Guy Harrington and Ben de Zille Butler scored a hard earned victory at Thruxton, taking the chequered flag in Round 10 if the 2007 Avon Tyres British GT Championship 2.4 seconds ahead of their team mates Paul Drayson and Jonny Cocker. Alex Mortimer and Bradley Ellis took their second podium of the weekend to stay in the championship hunt.
The GTC class was won by the Beechdean Ferrari of Andrew Howard and Aaron Scott, with a popular 2nd place for the Richmond Racing Ginetta of Richard Hollebon and Nick Marsh. The championship leading Porsche 996 finished a distant 3rd to claim 6 championship points after the clutch cable snapped on the opening lap forcing Graeme Mundy and Jamie Smyth to do the entire race stuck in 3rd gear.
Round 10
From pole position it was Jonny Cocker in the Barwell Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9 who led the grid away at the start of the race with Allan Simonsen (#23 CiM Ferrari 430) latched onto his rear bumper. The rest of the field led by Adam Wilcox (VRS Motor Finance Ferrari 430) started to fall away from the leading pair.
Jamie Smyth (#54 RSS Performance Porsche 996) was the first visitor to the pits with the Porsche stuck in third gear. On inspection a broken clutch cable was diagnosed. The mechanics signaled the end of the race but Smyth had other ideas and knew it was possible to get the car home in third gear and collect the valuable championship points, so he instructed the team to put the car off the jacks and he shot out of the pitlane to rejoin the race.
Nigel Redwood (#7 Team RPM Viper) was making early progress from 11th on the grid, finishing the opening lap in 8th and challenging teammate Tim Harvey in the sister Viper for 7th. It took three laps but Redwood finally passed Harvey on the outside of the the final chicane.
At the front Cocker was unable to shake off Simonsen, who maintained a one second gap to the lead car. Third placed Adam Wilcox was falling away from Simonsen as he had to defend his position from the attentions of Alex Mortimer (#6 Team RPM Viper), Michael Bentwood (#2 Barwell Aston Martin DBRS9) and Guy Harrington (#3 Barwell Aston Martin DBRS9) who were all lined up behind the Ferrari for the opening laps of the race.
Further down the field the Ascari of Godfrey Jones was moving up after a poor start, passing Tommy Erdos (#10 Damax Ascari) on lap 6. Paul Whight in the Cadena Motorsport Aston Martin was also making steady progress passing Mark Cole (#4 Team 4Car Porsche 997) and Erdos in short order.
Tim Harvey was being caught by Phil Keen (#11 Damax Ascari) and by lap 10 the Ascari was all over the back of the black and red Viper but then disaster for Keen as he went straight on at the Complex and stopped against the barriers to retire with an unknown problem.
As the pit window approached Cocker finally started to open up a small gap over Simonsen and by lap 25 this had opened up to 6.9 seconds. Simonsen came in to hand over to Hector Lester, with the Christians in Motorsport crew standing by with some fresh rubber. However as Lester attempted to restart the Ferrari the car failed to fire up. Frustration reigned in the pitlane as they eventually got the car started, but precious time had been wasted and their chance of a podium with it.
Wilcox and Mortimer both pitted at the same time, Wilcox also electing to change tyres on the Ferrari after handing it over to Phil Burton. Mortimer handed the number 6 Viper over to Bradley Ellis but the Viper crew didn’t put any new rubber on the car and they got back out on track in short order. However as Ellis rounded the complex the drivers door flew open and he struggled to shut the offending article while steering with one hand. He eventually managed to get the door latch to operate and continued at pace.
Jonny Cocker was one of the last to pit and used the cushion he had built up to change both front tyres after handing over to Paul Drayson. Daryson rejoined the track in the lead but he now had the sister Aston Martin of Ben de Zille Butler catching him, with Bradley Ellis in 3rd ahead of Tom Alexander in the third Barwell Aston. On lap 30 the gap at the front was just under 13 seconds but the number 3 Aston was clawing back a second a lap and Drayson knew he was going to have a fight on his hands.
The Viper of Bradley Ellis started to fall away from de Zille Butler’s Aston, while behind Ellis, Nick Foster at the wheel of the number 7 RPM Viper was being caught by Barrie Whight now at the wheel of the Cadena Aston Martin. However Foster’s race came to a disappointing end as he was forced to crawl back to the pits with a punctured front left tyre.
At the same time the two leading Astons were nose to tail as de Zille Butler had finally caught his team mate with two laps remaining. He swept past the lead car on the approach to the Complex and by the end of the lap had opened up a two second gap.
Henry Fletcher (#5 Team RPM Viper) was having a great battle with Tom Alexander (#2 Barwell Aston Martin) and went around the outside of the Aston into the Chicane to move up into 6th place behind Barrie Whight.
In the GTC class Andrew Howard was nursing the Beechdean Ferrari home to the teams third win of 2007, well ahead of the second placed Ginetta of Richard Hollebon. Graeme Mundy was still further back in the one geared Porsche but still circulating and on course to take those valuable championship points.
On the final lap Ben de Zille Butler was still pushing the car to maintain a healthy cushion over Paul Drayson, who in turn held a big gap to Bradley Ellis. David Jones (#22 Team Eurotech Ascari) was catching Tom Alexander’s Aston Martin and as the pair entered the Chicane for the final time Jones put the Ascari on the inside of the corner to move ahead into 6th place at the end of the race.
At the flag it was Ben de Zille Butler who celebrated but it was Paul Drayson and Jonny Cocker who now move two points ahead of Bradley Ellis and Alex Mortimer at the top of the championship table with four races remaining. Barrie Whight took fourth place for the Cadena Motorsport team, ahead of Henry Fletcher, David Jones, Tom Alexander, with the final championship point scored by Richard Hay in the Team Trimite Brookspeed Viper.
For the latest British GT TV schedules (Channel 4 and Motors TV), race reports, championship positions and interviews visit the championship website at www.britishgt.com
CLICK HERE to listen to the post race press conference with –
Guy Harrington, Ben de Zille Butler, Jonny Cocker, Paul Drayson, Alex Mortimer and Bradley Ellis
Round 10 – Result (Provisional)
1 - 3 - GT3 - HARRINGTON-de ZLLE BUTLER - - Barwell Motorsport - 01:00:33.336 - 45 - - 105.04 - 01:17.836
2 - 1 - GT3 - COCKER-DRAYSON - - Barwell Motorsport - 01:00:35.744 - 45 - 2.408 - 104.97 - 01:16.591
3 - 6 - GT3 - MORTIMER-ELLIS - - Team RPM - 01:00:48.520 - 45 - 15.184 - 104.6 - 01:17.876
4 - 18 - GT3 - WHIGHT-WHIGHT - - Cadena Motorsport - 01:01:14.927 - 45 - 41.591 - 103.85 - 01:18.375
5 - 5 - GT3 - HARVEY-FLETCHER - - Team RPM - 01:01:37.672 - 45 - 01:04.3 - 103.21 - 01:18.526
6 - 22 - GT3 - JONES-JONES - - Team Eurotech - Preci Spark - 01:01:41.938 - 45 - 01:08.6 - 103.1 - 01:19.172
7 - 2 - GT3 - BENTWOOD-ALEXANDER - - Barwell Motorsport - 01:01:43.557 - 45 - 01:10.2 - 103.05 - 01:17.750
8 - 40 - GT3 - LITTLEJOHN-HAY - - Brookspeed - 01:01:07.040 - 44 - 1 laps - 101.76 - 01:20.231
9 - 7 - GT3 - FOSTER-REDWOOD - - Team RPM - 01:01:20.152 - 44 - 1 laps - 101.4 - 01:18.084
10 - 23 - GT3 - SIMONSEN-LESTER - - Christians in Motorsport - 01:01:22.929 - 44 - 1 laps - 101.32 - 01:16.563
11 - 8 - GT3 - GRIFFIN-BAMFORD - - Team RPM - 01:01:54.245 - 44 - 1 laps - 100.47 - 01:19.082
12 - 12 - GT3 - WILCOX-BURTON - - VRS Motor Finance - 01:00:37.555 - 43 - 2 laps - 100.26 - 01:17.877
13 - 17 - GT3 - GARDINER-FENTON - - Moore Racing - 01:00:38.882 - 43 - 2 laps - 100.22 - 01:19.980
14 - 4 - GT3 - COLE-CAMPBELL - - Team 4Car with confused.com - 01:00:59.824 - 43 - 2 laps - 99.65 - 01:19.538
15 - 16 - GT3 - OSBORNE-WILMOTT - - RSS Performance - 01:00:33.785 - 42 - 3 laps - 98.03 - 01:21.302
16 - 10 - GT3 - ERDOS-KEATING - - Damax - 01:00:37.813 - 42 - 3 laps - 97.92 - 01:19.186
17 - 13 - GT3 - MACKINNON-MACINTOSH - - MackintoshPlansMotorsport - 01:00:38.259 - 42 - 3 laps - 97.91 - 01:20.672
18 - 99 - GTC - SCOTT-HOWARD - - Beechdean Motorsport - 01:00:47.158 - 42 - 3 laps - 97.67 - 01:21.066
19 - 88 - GTC - MARSH-HOLLEBON - - Richmond Racing - 01:01:28.994 - 42 - 3 laps - 96.56 - 01:24.096
20 - 9 - GT3 - FERRIER-HARRIS - - Tech 9 - 00:56:06.001 - 40 - 5 laps - 100.79 - 01:20.443
21 - 54 - GTC - SMYTH-MUNDY - - RSS Performance - 01:01:11.783 - 40 - 5 laps - 92.39 - 01:24.416
- - - Not Classified - - - - - - -
DNC - 11 - GT3 - KEEN-BRYANT - - Damax - 00:15:56.350 - 12 - 33 laps - 106.42 - 01:18.453
- - - Fastest Lap - - - - - - - -
23 - GT3 - Allan SIMONSEN - Christians in Motorsport - - 3 - - 110.77 - 1:16.563
99 - GTC - Aaron SCOTT - Beechdean Motorsport - - 4 - - 104.62 - 1:21.066
