Avon British GT Championship
Matt Harris and Oliver Bryant claimed round 2 in the Tech 9 Porsche 997 is a race influenced by the rain where tyre choice made all of the difference to the result. The Bio fuel Aston Martin of Paul Drayson and Jonny Cocker were second and the Team RPM Viper of Alex Mortimer and Bradley Ellis was third.
GTC was won by the Team Tiger Marcos Mantis of Chris Beighton and Jon Finnemore, gaining maximum points for the team that was dogged by ECU problems and Saturday and were forced to start at the back of the field for both races. Second went to the Team Aero Morgan of Keith Ahlers and Steve Hyde, with Graeme Mundy and Jamie Smyth claiming the final podium place in the RSS Performance Porsche 996.
As the cars made there way around for the rolling start the rain was light but definately falling. Most of the teams had chosen to start on slicks and the Brookspeed Viper of Nigel Greensall, which had elected to start the race on wets, dived into the pits at the end of the first green flag lap to change onto slicks.
The race went green and pole position holder Tim Mullen (CiM Ferrari 430) and Adam Wilcox (VRS Motor Finance Ferrari 430) were side by side into the first corner at Old Hall. Everyone held their breathe as the two Ferrari's exited side by side as ther dropped down the hill to Cascades, however Mullen had the advantage at the next corner and moved into the lead.
The Trackspeed Porsche of Gavan Kershaw was circulating slowly with a rear puncture as the leaders came through to complete lap 1 andit was Mullen 0.5 seconds ahead of Wilcox from Richard Williams in the #14 Trackspeed Porsche, Godfrey Jones in the Team Eurotech - Preci Spark Ascari and Michael Bentwood in the Barwell Aston Martin.
Further back however there was mayhem at Deer Leap as both Damax Ascari's and the David Dove Ferrari were seen sliding down the circuit after clattering the barriers. Jimmy Brodie's Ascari was left on the outside of Deer Leap, while the David Dove Ferrari was left stranded on the inside of the main start finish straight. Tommy Erdos managed to get his battered Ascari off the circuit but the safety car was deployed at the end of lap two. Keith Ahlers in the Team Aero Morgan also got caught up in the incident and he managed to pull his battered Morgan into the pitlane for some running repairs and he rejoined one lap down.
It took four laps for the marshal's to make it safe to go racing again and at the restart Michael Bentwood was under pressure from Richard Williams as soon as the race went green. Williams stuck the nose of his Porsche onto the rear bumper of the green Aston Martin as they crossed the line and made his move as the cars headed out towards Shell. When they cam e back into view Williams had got ahead. 5th placed Godfrey Jones was tapped into a spin at Old Hall by one of the Porsches, dropping the Ascari down the field. Another casualty was the Team RPM Porsche of Nigel Redwood whose car was seen limping back to the pits with a puncture.
In GTC pole position holder Aaron Scott was leading the class but the Team Tiger Marcos of Jon Finnemore was powering its way up the field from the back of the grid and on lap 7 was closing in on the leading Ferrari as the pitstop window approached.
Meanwhile at the front Mullen was pulling slowly away from the Ferrari of Adam Wilcox who was having to defend his second place from a flying Richard Williams. On lap 11 the pit window opened and Paul Drayson was the first car to come in, handing the bio fuel Aston Martin DBRS9 over to Jonny Cocker from 10th place.
As the pitstops continued the teams debated whether to swith to wets or not, with many deciding the conditions were not bad enough to warrant the Avon wets. On lap 17 the three leading cars came in together with Tim Mullen parking his Ferrari at an angle in the pitlane, which resulted in the Ferrai getting blocked in as other cars pitted. The Christians in Motorsport team had to push the Ferrari back before Hector Lester could regain the track, losing the Ulsterman precious time.
With the pit window closed the race order became clear and the Tech 9 Porsche with Oli Bryant now at the wheel was out in front, with the Team RPM Viper of Bradley Ellis in second but being caught by Jonny Cocker in the Barwell Aston Martin. Ellis tried to hold off the Aston but the 2004 British GT Champion wasn't going to be denied and he moved ahead of the Viper on lap 15 and set off after the leading Porsche.
After the pitstops the GTC lead went to Chris Beighton in the Team Tiger Marcos after the Beechdean Ferrari was delayed for three minutes due a technical problem, which the team fixed in good order but the result was they regained the track in 4th place. Beighton was over a lap ahead of the Team Aero Morgan of Steve Hyde and just had to get the car home to complete a maximum points weekend for the team.
As the race entered the final stages Cocker started to close up on Bryant's leading Porsche but he was running out of time. Further down the field there was a five car battle for 5th between Tom Alexander (#2 Barwell Aston Martin), Guy Harrington (#3 Barwell Aston Martin), Phil Burton (#12 Team VRS Motor Finance Ferrari), Hector Lester ( #23 CiM Ferrari) and David Jones (#22 Team Eurotech - Preci Spark Ascari). The five car train was nose to tail with Burton and Jones side by side into Old Hall as the cars started their 27th lap. There was contact and the VRS Motor Finance Ferrari spun, dropping Burton down the field. Harrington moved ahead of his Barwell teammate on the same lap to move into 5th and quickly caught the Trackspeed Porsche of David Ashburn, which he passed on the penultimate lap of the arce for 4th.
At the flag it was Bryant who crossed the line, just 0.8 seconds ahead of Cocker, with Ellis a further 30 seconds up the road. In GTC it was another win for the Team Tiger Marcos of Chris Beighton a lap ahead of the battered Team Aero Morgan of Steve Hyde and the RSS Performance Porsche of Jamie Smyth. Andrew Howard brought the Beechdean Ferrari home in 4th. Beechdean Motorsport went home with the concellation of taking the fastest lap of the race in GTC.
2007 Avon Tyres British GT Championship - Round 2 - Result
1 - 9 - GT3 - BRYANT-HARRIS - Tech 9 - 1:01:08.354 - 29lap - 76.61mph
2 - 1 - GT3 - DRAYSON-COCKER - Barwell Motorsport - +0.861s
3 - 6 - GT3 - ELLIS-MORTIMER - Team RPM - +31.435s
4 - 3 - GT3 - HARRINGTON-de ZILLE BUTLER - Barwell Motorsport - +1:19.386
5 - 14 - GT3 - ASHBURN-WILLIAMS - Trackspeed - +1:23.708
6 - 22 - GT3 - JONES-JONES - Team Eurotech - Preci Spark +1:23.854
7 - 23 - GT3 - LESTER-MULLEN - Christians in Motorsport - +1:35.495
8 - 2 - GT3 - ALEXANDER-BENTWOOD - Barwell Motorsport - +1:44.849
9 - 40 - GT3 - LITTLEJOHN-GREENSALL - Brookspeed - +1:47.299
10 - 81 - GTC - FINNEMORE-BEIGHTON - Team Tiger - +1LAP
11 - 17 - GT3 - GARDINER-FENTON - Moore Racing +1 LAP
12 - 12 - GT3 - BURTON-WILCOX - VRS Motor Finance- +1LAP
13 - 4 - GT3 - CAMPBELL-COLE - Team 4Car with confused.com - +1LAP
14 - 50 - GTC - AHLERS-HYDE - Team Aero Racing - +1LAP
15 - 8 - GT3 - BAMFORD-GRIFFIN - Team RPM +1LAP
16 - 54 - GTC - MUNDY-SMYTH - RSS Performance +1LAP
17 - 7 - GT3 - FOSTER-REDWOOD - Team RPM - +1LAP
18 - 99 - GTC - SCOTT-HOWARD - Beechdean Motorsport - +2LAPS
19 - 15 - GT3 - WHIGHT-KERSHAW - Trackspeed - +2 LAPS
NOT CLASSIFIED
44 - GT3 - COLE-COLE - Eclipse - 12 LAPS
70 - GTC - DOVE - 28 LAPS
11 - GT3 - KEATING-ERDOS - Damax - 28 LAPS
10 - GT3 - HOPKINS-BRODIE - Damax - 29 LAPS
FASTEST LAP
23 - GT3 - LESTER-MULLEN - Christians in Motorsport - 1:43.281 - 120.16 kph - 93.8 mph
99 - GTC - SCOTT-HOWARD - Beechdean Motorsport - 1:47.824 - 113.27 kph - 89.9 mph
CLICK HERE for full times from MST
Championship Positions after Round 2 - Oulton Park
1 Oliver Bryant 15
= Matt Harris 15
3 Hector Lester 12
= Tim Mullen 12
5 Paul Drayson 10
= Jonathan Cocker 10
7 Tom Alexander 9
= Michael Bentwood 9
= Godfrey Jones 9
= David Jones 9
= Guy Harrington 9
= Ben de Zille Butler 9
13 Bradley Ellis 6
= Alex Mortimer 6
15 David Ashburn 4
= Richard Williams 4
17 Adam Wilcox 3
= Phil Burton 3
19 Peter Bamford 1
= Matt Griffin 1
