For the majority of the running, the winner of Sunday’s Aston Martin GT Centenary Race at Brands Hatch was never really in doubt.
Running their Vantage in derestricted GT Open specification, the Italian Villois Racing team were enjoying an approximately 70bhp power advantage over the GT3-spec cars of their rivals. But there was a glimmer of hope for Aston Martin Racing MD John Gaw, who was sitting second as the race wound down.
Several cars, including the leader, had to serve drive-through penalties for failing to respect flags. This brought the gap between first and second from the 20-plus seconds it had stood at for much of the race down to just five seconds with less than 10 minutes to go. With the bit between his teeth, Gaw attacked the Brands GP circuit’s kerbs with abandon, but a mistake at Hawthorns on the final lap meant the Villois pairing of Alvaro Barba-Lopez and Massimiliano Wiser’s victory was secure.
The duo had started the race from pole, while behind them at the start Richard Abra got the Barwell-run Vantage up a place to second, ahead of Javier Morcillo’s similar #77 machine. Fifth-place Andy Schulz got himself noticed in the opening laps by hanging on to and then passing Johnny Cocker – reunited with Paul Drayson and the 2007 biofuel-powered DBRS9 this weekend.
In quick succession, Rob Nimkoff in the #66 GT4 car, Adrian Wilmott in the #32 GT3 machine and Richard Taffinder in the #56 Hills Racing GT4 entry were all in the pitlane with mechanical issues, while out on track, Andrew Howard got past Gaw’s co-driver Phil Dryburgh. That would the last bright spot in the #99 Beechdean car’s race, however – multiple pit visits to cure a radiator leak sending it tumbling down the order as the 100-minute clock ticked down.
Morcillo did not let Abra get away for the duration of the first stint, but it was fourth-place Schulz behind them who was the first of the frontrunners to pit, along with fifth-place Cocker, on lap 20. The battling second and third-place runners came in next lap. Drayson took over the DBRS9 from Cocker, but immediately lost a place to Gaw due to an apparent intermittent mechanical problem.
Mark Poole, having taken over the Barwell Aston from Abra, was still only a tenth behind Morcillo’s car, now being driven by its owner Paul White. Poole’s charge was interrupted when an errant backmarker exiting the pits forced him off the track at Paddock Hill, blocking up the GT3 car’s radiators with grass. A quick pit stop to clear the debris saw the Schulz/Mark Bailey car move to third overall, but minutes later Gaw charged past both Poole and Bailey with a very aggressive run through Paddock Hill and Druids, moving from fifth to third in a couple of corners.
The leading #100 car’s second pit stop saw it temporarily drop to sixth place, while out on track Gaw put himself in the strongest possible position for the race’s final stint by taking chunks out of the gap to second-place White as their second stops approached. Gaw stayed in the car for the last part of the race, but Mark Poole handed the Barwell Vantage back to Richard Abra and White yielded to Morcillo once more.
As the laps wound down, a drive-through penalty for a too-short pitstop put Morcillo down to fourth from second, setting the stage for Gaw’s dramatic pursuit of Barba in the final few laps. Morcillo didn’t give up, however, and crossed the line just tenths behind Abra, who bagged the final overall podium position, despite Gaw having closed the gap to a single second, a fumble in the closing laps gave the Villois driver the edge he required to sew up the win.
The GT4 contest belonged to one man: former British GT champion Calum Lockie. His co-driver Kevin Norville drove a clean and consistent first stint in the #27 Track-club.com car, but it was still outside the class top five when Lockie took over at the stop. In fact it was 14th in class.
A series of misfortunes had hit the earlier class leaders, in the form of a drive-through penalty for the long term leading #68 Arscott/Ellis car and an off at Stirlings for Saturday’s GT4 race winners Mantello/Bouche, but even without those upsets it’s unlikely either pairing would have been able to live with Lockie’s pace.
Tom Onslow-Cole drove another strong opening stint in the Mardi Gras car, leading the class at times, but once again his co-driver Julian Reddyhough was unable to capitalise in his stint. These problems allowed Andrew Jarman and Angelos Metaxas (Stratton Motorsport) and Richard Meins and Desmond Smail (Mardi Gras) to claim second and third in GT4 at the flag.
SE & GG
