“We are under no illusion that we’ve been brought here to win,” said a confident Adrian Quaife-Hobbs before qualifying for Round 4 of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship. And whereas this sort of statement usually tempts fate, on this occasion it was justified by a solid performance from the Von Ryan Racing team and its debuting driver crew.
Changing track conditions and safety car interventions contrived to shape the outcome of the longest race on the British GT calendar, but cool heads from the leading teams adapted their strategies and stuck it out in a thrilling three hour run to the flag.
The anticipated drying circuit was not to be, but Andrew Howard made the best of pole position to lead in fully wet conditions through the first sector. The Beechdean principal was under too much pressure from behind though and lost the car into Becketts, spinning the #007 Aston Martin down to the back of the GT3 field with plenty to make up. This left Gilles Vannelet’s #12 VonRyan Racing McLaren 650S leading a pair of BMW Z4’s; Marco Attard’s championship leading Ecurie Ecosse car just in front of Lee Mowle in the Triple Eight Racing machine. These were being chased hard by the two Oman Racing Aston Martins of Ahmad Al Harthy and Liam Griffin in a frantic opening lap.
Jon Minshaw’s Demon Tweeks BMW had a good start from row four of the grid and had pushed through to fifth place, but a charging Liam Griffin quickly took the place away in the #6 Black and Orange liveried Oman Racing Aston Martin. With Alistair Mackinnon’s RAM Racing Mercedes closing in, no doubt keen to build on a strong fourth place showing at Rockingham, these three drivers were hard at it; three abreast on the Wellington Straight and visibly struggling for grip under braking into Brooklands. Resulting contact between the #6 Aston and the #63 BMW was to come under investigation as this three-way battle for fifth continued to be a big spectator distraction.
Ahead of all this Ahmad Al Harthy was certainly dialled in. Having made up a place to third he soon got by Marco Attard for second, outbraking the #1 BMW into Village and then set about reeling in the leading McLaren, its gap 1.8 seconds. Attard had been slower to find some comfort in the tricky conditions and now under pressure from Lee Mowle the two BMW’s almost tangled at Becketts, this quick sector proving to be particularly challenging in the slippery conditions. Mowle avoided contact by taking to the tarmac run-off.
Further back Andrew Jarman returned his TF Sport Aston Martin to the pits for a new right rear tyre, the wheel looking like it had had some impact as the GT3 field found its order. The recovering progress of this car from a lowly position to score points would be one of the unsung successes of the race.
Gilles Vannelet’s lead had rapidly doubled to over four seconds, stretching to ten seconds over the next few laps. Jon Minshaw was also on the move in the #63 Barwell / Demon Tweeks BMW and got stuck in to Lee Mowle, going around the outside of the Triple Eight BMW to take fourth in impressive fashion. With no time to recover the Triple Eight driver was soon under further pressure from Alistair Mackinnon’s RAM Racing Mercedes, Mowle just managing to keep the #30 car at bay. Liam Griffin was now dropping down the order into the clutches of Mark Farmer’s 22GT Aston Martin, which had stealthily sat back from the opening drama and was beginning to show its form.
Jon Minshaw’s progress was the talking point though: getting past Marco Attard for third, the Demon Tweeks Barwell package was looking rather confident…
After a steady showing in qualifying, Ian Loggie’s Team Parker Audi R8 had been dropping down the order having started eighth, but was now parked with a mechanical issue and into retirement. This brought out waved yellow flags, which appeared to catch out Gary Eastwood as he passed a slower car under the local caution, drawing interest from the stewards. That was to be the least of his worries though as Derek Johnston span his TF Sport Aston Martin in front of the Ferrari, the #17 Aston having sustained heavy frontal damage. Eastwood was the innocent casualty in this, having no way of avoiding the incident. As the leaders started to pit under the resulting Safety Car deployment, left front damage for the #18 FF Corse car meant retirement.
Gilles Vannelet was first in under the Safety Car, handing the #12 McLaren over to Adrian Quaife-Hobbs. He was quickly followed by Al Harthy from second, Dan Lloyd taking the wheel of the #2 Oman Racing car. Lee Mowle followed suit to give the #888 Z4 to Joe Osborne, this the first move of what was to be a beneficial strategy as the race played out. All cars stayed on wet tyres, the conditions still some way from slicks. Through all this Mark Farmer and David Ashburn had stayed out, the #11 22GT Racing Aston Martin now leading on the road. Quaife-Hobbs, Lloyd, Keen, Sims and now Adam in the recovering Beechdean Aston were behind after their stops. Andrew Howard had clawed the #007 car back through the field and a good stop had now placed his Aston Martin seventh with Jonny Adam aboard, the safety car further compressing the field.
Mark Farmer pitted late in the 22GT Aston having gained a decent enough advantage to maintain his lead and allowing him to consider the improving conditions. Interestingly, the #17 Aston Martin took on slicks – only the second car in the entire field to do so, a gamble with the time left under the safety car on the drying track as other teams debated the options. Phil Keen had taken over the #63 Demon Tweeks BMW, but handed it back to Minshaw after only 2 laps under the safety car: perhaps a change of strategy to allow Pro driver Keen more track time later in dry conditions, which were now just beginning to show.
Joe Osborne’s Triple Eight BMW had also been in again to hand back to Lee Mowle and put on slicks too, this short stint being part of their strategy to fulfil their mandatory stops and allow Osborne back in the car for an extended run to the end. The #12 McLaren’s strategy was intriguingly similar as Gilles Vannelet climbed back aboard the VonRyan Racing car, Adrian Quaife-Hobbs having spent less than 20 minutes behind the wheel under the safety car.
After running at the back of the GT3 field this left David Ashburn’s Trackspeed Porsche leading on the road, having stayed out during the entire pit cycle. The ‘997 GT3 was soon overtaken by Jonny Adam’s Beechdean Aston Martin however as the safety car came in and the race resumed. At the restart Rory Butcher ran his Aston Martin wide at Copse under pressure from Lewis Plato, losing third to the RAM Racing Mercedes. Ashburn then finally pitted and seemed keen to demonstrate consistency in missing his pit box, stopping opposite the Oman Racing garages and being waved on, rather ironically by the now Oman Racing Team Principle, David Bartrum. Any clever strategy that may have been at play from Trackspeed was thereby spoiled.
With Jon Barnes’ Aston Martin having just lapped the currently seventh placed BMW of Marco Attard, Jody Fannin’s notably improving TF Sport Aston Martin was also closing in on the 2014 Champion for position. This was to be a very close battle until the Aston Martin got the move sorted into Vale.
Still looking strong was the now second placed #63 Demon Tweeks / Barwell BMW, Jon Minshaw lapping slightly off the pace, still on wets, but not significantly enough to present a problem. Though being caught by Al Harthy’s Oman Racing Aston Martin the Barwell team had made its mandatory stops – two being under the safety car with minimal loss – and was stretching Minshaw’s stint as far as they could to try to effect a late driver change to their ‘Pro’. As if to underline this train of thought Lee Mowle soon came in to hand over to Joe Osborne, the #888 car now good to the finish as the final cycle of pit calls commenced.
Sadly all the best laid plans were spoiled for Minshaw though, who was tipped into a spin at Becketts by a misplaced challenge from Alistair Mackinnon’s Mercedes. The RAM Racing entry had dropped back after its late driver change and was a lap down in ninth place. There was no point to the move on the BMW; the #63 car picked up a right rear puncture and was brought to the pits. Finding rear suspension damage the Demon Tweeks car was retired through no fault of its own, continuing its poor rake of luck this season. The #30 Mercedes would be black flagged for Mackinnon’s indiscretion.
With just over an hour remaining the leading Aston Martin pitted, Mark Farmer now looking to take the car to the finish. The leader resumed and settled into a 1:32.069 lead from Adrian Quaife-Hobbs aboard the #12 VonRyan McLaren 650S who started laying down consistently fast laps in the 2:03’s and 2:04’s and slicing through traffic. Joe Osborne was making the most of Triple Eight’s strategy in third, just six seconds behind.
Alexander Sims was on a real charge as the circuit started to dry out and his tyres began to come on, firing in a 2:03.713 as fastest lap of the race at that point and a new lap record. The progress of the Ecurie Ecosse BMW was meteoric as the defending champion disposed of those in front of him and hunted down Daniel Lloyd’s #2 Oman Racing Aston, 17 seconds ahead in fourth.
Conditions were still far from perfect though, and with 35 minutes to go a cruel incident befell the leader. Just as things looked like they might be settling down for its first win the #11 Aston Martin was seen strewn on the kerb at the exit of Club corner. It looked as if Mark Farmer had got out of shape on the exit and had been pitched forwards into the concrete wall on the inside, resulting in big frontal damage: Safety Car deployed again.
At the restart Quaife-Hobbs seized his opportunity and got the hammer down to pull a 1.2 second gap at the head of the field, but it was all to play for behind : Joe Osborne had his sights on the win but was under pressure from Dan Lloyd’s Oman Racing Aston Martin, his a 4 second gap now to the charging Alexander Sims in the Barwell / Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4. Andrew Watson was at the helm of the #10 VonRyan McLaren for fifth, having Rory Butcher’s Aston Martin right on his tail. Jonny Adam was hanging on in seventh, only 1.7 seconds away.
Osborne had the bit between his teeth and with 12 minutes to go was holding the gap to the leader at just over a second. Things were really heating up in the late chase for points as Rory Butcher’s Aston Martin pulled quite literally onto the rear of Andrew Watson’s #10 McLaren before forcing past. Behind though Jonny Adam’s Beechdean Aston Martin was on a typical charge, and he too jumped Andrew Watson’s #10 McLaren before overhauling Butcher’s efforts for fifth, setting a new fastest lap of the race in his progress: 2:03.599.
Sims was now third having got side by side with Daniel Lloyd on the Wellington Straight and muscling through into Brooklands. The Aston paid tribute to the move by lightly shunting the BMW as they turned into Luffield, but the pass was done.
Close pressure from Joe Osborne on the leader in traffic on the last lap was not quite enough to get by Quaife-Hobbs, who was able to gap the BMW in the closing stages to deliver a second consecutive win for the McLaren 650S at Silverstone, following its Blancpain Series success here last weekend. A fitting result for the Von Ryan Racing team and its distinguished driver crew, and a new marque to grace the top step of the British GT3 podium.
Adrian Quaife-Hobbs: “Gilles did two amazing stints, which proves the car can be driven by Gentlemen(!), and all it amounted to for me was that I had a strong car behind me towards the end to hold off. I pushed hard when I left the pits and went into the lead and got a five second gap, at which point the team were just telling me to cool it and look after the tyres. And then the safety car came out. The BMW behind me was going really quickly; quicker than what they told me he was in any case, and it was a bit touch and go with the GT4’s towards the end. I didn’t have to take too many risks and all in all it was enough. I did just 20 minutes in the middle of the race behind the safety car – we thought it would only be out for a couple of laps and the longer I stayed out it was getting closer and closer to slick conditions, so in the end we pitted just because we would have lost too much time had we done that in race conditions. The car was great and it’s a fantastic result for the whole team.”
Joe Osborne: “Good strategy today, all down to Keith Cheetham, Triple Eight’s Team Manager. There were a few arguments going on over the radio between me and him regarding whether it was time for slicks but his conviction got us the result today really. I pushed for the win but didn’t quite have the ultimate pace on the used tyre unfortunately. After the restart it showed what we did have and that I could catch the McLaren, but that car is very quick and second is the best we could get. I know he’s a very quick single seater driver, but maybe not as experienced in GT’s and I was hoping that maybe I could put him under a bit of pressure through the GT4 cars. But he responded well to everything I could give him and did the job he needed to.
Lee did a mega job; he’s really showing the qualities now of a seasoned GT Am driver. I gave him some pretty difficult decisions today – I threw him out on slicks before anyone else and he coped with it, and he gave me a car I could get today’s result from.”
Alexander Sims: “We did alright in quali but our race pace was probably a bit stronger. The second stint for me was solid and I had a really good race with Dan Lloyd, it was a good fight and all fairly sensible. Just the job really – with a 20 second penalty I wasn’t expecting to be on the podium, but the Safety Car helped us to stay in touch with the Astons and made it all closer. With the first safety car we were a bit cautious whether to change to slicks – we could have done it a bit earlier really; when Marco went out it went green and he was half a lap behind on the safety car chain. But we’re happy with the result which keeps us in the lead of the championship.”
Martin Little
