CiM Ferrari Gallops to Croft Win

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September 10, 2007 in Motorsport

CiM Ferrari Gallops to Croft Win

The Christians in Motorsport Ferrari of Hector Lester and Allan Simonsen took the chequered flag from 12th on the grid in an action packed race at Croft finishing ahead of the Barwell Aston Martin of Guy Harrington and Ben de Zille Butler. Alex Mortimer and Bradley Ellis took the final podium position to end the day only to receive a penalty for blocking and handing the final podium place to the Team Eurotech Ascari of David and Godfrey Jones.

The Team Aero Morgan of Keith Ahlers and Steve Hyde returned to winning ways with a lights to flag victory in the GTC Class ahead of championship leaders Graeme Mundy and Jamie Smyth in the RSS Performance Porsche.

At the start it was the two Ascari’s of David Jones and Michael Greenhalgh who led the 22 car grid towards the first corner at Clervaux but it Guy Harrington in the Aston Martin who got the best start to get alongside the Berlanga Ascari and sweep into second place ahead of Greenhalgh on the exit of the corner.

As the leaders exited the Chicane to join the long straight down to Tower bend it was Jones from Harrington from Greenhalgh and Nigel Redwood in the number seven Team RPM Viper. Jones had the Aston Martin in his mirrors as they exited the Jim Clark Esses but a miscalculation by the Leicestershire driver put the Ascari’s wheels on the grass, dropping Jones down to 5th by the end of the opening lap behind the Viper of Alex Mortimer.

As the cars crossed the line for the first time it has the Aston Martin of Round 10 winner Guy Harrington in the lead, with the Berlanga Ascari of Michael Greenhalgh just one second adrift. The Team RPM Vipers of Redwood and Mortimer were joined by the Ascari of the recovering David Jones in a three way battle for 3rd.

As the top two cars started to pull away from the battling pair of Vipers and the Jones Ascari 6th place Paul Drayson in the bio fuel Aston Martin was being challenged by the Tech 9 Porsche of Tom Ferrier, however Drayson had been learning a few tricks from his co driver and was able to keep the nimble Porsche behind him.

The Beechdean Ferrari of Andrew Howard pulled into the pits with a broken alternator which the team started to replace immediately. The Ferrari managed to regain the track but had lost so many laps it wouldn’t figure in the finishing order at the end of the race.

Meanwhile back on track, Jones was challenging Mortimer’s Viper as the pair exited the Hairpin for the 5th time. Jones managed to get the better run out of the corner and was able to place the Ascari alongside the V10 Viper into Clervaux and moved into 4th place on the way into Hawthorn. He then set about the second Viper, putting Redwood under immense pressure for lap after lap until the grey Ascari was able to make a move stick on lap 12 into the Jim Clark Esses. A lap later Redwood lost another place to Mortimer, who then proceeded to pull away from his teammate.

At the front Harrington was still circulating the 2-mile circuit maintaining a one to one point five second gap to Greenhalgh’s Ascari. In turn the leading pair was over ten seconds ahead of the Jones Ascari in third and pulling away by two tenths of a second per lap.

Behind them Paul Drayson was heading a four car train of Tom Ferrier, Neil Cunningham in the Team Trimite Viper and the Team RPM Viper of Steve Clark. However as the pitstop window approached Drayson made a costly mistake, running wide on the exit of Tower Bend, allowing the three cars to all pass the Aston by the time the cars got to Barcroft.

The pit window opened just as Drayson exited the Hairpin and he dived into the pits to hand over the car to Jonny Cocker. He was followed into the pits by the two Ferrari’s of Phil Burton and Hector Lester from 11th and 10th places respectively. Adam Wilcox and Allan Simonsen took over the driving duties in the Ferrari’s, with both cars exiting the pitlane together with Simonsen ahead. Wilcox tried to find a way around the Dane, but the Christians in Motorsport Ferrari was not going to be passed easily. The two cars were side by side into the Hairpin and there was some door rubbing and paint swapping as they exited the slow corner with Simonsen still ahead.

Confusion reigned as all the cars now made their stops over the next few laps. Harrington and Greenhalgh stayed out for another four laps before coming in together to hand over to Ben de Zille Butler and Erik Zwart.

Once the pitstops had sorted themselves out it was de Zille Butler in the Aston Martin from Godfrey Jones in the Team Eurotech Ascari from Bradley Ellis in the number 6 Team RPM Viper from Nick Foster in the number 7 Viper, who had the Berlanga Ascari of Erik Zwart and the Ferrari of Allan Simonsen filling his mirrors at the start of the 23rd lap. However it was the Ascari who lost out to the flying Dane as Zwart was passed on lap 24 and then he spun at the Hairpin, narrowly avoiding being collected by Paul O’Neil in the number 5 Team RPM Viper.

Simonsen’s next target was Bradley Ellis and the Ferrari and Viper were nose to tail as the cars exited the Hairpin at the end of lap 23. The pair charged down the main straight towards the first corner, with Ellis holding his nerve and his position through the next sequence of corners. However it wasn’t to be and the Ferrari moved ahead at the end of lap 24 with a move on the inside of the Viper into the final corner. Simonsen then set off after the Ascari of Godfrey Jones who was five seconds ahead but was closing gradually on the lead Aston Martin in turn. However the Ascari went off the circuit on lap 27, dropping Jones from 2nd to 4th and giving Allan Simonsen a clear run at Ben de Zille Butler’s leading Aston Martin.

It took five laps to catch the lead car as de Zille Butler upped his pace after getting a message from his pitcrew that the Ferrari was closing. However with at least another 9 laps of the race remaining Simonsen wasn’t going to be denied and on lap 32 he dived on the inside of the Aston in Clervaux and moved into the lead of the race for the first time.

As Simonsen pulled away, de Zille Butler set about consolidating his second place, while Bradley Ellis was coming under pressure from Godfrey Jones. For the final few laps the Viper and the Ascari battled but Ellis hung on to claim the final podium position.

At the flag it was Simonsen who punched the air through the window of the Ferrari to the delight of the team who gathered on the pit wall to welcome him home 6.4 seconds ahead of the Barwell Motorsport Aston Martin of Ben de Zille Butler. Just one second split the Team RPM Viper and the Team Eurotech Ascari at the end of the race, with Jonny Cocker bringing home the second Barwell Aston in 5th place. Team RPM had all three of their Vipers in the top eight as Paul O’Neill crossed the line in 6th, 2.5 seconds ahead of Nick Foster. Matt Harris round out the top eight in the Tech 9 Porsche.

In GTC there were only two classified finishers but this shouldn’t take away from the fact that the Team Aero Morgan mechanics had grafted long and hard to fix the car after two engine failures at previous events and Keith Ahlers was quick to pay tribute to the entire team.

However there was further drama as Bradley Ellis was penalised 11 seconds by the race stewards for blocking the Aston Martin of Ben de Zille Butler on the out lap after the pitstops, dropping Ellis and Alex Mortimer behind the Jones brothers Ascari and off the podium.

CLICK HERE to listen to the post race press conference

ROUND 11 Results - AMENDED (Provisional - Subject to Confirmation)

1 - 23 - GT3 - LESTER-SIMONSEN - - Christians in Motorsport - 01:00:36.685 – 41laps

2 - 3 - GT3 - HARRINGTON-de ZILLE BUTLER - - Barwell Motorsport - +6.435

3 - 22 - GT3 - JONES-JONES - - Team Eurotech - Preci Spark - +10.656

4 - 6 - GT3 - MORTIMER-ELLIS - - Team RPM - +19.560

5 - 1 - GT3 - DRAYSON-COCKER - - Barwell Motorsport - +27.451

6 - 5 - GT3 - CLARK-O'NEILL - - Team RPM - +35.945

7 - 7 - GT3 - REDWOOD-FOSTER - - Team RPM - +38.528

8 - 9 - GT3 - HARRIS-FERRIER - - Tech 9 - +40.088

9 - 2 - GT3 - ALEXANDER-BENTWOOD - - Barwell Motorsport - +40.457

10 - 31 - GT3 - GREENHALGH-ZWART - - Team Berlanga - +50.242