Race 1
In warm and sunny conditions the GT4 field began its rolling start lap for the first of two one-hour sprints and quickly lost one of its number as the #41 Optimum Ginetta slowed around the back of the circuit. The car made it back to the pit lane from where it would start the race, a drive shaft problem being diagnosed later.
At the end of the first lap Yusuf had kept his lead from pole position but with Parfitt right on his tail. The other Century car in the hands of Morten Dons had benefitted from a tardy start from Ross Wylie’s Beechdean Aston Martin, which had slipped to fifth overall; Oli Basey-Fisher also capitalising and improving a place to run fourth in the Academy Motorsport Ginetta.
Andrew Jarman’s TF Sport Aston Martin was in clear air, trailed by Paul McNeilly, Adrian Barwick and Barry Baxter, the ‘old boy network’ enjoying a good scrap as the order settled down. Jade Edwards had the Optimum car going again and trailed a lap back; clearly not the way she intended to start her GT4 campaign.
Parfitt soon had the gap to the lead down to 0.25s and was on a typical charge for glory, showing the Ginetta in the Evora’s mirrors and finally taking the place into Lap 4.
Extending its lead by half a second a lap, the Century Motorsport car was delivering times in the 2:02s and made short work of heading the Evora by over two seconds within a few more tours. Yusuf then started to feel pressure from Morten Dons in the other #43 Century Ginetta, this ahead of Basey-Fisher who in turn had Ross Wylie closing on him rapidly. At the 15 minute mark Parfitt’s lead was up to four seconds. At the back Barrie Baxter’s Team Parker Porsche had been dropped by Jarman, McNeilly and Barwick and was only 10 seconds from the clutches of Jade Edwards’ recovering Ginetta. As Wylie caught Basey-Fisher for fourth, it was Baxter and Edwards that called time and became the first scheduled pit callers.
Wylie and Dons stayed out as everyone else streamed into the pits, the leaders’ stops being the decisive point of the race. The ISSY Racing team not only knew they had winning pace in the car but executed a rapid, sharp stop in 1minute 13 seconds, as opposed to the #42 Ginetta’s 1 minute 27. The Ginetta’s delay dropped it to fourth as the #43 Ginetta and #407 Beechdean Aston Martin settled back in after their stops.
Jake Giddings in the Beechdean Aston Martin was right in the draft of Aleksander Schjerpen’s Ginetta with 15 minutes to go, but Gavan Kershaw in the leading Lotus was now really showing what the car was capable of and extending his lead by two seconds per lap. Schjerpen was pressured into a mistake, allowing both Giddings and Tom Oliphant – now at the helm of the recovering #42 car – through for second and third.
Kershaw’s lead was 10 seconds with just five minutes racing left, and though Giddings was able to halve this before the chequered flag the win never seemed threatened. Oliphant came in third for a long overdue podium and much needed points. Dons stayed fourth ahead of Devon Modell in the TF Sport Aston Martin, from the trio of Ginettas of Bradley Ellis, Jamie Stanley and Matt Nicoll-Jones. The #55 Academy Motorsport entry ran well before the stops but dropped to eighth after a steering rack problem was added to the car’s lengthy list of weekend dramas.
So, after a hugely challenging season so far, the ISSY Racing Lotus Evora delivered a comfortable win and for the moment looked like the car to beat.
“If we’re going to have a change of fortune, this is the place to do it – home turf, family, friends and colleagues here to support us,” Kershaw summed up. “It’s been hard work but hopefully this is the start of things to come.”
Race 2
Gav Kershaw had openly stated he was looking forward to squaring up to Dan Cammish in the second one-hour sprint, but the exciting prospect of a grand contest between the two hot-shoes at the front row of the grid was denied as the Lotus lost power at the start. Cammish led in the Team Parker Porsche as the Lotus fell away, but the heavy GT3 accident which brought out the Red Flag appeared to have thrown a life-line to the troubled Evora, which pitted at the end of its first lap with a misfire.
With the race declared as a full re-start, the locally based team set to work on replacing an exhaust inlet sensor, which was deemed to be the root of the problem. The earlier winner would start from the back of the grid, thus losing track position rather than a whole lap.
There was simultaneous drama for the #42 Century Motorsport Ginetta which was suffering a recurring gear selection problem, this proving the reason for the car’s slow pit stop in Race 1. Both drivers were visibly distressed by the car’s continuing ill fate this year, Tom Oliphant describing the issue to his engineers as “like a juddering, slipping clutch on every gear change.”
Elsewhere, there was a prior casualty in the form of the retired #41 Optimum Ginetta G55. The first race had been troubled by a damaged drive shaft, but the engine then expired three minutes from the end. This being beyond repair, newcomer Jade Edwards was sporting civvies and making the most of the sunshine in the pit lane.
With the Safety Car leading the cars away again some 45 minutes later, there was some confusion regarding re-start positions; certainly with the repaired Lotus at least. Having been wheeled to the back of the grid, Kershaw was seen overtaking cars as the field drove past the pits on its formation lap.
The Lotus led into Turn 1, but the team was immediately summoned to Race Control for an ‘incorrect starting procedure’ – a drive through penalty given. Cammish was tucked right in behind the Lotus as the GT4 field streamed around, Bradley Ellis strong in third, Jake Giddings falling away slightly in fourth. The Lotus duly took to the pits, but immediately dropped right down the order as further issues prevailed. The car would not reappear; a sour end to what had hitherto been a dominant weekend for the #77 entry.
As Cammish’s Porsche lapped in the 2:00’s, pulling a lead of half a second per lap, Jamie Stanley’s Fox Motorsport Ginetta was coming under pressure in fourth place from Matt Nicoll-Jones’s Academy Motorsport G55. The #55 car was warned for exceeding track limits in its pursuit, while all the while mounting a rear guard defence to Tom Oliphant, who had made serious progress through the field; the ailing Century car having had an entire gearbox replaced during the Red Flag period and was turning things around nicely.
This battle was covered by a second. Modell had dropped Schjerpen to last place on the road, both cars starting at the back of the grid, the #49 Aston now starting to show better race pace, just as Andrew Jarman had predicted after qualifying.
Nicoll-Jones had dropped right down the order and was handed a five-second penalty for again exceeding track limits, this to be added on at the end of the race. Jamie Stanley was closing on Jake Giddings in the Beechdean car as the pit window opened.
Devon Modell was the first to pit, handing the TF Sport car on to Andrew Jarman, soon followed by the #43 Ginetta, with Schjerpen handing over to Dons. Cammish and Ellis kept the lead battle going as the rest of the field pitted. Cammish’s efforts would later net him the Mobil 1 Driver of the Weekend trophy.
The #55 Academy Motorsport car was given a further 30 second penalty in addition to its previous five seconds for continued infringement of track limits, effectively putting it out of contention.
After the stops, the ‘Am’ drivers now aboard, the order was Barwick’s Ginetta leading Ross Wylie in the Beechdean Aston, who had taken the #44 Team Parker Porsche in the pits; this now in the hands of Barrie Baxter.
But the Beechdean team was summoned to Race Control – the stop deemed too short – where a Stop/Go penalty was issued.
Jarman had emerged from the stops well, the TF Sport Aston now sitting on the exhaust of Baxter’s Porsche in third. But it was Rick Parfitt Jr in sixth who was again on a charge, setting consistently quick sector times in his chase for the podium and with just over a second covering third to seventh places. Paul McNeilly had an incident that dropped him down the order from fourth and, with Wylie having taken his Stop/Go, Parfitt found himself in third place. The #42 car’s tyres were struggling at this point though and the 2013 champion was lucky to contain an excursion at Turn 1 that would lose him four seconds.
A proper battle was starting to develop at the front with less than ten minutes to go, Barwick holding off Jarman, the gap now under 1.5 seconds, Parfitt was trailing seven seconds away in third, tyres shot, with team mate Dons closing in rapidly. Jarman had disappeared from the order, promoting Wylie back to fourth from Baxter.
As the flag came out it was the Twisted Team Parker Ginetta in the hands of Ade Barwick that took a second consecutive GT4 victory – again, the driver pairing playing to its strengths in running a strong pace and reading the situation without drama.
Dons was within half a second of Parfitt at the flag for the podium positions. Century Motorsport picked up valuable team points – the #42 car also making the save of the race – while also delivering a 1-2-3 finish for the Ginetta G55.
Bradley Ellis: “ I wasn’t sure if I’d done enough on my stint. I think we were lucky in a way that Wylie did a short pit stop. We got held up by a slow moving Ferrari that was released just in front of us going down the pit lane and we lost time there too. But the Aston took its penalty so it came back to us. Ade was very consistent again – we were asking for high 2:03’s and he was doing low 2:04’s, but it was totally consistent and he held the gap to take the win.”
Tom Oliphant: “All credit really has to go to the team. I don’t know how they did it. I went out on our first start and the clutch was all over the place. I couldn’t get any drive and I thought ‘That’s it, our luck returns.’ They worked solid and did an incredible job replacing the gearbox inside 40 minutes – amazing. I think they were tightening the last bolts up as I was moving off! But there was something today that was meant to be I think. A solid drive – we could have finished first but I’m just happy we finished the bloody race!”
Morten Dons: “It’s great to finally get a result, it shows the progress we believe we are making. It would have been great if the race had been fifteen minutes longer because I’m sure we could have challenged for the lead. Obviously I was closing on my team mate so I had to be careful that I didn’t try any silly manoeuvres, and I wasn’t able to find the right gap through.
“This weekend we are really happy with the car. We are still struggling for high speed, but we are working through it. Hopefully we have proved here that the Ginetta can still be competitive and we are looking forward to Spa.”
Martin Little
