How nice it is to report that we should (fingers crossed) have a full grid for the first race at a British GT meeting. The 10-minute Warm-Up session passed off without incident, and with the #17 M-Sport Bentley which ground to a halt in Qualifying on Saturday back out and running well. The only worry was for the United Autosports Audi of Iain Dockerill and Matt Bell, which was second-quickest in Warm-Up but which suffered gear-selection issues. The decision was made to replace the gearbox before the first race, but that meant that a job that would normally take three hours would need to be done in 90 minutes.
The skies were cloudier on Sunday morning than they had been the previous day, but the forecast was good – no rain – and there was a pretty good crowd coming into the circuit as the support races got underway.
Thai AF Corse racer Pasin Lathouras was looking forward to the day ahead; “I’ve only ever raced the Ferrari 458, so I know exactly how wide the car is and I have a lot of confidence in it. All the circuits in Thailand are similar to this one – small and narrow – so I feel right at home.
“The balance on our car is good and Richard (Lyons) of course will do a great job, so I just need to stay out of trouble and give him the car in a decent position. I’m starting from second, so perhaps we can finish a place higher up?”
While details have yet to be announced, DSC gleaned the news from paddock conversations that several extra cars were expected for the Spa-Francorchamps round in July, including a certain Italian team planning to field no fewer than five GT3 cars as drivers take advantage of some extra track time ahead of the 24 Hours later that month. At least 35 cars should be on the grid for the final double-race meeting of the season, which will be supporting the 25H Fun Cup feature race.
Sunday morning quotes:
Jake Giddings (#407 Beechdean Aston GT4): “The start is going to be crucial in the shorter sprint format. In the first race we’re comfortable and in with a good shot if we can keep up with the Lotus. In the second race we’re fifth on the grid, so it depends on how things pan out. The car is not perfectly at home at this circuit but we’ve taken the set-up to where it was at Oulton Park, which worked well for us.”
Matt Nicoll-Jones (#55 Academy Motorsports Ginetta GT4): “We were running the Silverstone engine, which failed in spectacular fashion; no warning, it just went – big time. We ordered a new engine from Ginetta but this couldn’t be fulfilled for various reasons and we only found out at the last minute. So we’ve been sent a loan engine, but that arrived with a number of parts missing. It has been a nightmare really; we fitted the engine on Friday and have done our best to scramble parts together. We only ran it for the first time at the end of the first practice session.
“Then the power steering pump failed, all these parts having been supplied with the engine. But we got out and set a time – it’s not our best but it’s something we can work with, particularly as we carried over a set of scrubbed tyres from the previous race. We’re not fussed about outright pace, but we’ll get out there and go for it. The BOP is slaughtering us at the moment, really affecting us in the get away from the slow corners.”
One final note: Sunday marked the anniversary of the loss of Allan Simonsen at Le Mans, and the circuit would be holding a one-minute silence ahead of Race 1 in honour of the Great Dane.
MH/ML
