osborne would soon be driving against a mostly-Am field and Mowle would only have to put in another five minutes or so of driving, so perhaps something could be salvaged from the race after all?
Caine’s lead stood at 45 seconds when he pitted on Lap 41, but although the Ecosse BMW moved up to P1, Ahmad Al Harthy still enjoyed a 37s advantage over Marco Attard when the #79 returned after its second stop on Lap 47. But Attard’s second-place became third a lap later as Osborne went by in the #8 BMW.
Steven Kane had taken third from Phil Keen on Lap 33 (the Porsche pitting on Lap 34) and was about 15 seconds behind Sims when the Bentley made its second stop on Lap 45. Alex Buncombe handed back to Sir Chris Hoy on Lap 41 from fourth, having also passed the #29 Ferrari, while Tom Sharp had the satisfaction of getting the troubled #40 G55 to third before his own stop on Lap 43.
With the latest round of pitstops over, the order on Lap 48 (just over 70 minutes remaining) was: 4, 8, 79, 17, 1, 33, 888, 80, 29, 21, 5, 38, 12, 40, 30, 22, 13 and 26.
As Osborne closed on Al Harthy at the rate of three to four seconds a lap, Attard began to pull out a gap on the fourth-placed Rembert Berg. The Bentley in turn was being caught by Andrew Howard in the #1 Beechdean Aston, although it wouldn’t be until Lap 58 that the position changed. Howard completed his second stint three laps later and his performance this afternoon would later be recognised in the form of the Blancpain Gentleman Trophy.
A problem at the second stop had cost the #5 Oman Racing Aston more than half-a-minute and meant that Liam Griffin found himself back in 13th when he began his second stint. Right ahead of him, though, was the Strata21 Vantage of Paul White and the two were soon locked in combat; Griffin needing seven laps to break down his opponent’s resistance. The Ferrari of Pasin Lathouras was the next car in the GT3 order, but the Thai driver was more than 20 seconds ahead and lapping quicker than both the Oman car behind and the RJN Nissan ahead, and the #29 took back eighth on Lap 52. David Jones took 15th from Jacques Duyver on the same lap.
On Lap 66, Joe Osborne finally passed the #4 Aston for the lead and then immediately pitted. Alas, he was the handed a drive-through for improving his times under yellows – the magnitude of his crime being just one-tenth of a second -and Lee Mowle was obliged to take the penalty before ending his short stint on the next lap. This had the effect of dropping Osborne to 12th when he came back out with 23 minutes remaining.
Two more GT3s had fallen by the wayside as the race entered its denouement – the #40 Ginetta having ended its day in the Copse tyre wall and the #33 Trackspeed Porsche having succumbed to suspension failure. 70 laps were in the bag and Michael Caine led Jonny Adam by 52 seconds. Alexander Sims was third (having had to serve an extra 15 seconds at the final stop on account of second place at Rockingham), 16 seconds further back, while Steven Kane was fourth and nine seconds behind the BMW. The full order was 4, 1, 79, 17, 29, 888, 80, 38, 21, 5, 12, 8, 30 22, 13 and 26.
Barring a caution period or mechanical issue, Caine looked to be home and dry, so the main focus was on the fight for the remaining podium positions. His homophonic counterpart in the Bentley, however, had clearly enjoyed taking the spoils a week earlier and was catching Sims hand-over-fist in the fight for third; the Ulsterman dipping below 2:04 in his efforts.
Sims responded and slowed the rate of decline – simultaneously bringing the Z4 and Continental closer to the second-placed Aston – but the two cars were nose to tail on Lap 78 and it was now a case of Sims making his Z4 very wide on a very wide track.
Kane’s car was clearly the quicker of the two, but Sims was not allowing him the space he needed to press home his advantage. The Bentley looked to have done it into Stowe on Lap 80, but the BMW again closed the door. One lap later, Kane tried the move again and this time looked to have landed it. Again Sims moved across, but this time contact occurred and the BMW was tapped into a spin, allowing the Continental into third. Sims got going, but this was the final minute of the race and there was no opportunity to respond.
Caine had crossed the line when time ran out on the clock, and all he had to do was bring the Aston Martin home; Rory Butcher holding station behind the #4 to crown the second win of 2014 for David Bartrum’s team with a formation finish.
“I’m really happy and proud – you know this is the one you want to win, the Silverstone 500,” said Ahmad Al Harthy. “The team did a great job, everybody really performed well and this is what made us win. Perfect teamwork.
“People flew in from Oman just to watch us race this weekend and it’s great to give them something back and hopefully there’s more to come. The car felt really good and Michael’s stints were good so honestly I’m really proud for the team, you can see how much this means to us especially after Rockingham and to come back and win and show our true pace was amazing.
“We gained an advantage in the first stint and we kept pushing and that what it’s about. We just try to get as many points as possible in every round and so far the only times we’ve been on the podium in British GT are for wins and if we can keep doing that that’s great.”
“A great team effort,” added Michael Caine. “From the minute we got here this weekend everybody has worked for that win and the team’s done a great job.
“We pitted early and then we were quite fast for the next hour and we were good in the traffic also, everything went our way really and it all fell into place today. When I got in the car we had a 46 second lead and I thought I’d push a little bit and see if anyone’s taking any time off of me but they radioed and said that I had a 58 second lead so from that point of view it was great. You never really worry about a Motorbase car not finishing a race; it’s got to be pretty bad luck for something to happen.
“We’re learning every single weekend; the car’s still new to us all really and we needed this win because of what happened to us at Rockingham, but Motorbase have proved again to be top of the tree in what they’ve done this weekend. A fantastic result and great for the people here from Oman, they put a lot of effort into racing to get a result like this at the biggest GT championship event this year.”
“Looking at the podium was quite amusing,” said David Bartrum. “We had Michael and Ahmad up there as current Motorbase drivers and I then looked across at Jonny Adam and Steven Kane – both ex-Motorbase – and it was quite nice to see them all up there together like an old school photo, albeit not a school that you’d want to go to!”
Jonny Adam took second for Beechdean AMR some 56 seconds later, while Kane took third for M-Sport.
“We think we could have been on pace with the Oman Racing Team Aston Martin but we probably lost 40 seconds in the mix of it with the traffic and the safety car,” said Andrew Howard. “They were 50 seconds up the road. It would have been close, but all credit to them for winning. Jonny Adam did really well today. He had a lot of pressure, he’s used to it, but for any driver having Steven Kane and Alexander Sims steaming behind you is real pressure.”
“It’s been almost a perfect week for not only me but Bentley too after Blancpain and British GT here,” said Steven Kane. “We got a good start, but the safety car and going off meant we were lucky to get over it. If we hadn’t had those incidents we could have finished higher, but it is an ‘if’. Sims cut across me in the braking zone. He was going from one side to the other to block me for several laps. He cut across and gave me nowhere to go. It was just one of those races. We need to work on qualifying and hopefully we should perform at Snetterton.”
However, the incident between Kane and Sims was being reviewed by the officials and the news came through after the podium ceremonies that Kane had been deemed to be at fault and had been handed a 30-second penalty, reversing third and fourth.
“I realised on the straights that the Bentley was massively quick,” said Alexander Sims. “I closed the door as much as I could. I felt that I braked late enough for it to be my corner and I didn’t think it was Kane’s corner. I looked in my mirror and thought he had backed out. It was pretty opportunistic of him to overtake there when he wasn’t alongside me.”
Despite the extra ballast, Alessandro Pier-Guidi managed to fend off the Triple Eight BMW of Luke Hines for the final few laps to take fifth in the #29 AF Corse Ferrari, although it was almost a different story after a late-race charge from Alex Buncombe that eradicated a 17-second deficit to Hines’ car.
“The car felt great during my last run,” said Alex. “The tyres didn’t go off like they did on the first stint so I could really push. The guys radioed to tell me I was catching the two cars ahead with 15 minutes of the race to go. I was reeling them in but then came across a slower car on the last lap, which messed up my attack a little. Amazingly, after three hours of racing, all three of us crossed the line very close together. If the race had been three hours and 10 minutes it would have been a very different story!”
“It was a difficult race, I had understeer from early on in my first stint and while the car felt good, I was having to come off the power earlier to get the apexes,” said Hines’ teammate Derek Johnston. “It’s good to get points in the bag though, we’ve now scored in every race this year and we’re very much in contention for the championship. The Triple Eight BMWs went well at Snetterton last year so we’ll hopefully be challenging for a win there.”
After losing out to the Safety Car, it was a case of ‘what-ifs’ for the #38 pairing of Mark Poole and Richard Abra, but eighth place was a fine result in the circumstances. Rory Butcher was ninth, but the final points-scoring position was only resolved on the final lap.
Joe Osborne had been a man very clearly on a mission as he came out for the run to the flag and his pace was blistering as he caught and passed first Warren Hughes in the #12 Trackspeed Porsche and then Tom Onslow-Cole in the #21 Strata21 Aston (which had lost time after a stop/go for a too-short pitstop); the Triple Eight driver setting the fastest lap of the race, 2:03.885, along the way. However, having done all the hard work, a spin on the final lap for the #8 handed 10th back to Onslow-Cole; a moment that summed up Osborne’s and Lee Mowle’s luck this season perfectly.
“For only our second British GT race in the Aston Martin, I’m pleased with a top ten result,” said Tom Onslow-Cole. “It’s not quite the result we had at Rockingham, but things haven’t gone our way this weekend. The Strata21 team has done an outstanding job and I’m confident we can get back to where we were, and even beyond, at the next round.
“It’s a very competitive championship – last year, ten teams went into the final in contention for the title and we hope that this year we can be battling it out among them.”
“We knew Silverstone suited the BMW so we had to make this round pay us some points after bad luck at the first two events,” said Osborne. “Qualifying was good. We made a radical setup change, which was the right thing to do, but with only one fast lap on the tyres it was hard for me to get the best out of the new setup in a short window like that. Similar to last year our race was ruined by another competitor at turn one, lap one, of a three-hour race. We potentially could’ve got back into contention after pitting to clear the grass out from our subsequent off, but we had radio issues and couldn’t pit under the safety car. When I got into the car for the first time I just had to push as hard as possible to see where we could get to. I was pleased to get into the race lead and the fastest lap is more of a reward for the team to display how good they’ve made our car.”
“There’s definitely not a magnet in the car, we’re just unbelievably unlucky this year,” said Mowle. “We should’ve come out of Turn 1 in second and hopefully I could’ve handed the car over to Joe and he’d have gone and done the business as he was phenomenally quick this weekend. What’s nice is he was quicker than the BMW factory driver, and the team had done a cracking job with the car to give it that pace and for me I’d have had to just keep it in the zone to help give us a podium. It’s really frustrating for the entire team that we didn’t even get close to that result. Our luck has got to change at some point and I’d love to get some podiums with Joe before the season is out; he’s brought me along so far, I really want us to win together.”
The final four GT3 finishers were the two AF Corse Aston Martins of Aaron Scott and Charlie Hollings, the Jones-pedalled Preci-Spark McLaren and the guest-entry #26 MB Racing Aston Martin Vantage of Michael Brown and Jamie Wall.
So another race had seen a significant intervention from the Safety Car. But this time it was not a mistake from the officials that decided things, but a perfectly-judged call from the team. The result leaves Attard and Sims still atop the championship standings on 74 points, but with their lead over Howard and Adams reduced to just 1.5 points. Al Harthy and Caine are now third on 70 points.
The next round takes place at Snetterton on June 21/22, with the format reverting to two one-hour races.
Mark Howson
