The Avon Tyres British GT Championship has a new leader in the shape of David Ashburn, the veteran Porsche racer whose pairing with young Scottish charger Glynn Geddie (Sunday) yielded dramatic results at Rockingham for the Trackspeed team. The Ashburn/Geddie Porsche won both Rockingham races, beating the Rollcentre Mosler of Martin Short and Gregor Fisken to the line in the first and the MTECH Ferrari of erstwhile championship leaders Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin in the second.
In the G4 class there were twin wins for championship returnee Michael Mallock and his co-driver Athanasios Ladas in the Chad Racing-run KTM X-Bow.
Round 6Ashburn and Geddie scored their first win of the 2010 Avon Tyres British GT Championship season in round six, when their Trackspeed Porsche beat the Fisken/Short Rollcentre Mosler to the chequered flag by five seconds. Fisken had led the first half of the race and Short started part two in front, but lost the lead to Geddie thanks in part to a stop/go pit penalty for a mistimed pit stop.
It was an impressive return to the championship for the Mosler, which Fisken - a winner last year at Spa with Short - planted on pole position in qualifying. The Scot fired it into the lead at the lights, pursued by Ashburn, and held on in front all the way to his 18th lap pit stop.
It was a hazardous opening lap for those behind, not least for Phil Burton, whose Predator CCTV Ferrari was assaulted from both sides and from behind and briefly left the track. Chris Hyman made a rocketship start from fifth on the grid in the Chad Ferrari - too good a start, as it transpired, for he was soon called to the pits for a penalty for anticipating the lights. Alas the South African had already spun away his advantage.
The all-Argentine Chad Ferrari, in the hands of Juan Garriz, enjoyed a good opening run, third behind the Mosler and the Porsche and then first on the road for a five-lap spell when Ashburn and then Fisken pitted.
Now with Short at the wheel, the Mosler exited the pits with around eight seconds in hand over the Trackspeed car and regained top spot when Garriz pitted on lap 23. Geddie was now at the Porsche’s wheel and had already whittled the Mosler’s advantage down to around three seconds when the news came that Short would have to serve a stop/go penalty for a too-short pit stop. Martin rejoined the race second, all hopes of victory gone, but not too despondent: “I don’t think I’d have held off young Geddie. He was catching me and we were struggling with the handling, so we saved ourselves a bit of a wheel-banging session.”
Geddie crossed the line 5.5s ahead of Short after backing off in the latter stages to conserve the car. He was delighted with their win: “I had enough of a gap just to back off and save the car for the next race. I found it quite easy; David did a great job in his stint and I was able to catch the Mosler within a few laps, then they got their penalty.” Added Ashburn: “It wasn’t a bad first stint; they told me not to try to pass the Mosler but to leave that to Glynn, and that’s what we did.”
The Chad Racing Ferrari of Paul Warren and Tom Ferrier took third from Jose Balbiani after the stops, then lost it to the Team RPM Ford GT, which had been started by Philip Walker and was now driven by Alex Mortimer. Mortimer stayed ahead for the final podium slot, with Ferrier bringing the Chad car home fifth, ahead of the MTECH Ferrari of Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin, which was another car to be penalised. Garriz/Balbiani placed sixth.
Reigning champions the Jones brothers were absent from the grid after their Preci-Spark Ascari developed engine problems in Saturday free practice.
Mallock’s return to British GT was a triumphant one, the young Briton and his Greek co-driver Ladas piloting the Chad KTM to a 14-second win in the G4 class. Simon Mason in the Piranha Motorsport Lotus 2-Eleven held sway up the pit stops, but Ladas pitted earlier and Mallock then quickly whittled away the Piranha car’s advantage after Chris Bialan went behind the wheel.
Said Mallock: “Athanasios learned the circuit really quickly and drove a great first stint; my job was to chase down the Lotus. I had to be very cautious with the gearbox because of some issues, and with the tyres, which are an unknown quantity to us, but fortunately today we had the upper hand.”
The Century Motorsport pairing of Vibe Smed and Nathan Freke won the battle of the Ginettas to take third in G4, pipping the class championship leaders Jamie Stanley and Christian Dick, their Speedworks car heavily laden with success ballast.
*Before the race got underway, there was a two-minute silence to commemorate the recent deaths of Team RPM founder Robin Mortimer and BRSCC official Keith Jones.
Round 7The Trackspeed team made it two out of two in round seven, Ashburn and Geddie beating the MTECH Ferrari of Griffin and Cameron into second place to underline and extend Ashburn’s newly secured overall championship lead.
Pole man and round six victor Geddie found his Porsche relegated to second at the start, the Scot outdragged away from the line by Griffin’s Ferrari; Geddie was nearly bundled back to third, in fact, by Adam Wilcox in the Predator CCTV car, but managed to squeeze the Ferrari man sufficiently to keep him at bay.
The tussle for the lead between Griffin and Geddie was as fierce as it was protracted; time and again the Porsche would pull alongside the Ferrari only to find the door slammed. The battle went on right up to lap 22 and Geddie’s swoop for the pits and the hand over to Ashburn, and the fight was joined for many laps by the RPM Ford GT of Alex Mortimer.
Martin Short lost ground in the Mosler early on after a tangle with Jose Balbiani’s Ferrari but battled back to fourth, and then right on to Mortimer’s tail to make it a four-car lead battle, by lap 15. Alas a 19th-lap attempt to wrest third from Mortimer resulted in both cars heading to the pits. “Martin was a bit impatient,” said Alex, whose Ford was too badly damaged to continue. “It was a bad move.” Short’s view was different: “I was alongside him, he didn’t see me and turned in on me.” The Mosler lost three laps in the pits but was able to continue with Gregor Fisken at the wheel.
Griffin pitted three laps after Geddie and, perhaps mindful of their first-race penalty, MTECH’s stop was relatively leisurely. When Duncan Cameron exited the pits, David Ashburn was 7s up the road and disappearing off to his second win of the day. The Porsche crossed the line 15.1s in front this time.
After the Ford’s demise and the Mosler’s delay, and thanks to solid stints by both Aaron Scott and Craig Wilkins, the GT3 Racing Viper slotted into third after the stops and saw off a brief challenge from the Chad Ferrari of Chris Hyman and Dan Brown to claim the final podium spot and the team’s best result of the season. Brown brought the STP-backed Ferrari home fourth, ahead of the Adam Wilcox/Phil Burton Ferrari. Fisken’s Mosler was sixth in class, and 10th overall.
An excellent sixth overall was a just result for the Chad KTM X-Bow, with which Michael Mallock had claimed the lead of the G4 class from the outset and which Athanasios Ladas had driven home to its second class victory of the day. As in race one it was the Piranha Motorsport Lotus of Simon Mason and Chris Bialan which ran the KTM closest, with the Ginettas of Vibe Smed/Nathan Freke and Jamie Stanley/Christian Dick third and fourth in class.
British GT is sponsored by UK tyre manufacturer Avon Tyres and is further supported by Sunoco Racing Fuels, Anglo American Oil Company and The Independent.
Provisional results Rockingham 18/7/2010Round 6, 42 laps = 81.48 milesOverall & GT31 Trackspeed Porsche 911 GT3R David Ashburn / Glynn Geddie 1h 0m 01.081s /81.45mph2 Rollcentre Mosler MT900 Martin Short / Gregor Fisken +5.484s3 RPM Motorsport Ford GT Philip Walker / Alex Mortimer +18.452s4 Chad Ferrari 430 Scud Paul Warren / Tom Ferrier +20.147s5 MTECH Ferrari 430 Scud Duncan Cameron / Matt Griffin (IRL) +33.624s6 Chad Ferrari 430 Jose Balbiani (ARG) / Juan Garriz (ARG) 41 laps etcG4 Class1 Chad Racing KTM X-Bow Athanasios Ladas (GRE) / Michael Mallock 40 laps2 Piranha Motorsport Lotus 2-Eleven Chris Bialan / Simon Mason +14.059s3 Century Motorsport Nathan Freke / Vibe Smed 39 laps etcFastest lap: Fisken 1m 22.205s / 84.95mph
Round 7, 42 laps = 81.48 milesOverall & GT31 Trackspeed Porsche 911 GT3R David Ashburn / Glynn Geddie 1h 0m 19.489s / 81.04mph2 MTECH Ferrari 430 Scud Duncan Cameron / Matt Griffin (IRL) +15.113s3 GT3 Racing Viper CC Craig Wilkins / Aaron Scott +42.687s4 Chad Ferrari 430 Scud Chris Hyman (RSA) / Dan Brown +50.542s5 Predator CCTV Ferrari 430 Scud Phil Burton / Adam Wilcox +1m 08.556s6 Rollcentre Mosler MT900 Martin Short / Gregor Fisken 41 lapsG4 Class1 Chad Racing KTM X-Bow Athanasios Ladas (GRE) / Michael Mallock 41 laps2 Piranha Motorsport Lotus 2-Eleven Chris Bialan / Simon Mason 40 laps3 Century Motorsport Nathan Freke / Vibe Smed 40 laps4 Speedworks Ginetta G50 Christian Dick / Jamie Stanley 40 lapsFastest lap: Geddie 1m 21.901s / 85.27mph
