Rounds 12 Result – Brands Hatch
Victory and Championship Lead for Mullen and Niarchos
Tim Mullen took the chequered flag in his Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari 430 at Brands Hatch to secure win number 8 in the 2006 Avon Tyres British GT Championship, a win he dedicated to his cousin Irish Three Day Event Champion Sherelle Duke who died last week competing in Southampton.
GT3 was won by Leo Machitski and Jonathan Cocker in their regular Barwell Motorsport Aston Martin after their switch to a Tech9 Porsche at Rockingham a fortnight ago. With championship leaders George MacKintosh and Sam Blogg finishing in 4th place, Machitski is just 1.5 points behind the Lotus Cadena pairing with two races remaining.
Bradley Ellis and Alex Mortimer celebrated their third GTC win of 2006 in the Team RPM Porsche 996. In the championship battle 2nd placed Ryan Hooker closed the gap to 3rd placed Jonny Lang and Matt Allison to just 4 points.
At the green Hines and Niarchos led the rest of the 28 car field towards Paddock Hill for the first time with Hines his pole position advantage to move into the lead as they dropped down Paddock towards Druids. The Cirtek GT2 Porsche of Adam Jones was right up behind Niarchos but in turn had the Aston Martin of Jonathan Cocker filling his rearview mirrors.
At the end of the opening lap it was Hines from Niarchos and Jones but Cocker got alongside the 3rd placed Porsche and passed Jones on the run up to Druids as it appeared the Cirtek Porsche was having a problem. Jones dropped further back as he exited Druids and a trip to the pits confirmed the loss of 2nd and 3rd gears. The Cirtek mechanics got to work and the Porsche regained the track but a few laps later Jones retired.
At the end of lap 2 Hines had a 1 second lead over the Ferrari, with Jonathan Cocker leading GT3 in 3rd place with Richard Hay in the Damax Ascari in 4th. Behind them Ryan Hooker (#3 Trackspeed Porsche), Bradley Ellis (#96 Team RPM Porsche) and Jonny Lang (#5 Trackspeed Porsche) were nose to tail and on lap 3 Hooker dropped back to 3rd in class out on the circuit as he was passed by his rivals. Until lap 6 Lang held off the pressure from Ellis but on lap 7 the RPM Porsche moved into the lead of GTC and 5th overall. Ellis then got a welcome helping hand from the Trackspeed GT3 Porsche of David Ashburn who was working his way back up the field. On lap 8 Ashburn passed Jonny Lang, which gave Ellis the opportunity to move ahead.
The two leading GT2 cars were opening up a lap gap from Cocker but Hines couldn’t shake off Niarchos. Jonathan Cocker was in turn moving well ahead of the Ascari of Richard Hay as the pitstop window approached.
On lap 14 the cars started to come in for their compulsory stops but Cocker stayed out for as long as possible and on lap 15 hit the front as Hines and Niarchos came in. On lap 22 with the pitstops complete Tom Kimber-Smith now at the wheel of the Panoz was lapping the backmarkers with Tim Mullen in the Ferrari less than 2 seconds behind. The next lap changed the order at the front of the field. As Kimber-Smith and Mullen approached the flying Ian Flux in the Rollcentre Mosler. On lap 23 the Panoz and the Mosler clashed and Mullen went through into the lead, crossing the line five seconds ahead of Kimber-Smith.
In GT3 Leo Machitsky in the Barwell Aston was consolidating the lead handed to him by Jonathan Cocker, but Richard Stanton, now at the wheel of the Damax Ascari was coming under pressure from Danny Watts in the Trackspeed Posrche and on lap 28 found himself looking at the rear bumper of the Porsche 997 GT3.
In GTC the fastest car on the track was the #81 Team Tiger Marcos with Chris Beighton now piloting the car through the field. The four time class winner’s charge came to an end after a clash with Bill Tunney in the David Dove Racing Ferrari and then a lap later the car pulled off at Surtees in a cloud of smoke. Alex Mortimer, who taken over from Bradley Ellis in the RPM Porsche had a 2 second lead over Phil Keen (#3 Trackspeed Porsche) and Matt Allison (#5 Trackspeed Porsche).
As the race reached the final few laps Mullen now had a commanding 14 second lead over Kimber-Smith, the only two cars on the lead lap. Leo Machitsky brought the Aston Martin home at the head of GT3 while Ian Flux, recovering from his earlier clash with the Panoz, overtook Danny Watts on the penultimate lap to take 4th place overall and third in GT2.
Tim Mullen took the chequered flag to take the 8th win of the season for Scuderia Ecosse and taking the lead in the drivers and team championships with four races remaining.
Tim Mullen (GT2 Winner, Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari 430): "It all got a bit chaotic for a while and it was quite tight in the race. Fluxie (Ian Flux) was a lap down and he was certainly getting right in the way of the battle. I think it initially helped me catch up to Tom (Kimber-Smith) and then it was close for a while and he made a mistake with a backmarker. I got alongside him down the back straight, he squeezed me and put me onto the grass. I went to go down the inside and he moved across and we made a wee bit of contact, which made him go sideways but I didn't actually make him spin. I don't know why he actually spun off. But it's a good win and I'd like to dedicate it to my cousin who died last week when riding a horse, this one’s for her."
Luke Hines (2nd place, Team LNT Panoz Esperante GTLM): "Chris (Niarchos) put me on my toes the whole race, the furthest I could pull away was a second and a half, I just couldn't pull out anymore. I tried making no mistakes, but he kept on me and pushed me hard. He caught some traffic and allowed me to pull away. I had a few sideways moments, I think I passed four people in Dingle Dell sideways, so I'm quite happy with that. "
Jonathan Cocker (GT3 Winner, Barwell Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9): "Yes it was very good race, I just needed to push very hard at the start to make sure I got a nice gap at the start and to make sure Leo could hold his ground for the rest of the race. Which he did, he did really well putting solid laps in every lap, it couldn't have gone any better. It was fantastic racing on the GP circuit, I've never done the GP circuit before, just the Indy. It took a while to get my head around it, but it is a really nice circuit."
Alex Mortimer (GTC Winner, Team RPM Porsche 996 GT3): "We were leading before the pitstop and we dropped back to 3rd or 4th and to come back was hard, it wasn't easy. I think it was the closest race we've had this year, we had a gearbox start to break towards the end of the race. Luckily it held together and broke at the very end as we crossed the line, so we're delighted. It's brilliant to race on the GP circuit, it's so much better than the Indy and we've taken another win which is the most important thing."
