Round 6 – Mondello Park - 24th June 2006
Panoz in a Class of Its Own as Team LNT Takes First Win in British GT
Weather – Cloudy Track - Dry
Tom Kimber-Smith and Luke Hines scored the first win for the Panoz Esperante GTLM in British GT, six days after Team LNT celebrated success at the Le Mans 24 Hour. Barrie Whight took the chequered flag in second overall with the Lotus Sport Cadena Exige, with Matt Allison bringing home the Trackspeed Porsche in third overall and a win in GTC.
As the lights flashed to green Luke Hines took immediate control of the race as Chris Niarchos seemed to struggle in the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari. Gavan Kershaw got the best start, leaping from 5th into 2nd after the first corner, pushing Ryan Hooker down to 3rd. Niarchos continued to struggle and then he entered the pits at the end of the opening lap with steam pouring from the back of the Ferrari.
At the end of opening lap Hines led from Kershaw and Hooker, who had teammate Jonny Lang and Bradley Ellis behind. Another driver on the move was Oliver Bryant in the Team Aero Morgan, who was making progress through the field.
The Scuderia Ecosse mechanics identified a blown radiator cap but were struggling to repair the damage and seal the radiator to allow Niarchos to rejoin the track. At the front Hines continued to pull away from the Lotus Exige, with Kershaw in turn moving ahead of the following GTC class cars. Another car that was struggling was the Beechdean Ferrari of Nigel Greensall which also visited the pits on lap 4 after starting the race from the pitlane.
By lap 4 Bryant was behind the Team Tiger Marcos of Chris Beighton and then made his move into Bikeworld turn to take 7th. Bryant then lined up his next target of Miles Hulford in the no 4 Trackspeed Porsche. Hulford was also catching the RPM Porsche of Bradley Ellis and for the next three laps this became the focus of the track action. Bryant had to bide his time as Hulford took every opportunity to move ahead of Ellis and on lap 13 he was rewarded with an opprotunity that the Porsche driver took with relish. The next lap the pit window opened.
On lap 15 Hines brought the Panoz in for his scheduled stop, promoting Gavan Kershaw and the Lotus Exige into the lead 3 laps before the Lotus driver came in for his stop.
Tom Kimber-Smith took over the driving duties from Hines and then set off at a pace that dominated the rest of the field. Barrie Whight took over from Kershaw and consolidated the teams position for the rest of the race. The GTC class was where the action belonged and Damien Faulkner, taking over from Ryan Hooker, started to put in some quick laps to pull away Matt Allison in the No 5 Trackspeed Porsche. Faulkner was building a good lead at the head of the GTC class but fate took a turn and Faulkner was forced into retirement on lap 21 with a suspected blown diff. Another casualty was the Team Aero Morgan with Keith Ahlers at the wheel, the car stopping out on the circuit after the oil filter seal blew, spinning the Morgan off the track at 7A.
Matt Allison took over the class lead but Matt Harris was being caught by the RPM Porsche of Alex Mortimer. As the race drew to a close Mortimer caught and passed Harris to take second place in class and 4th overall.
Tom Kimber-Smith took the chequered flag after lapping the entire field, adding his first win in British GT to the GT2 Class win at Le Mans six days earlier. Barrie Whight took the GT3 win, despite a broken engine mount causing some problems for the Lotus driver, and second overall in a good performance for the Lotus Exige. Matt Allison was third overall and took the win in Class GTC.
Luke Hines (GT2 and Overall Winner): "I had a good start, it was a shame the Ferrari retired early, I like to have a bit of fight on my hands, but never mind, I'm sure they'll bounce back. The cars good, we've had pace and been quickest all weekend."
Tom Kimber-Smith(GT2 and Overall Winner): "This is great for the team, they've worked really hard in the last month, with all the preparations for Le Mans. Everybody here is really tired, apart from Luke who had a sabatical for that race, it's a good result for us. The game plan for tomorrow is the same as today and hopefully the Ferrari will be involved in it."
Barrie Whight: (GT3 Winner and 2nd Overall) "This is good news for the team. I said to Gavan before the start of the race 'let's get a good result today on our own merits' and it came off. We like this place, Mondello, we've had success here before. I we were quietly confident between the two of us that we could have a good run here. Probably didn't expect second overall but were pleased to be there. The Lotus Exige seems to have a performance advantage here over a race distance, perhaps not in qualifying but over a race distance the car has an advantage."
"We did have a problem early on when Gavan told the chaps on the radio a few laps before he gave the car over that there was a problem with an engine mount. But at the end of the day you can only drive what you're given and it was a handful. It was doing all sorts of funny things, sometimes it wouldn't change down, sometimes it would change up when I hadn't asked it to, but you can find a rhythm. It wasn't too bad to be honest, a couple of times I thought it really had broken, but we were alright."
Matt Allison ( GTC Winner and 3rd Overall): "For me the race wasn't that hard. Jonny (Lang) did a good first stint. We came from quite a way behind our other car but they had a problem. I saw the car smoking, it stopped and then from there on in it was just a cruise to the finish really. We had no problems today but we had a drive shaft go at Pau, these cars are quite fragile over a long race and it is a long time to be hammering the cars as well. It is one thing I've had to learn, you have to finish after the hour. We're not far behind in the championship now and hopefully we'll have a good day tomorrow."
