THEIR SECOND BRITISH GT WIN
The young lions of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship, 17-year-old Daniel Brown and his 24-year-old team-mate Stuart Hall, made it two out of two at Oulton Park yesterday afternoon (Mon), their Momo Mosler following up its Saturday win with another resounding race victory in round two.
On Saturday the new Rollcentre Racing pairing, one of the youngest ever seen in the series, led all the way. Today they had to play second fiddle to the Allan Simonsen/Hector Lester Ferrari for the first half of the one-hour race. Dane Simonsen was the early leader, the Rosso Verde team driver overhauling pole man Hall at the start and hanging on in front all the way to the mid-race pit stops.
"I had no brakes at the first corner," said Hall. "We had no time to bed in the new pads during the pre-race warm-up, so stopping proved a big problem."
Hall chased Simonsen for all he was worth thereafter, keeping the Ferrari's advantage down to less than a second before pitting to hand over to his younger team-mate. Brown completed his first lap at the wheel of the Mosler 2.8 seconds behind the Ferrari, now in the hands of veteran Ulsterman Hector Lester, and was just sizing him up for a passing manoeuvre when Lester spun away his lead at Old Hall Corner. His only real rival for victory out of the way, Brown romped home to a 21-second win.
"I was a bit surprised when Hector went off," said Daniel, "because I hadn't put him under any pressure at that point. But I was also concerned because it might have meant a safety car period and that would have cut my lead."
Brown need not have worried: Lester regained the track with ease, but his grip on a good finish was loosened in the closing laps, first by David Jones, who snatched away second in his Ascari, and then by the Craig Wilkins Viper. Lester had to settle for fourth at the flag.
The GT4 class lead was seized at the start by the Ginetta G50 of Team WFR duo Nigel Moore and Jody Firth. Moore started the race and built a handy lead over the Ginetta of Hunter Abbott, with Firth maintaining the pace during his stint to claim the duo's second successive class win. The Lawrence Tomlinson/Richard Sykes Ginetta took second in GT4, with Sykes awarded the Sunoco Driver of the Weekend award for his efforts at the wheel.
The Easter weekend brought impressive maiden race outings for the KTM X-BOW, driven by Phil Keen and Marcus Clutton, which claimed unopposed victories in the new Super Sport class and enjoyed good battles with several of the GT4 runners.
Avon Tyres British GT ChampionshipProvisional results round 2Oulton Park 13/4/200935 laps / 94.22 miles
1 GT3 Mosler MT900, Daniel Brown/Stuart Hall 1h 01m 12.834s / 92.35mph2 GT3 Ascari KZR1, David Jones/Godfrey Jones +21.860s3 GT3 Dodge Viper, Craig Wilkins/Aaron Scott +24.491s4 GT3 Ferrari 430, Hector Lester/Allan Simonsen +33.101s5 GT3 Ferrari 430, Duncan Cameron/Matt Griffin +1m 02.845s6 GT3 Ferrari 430, Chris Hyman/Paul Warren +1m 32.477s7 GT3 Aston Martin DBRS9, Eddy Renard/Vincent Vosse +1m 37.088s8 GT3 Aston Martin DBRS9, Andrew Howard/Jamie Smyth 34 laps9 GT4 Ginetta G50, Jody Firth/Nigel Moore 33 laps10 GT4 Ginetta G50, Richard Sykes/Lawrence Tomlinson 33 laps11 GT4 Ginetta G50, Gary Simms/Hunter Abbott 33 laps12 GT4 Ginetta G50, Ian Stinton 33 laps13 SS KTM X-BOW, Marcus Clutton/Phil Keen 32 laps14 GT4 Aston Martin N24, Ben de Zille Butler/Richard Jones 32 laps15 GT4 Ginetta G50, Neil Clark 32 laps
Fastest lapsGT3 Hall 1m 40.967s / 95.98mphGT4 Moore 1m 47.594s / 90.07mphSS Keen 1m 52.621s / 86.05mph
Provisional placingsGT31= Hall & Brown 20 points; 3= Jones & Jones 16; 5= Lester & Simonsen 11 etc.GT41= Firth & Moore 20; 3 Stinton 13; 4= Clark, de Zille Butler & Jones 9 etc.Super Sport1= Clutton & Keen 10.
