Eighth and 10th help title rivals close in Attard and Sims still lead Drivers’ Championship with one round remaining
Ecurie Ecosse Powered By Black Bull endured its most character building Avon Tyres British GT Championship outing of the season at Snetterton last weekend (August 22/23) but, just like 12 months ago, still heads into Donington Park’s title decider with the fate of this year’s Drivers’ crown very much in its own hands.
Such is the nature of British GT that Marco Attard and Alexander Sims’ remarkably high level of consistency was always likely to dip at some stage of the campaign, and Snetterton’s two one-hour sprint races provided just such an environment on a weekend of contrasting weather conditions.
Eighth and 10th place finishes for the Barwell Motorsport-run BMW Z4 GT3 yielded a total of just five points from across both Sunday’s races as the legendary Scottish squad saw its advantage in the Drivers’ standings cut to just two thanks to the efforts of principal title rivals, Beechdean AMR.
However, Attard and Sims will take some comfort in the knowledge that it was uncharacteristic errors rather than a lack of pace that thwarted their efforts, as well as not having to contend with a pit-stop success penalty – unlike Beechdean AMR – at Donington’s two-hour points-and-a-half finale next month.
Saturday’s two qualifying sessions were a mixed bag, Attard later expressing his disappointment at setting only the ninth fastest time in the Am session before Sims stormed to a commanding Pro pole position by a staggering 0.470s.
The first of Sunday’s two races would be more a case of damage limitation given the team’s 15-second pit-stop success penalty for winning last time out at Brands Hatch. Attard was aboard for the opening dry and sunny stint and had moved the BMW up one place to eighth by the time his 30 minutes were done.
All eyes were then on Sims when he headed back out to mount his customary charge back through the order after dropping a couple of places due to the handicap. And for a time it was vintage Sims, a succession of quick laps helping him make up ground and reel in Mike Simpson’s Ginetta. With 15 minutes remaining the BMW made its move at the Esses, but as Simpson covered his line the pair made light contact before the Z4 escaped en route to an eventual sixth place.
The incident would have repercussions, however, when race stewards deemed Sims to have made avoidable contact. With no time to serve a drive-through penalty 30 seconds was instead added to the car’s race time, thus dropping it to eighth in the final classification. The day’s second race couldn’t have been more of a contrast in terms of weather conditions, the warm and sunny blue skies replaced by dark clouds and steadily worsening rain. It would prove an ominous sign for Ecurie Ecosse.
Having initially made a good start from pole Sims was powerless to prevent Jonny Adam from pulling off a good move around the grippier outside of Turn 1. Alexander was eager to immediately re-take the place but misjudged his braking point entering the tight Montreal hairpin and ran wide. Upon re-joining the track he was collected by Rory Butcher’s Aston Martin, which had also been squeezed from the opposite side by Ryan Ratcliffe’s Ginetta. The result was a puncture for Sims, who limped the BMW back to the pits for a new front-right tyre.
His usual pace was immediately apparent upon re-joining the action, but the amount of time lost meant he was unlikely to make up much ground.
Attard climbed aboard for the second half-hour just as conditions began to deteriorate further. Driving was incredibly tricky but the reigning champion somehow kept the car on track as others struggled. He was up to 10th, good enough for a solitary point that might yet prove the difference at Donington, when Race Control stopped the race with 14 minutes remaining owing to the weather.
All of that means four crews head into the title decider with a mathematical chance of winning the Drivers’ crown. Barwell Motorsport remain top of the Teams’ championship, too, although its advantage over Oman Racing Team has also been cut to 11 points.
Marco Attard: “Yeah, it’s been a disappointing weekend. We’ve had a lot of good luck this year but not so at Snetterton, which is unfortunate. We need to bounce back and be positive so that we go into Donington able to uphold the standards of which we’re accustomed. I haven’t had a lot of experience in the wet but it was good fun, actually! The organisers definitely made the right call at the right time to stop the race. I’d just radioed in to say it was getting unsafe so I was glad to see the red flags. Donington will be tougher this year because we don’t have the luxury of a big points’ advantage, but it will definitely be exciting!”
Alexander Sims: “I tried pulling out of the pass on Mike as he moved across but we made contact, which wasn’t particularly heavy. We both continued but the stewards thought we should get a penalty, which I have to accept. Then at the start of Race 2 I lined up on the inside, but in the wet there’s often more grip on the outside of corners and I couldn’t just pull across on Jonny, who drove around me. I then made a mistake at Turn 2, which was a split-second judgement that didn’t go our way. The ABS kicked in and I got it back just before the edge of the track, but it was what happened immediately after that really scuppered our chances. Without that we’d have probably been able to resurrect a fairly sensible result. But I’m still feeling confident for Donington.”
Mark Lemmer, Barwell Motorsport Team Principal: “It’s been a very, very tough weekend. Snett doesn’t seem to be kind to us but then equally I think we brought some of that bad luck on ourselves. We had a strong car and Alex did a great job in qualifying but made a very uncharacteristic mistake in the race. The main thing is that we’ll go into the final round still leading the championship and without a pit-stop success penalty to serve. So I’m feeling confident that we can beat Beechdean at Donington provided there’s no disasters. Marco drove well and Alex has been awesome this year. One mistake won’t cost us the championship.”
The final round of this year’s British GT Championship takes place at Donington Park on September 12/13. And don’t forget you can re-live all the action from Snetterton with Motors TV and Channel 4’s highlights packages this week. Check local listings for details.
