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August 26, 2007 in Motorsport

British GT - round 9 Aston wins

ROUND 9 - THRUXTON - Bio Fuel Aston Powers to Thruxton Win

Jonny Cocker took the chequered flag in the bio fuel Aston Martin DBRS9 to score the second win of the season for himself and Paul Drayson and put them on level points at the top of the table with Bradley Ellis and Alex Mortimer, who finished in second place in the Team RPM Viper. Ben de Zille Butler and Guy Harrington took their first podium since Brands Hatch in the number 3 Barwell run Aston Martin.

Graeme Mundy and Jamie Smyth secured their second GTC class win in a row in their RSS Performance Porsche 996, finishing a lap ahead of second placed Andrew Howard and Aaron Scott on the Beechdean Ferrari.

At the start it was the Team RPM Viper of Bradley Ellis who led the pack across the line but he was soon challenged by the Cadena Motorsport Aston Martin of Barrie Whight as they entered the Complex for the first time. Whight went to the outside but lost momentum as they exited the corner which allowed the Team RPM Viper of Nigel Redwood to get on terms and sweep past before the end of the opening lap.

The third RPM Viper of Henry Fletcher also made up a place on the opening lap, moving ahead of Paul Drayson in the Barwell Aston Martin.

As the front runners crossed the line to start the second lap Redwood was coming under pressure from Whight, who seemed extremely determined retake second place but Redwood soaked up the pressure and kept the place. Adam Jones in the Team Modena Lamborghini was lying in 4th place but Ben de Zille Butler in the number 3 Barwell Aston was trying every which way to find a way around the Italian Supercar and he made his move on lap three out on the back of the circuit and when the cars came back into view the Aston was ahead.

As the race progressed Ellis in the lead Viper was pulling away from the rest of the field as Redwood, Whight, de Zille Butler, Jones and Fletcher came through the final Chicane nose-to-tail fighting for track position. On lap 6 Fletcher spins the Viper on the exit of Church corner and the trip off the track forced the Viper to pit to clear the grass from the radiators.

In the GTC Class Graeme Mundy pulled out a healthy lead as Andrew Howard started to battle with the GT3 Lotus of George Mackintosh. While the on track racing was good it allowed Mundy to pull away from Howard in a battle between cars from two different classes.

While Bradley Ellis continued to pull away, opening up a 6-second lead by lap 11, the race for the Lamborghini of Adam Jones came to an end as Team Modena car came into the pits down on power. The problem turned out to be a lack of compression in two of the ten cylinders and it meant the end of the weekend for the team. The Lamborghini’s demise promoted Paul Drayson to 5th, a few seconds adrift of the three car battle for 2nd place. The Damax Ascari’s were having a mixed race. The number 11 car of Oliver Bryant caught and passed the Aston Martin of Tom Alexander for 9th, while the 14th placed car of Stephen Keating went missing on lap 15 out on the back of the circuit.

Ben de Zille Butler kept up his relentless challenge on Barrie Whight and his persistence finally paid off on lap 18, moving ahead of the Aston Martin as the cars came down the back straight towards the final chicane. Two laps later the number 3 Aston made a similar move on Nigel Redwood’s Viper to move into second place as the pitstops approached.

When all of the cars had made their pitstops the RPM Viper was still leading the race with Alex Mortimer now at the wheel, ahead of the number 3 Aston of Guy Harrington, who was closely followed by the Barwell Aston of Jonny Cocker. Cocker soon caught Harrington and moved into second place with apparent ease after his teammate took the decision to not put up too much of a fight to the much quicker car. Fourth placed Paul Whight, who was now at the wheel of the Cadena Aston, had a spin on the exit of the chicane. The Aston lost momentum and two places before rejoining the fray.

Cocker was now reeling in the lead Viper while pulling away from third placed Harrington. On lap 33 Cocker caught and past Mortimer at Church and pulled away at a startling rate of knots. Five laps later Cocker was 15 seconds up the road and pulling away from Mortimer at nearly three seconds a lap. The Viper was a comfortable second as Harrington now found himself being caught by the Team Eurotech Ascari of Godfrey Jones, who was catching the Aston as nearly 2 seconds a lap. As the race entered the final few laps Harrington suddenly upped his pace and his podium finish looked secure.

Godfrey Jones was also looking good to finish 4th when he suddenly slowed on the final lap. An alternator failure had robbed the car of power and Jones was fighting to get the Ascari to the chequered flag but not before he was passed by Nick Foster in the number 7 RPM Viper, Allan Simonsen in the CiM Ferrari and Paul Whight in the Cadena Aston.

At the flag Jonny Cocker took the win to the delight of Paul Drayson and the rest his Barwell Motorsport team. Alex Mortimer crossed the line 33 seconds later, 3.2 seconds in front of Guy Harrington.

CLICK HERE to listen the post race press conference with top Paul Drayson, Jonny Cocker, Bradley Ellis, Alex Mortimer, Ben de Zille Butler and Guy Harrington.

GTC Class post race press conference audio also available.

Round 9 – RESULT

1 - 1 - GT3 - DRAYSON-COCKER - Barwell Motorsport - 01:00:49.234 – 45 laps

2 - 6 - GT3 - ELLIS-MORTIMER - Team RPM - +33.641s

3 - 3 - GT3 - de ZILLE BUTLER-HARRINGTON - Barwell Motorsport - +36.859s

4 - 7 - GT3 - REDWOOD-FOSTER - Team RPM - +42.231s

5 - 23 - GT3 - LESTER-SIMONSEN - Christians in Motorsport - +53.286s

6 - 18 - GT3 - WHIGHT-WHIGHT - - Cadena Motorsport - +55.456s

7 - 22 - GT3 - JONES-JONES - - Team Eurotech - Preci Spark - +59.636s

8 - 12 - GT3 - BURTON-WILCOX - - VRS Motor Finance - +01:05.967s

9 - 11 - GT3 - BRYANT-KEEN - - Damax - +01:08.521s

10 - 2 - GT3 - ALEXANDER-BENTWOOD - Barwell Motorsport - +1 lap