British GT Wins for Porsche and Ferrari at Spa

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Category: British GT

Saturday, 09 July 2011

The Trackspeed and MTech teams shared the Avon Tyres British GT Championship glory at Spa-Francorchamps today, claiming a win apiece to shake up the championship standings. Through it all, however, came the United Autosports pairing of Mike Guasch and Matt Bell to retain a slender points lead.

Reigning champion David Ashburn and his co-driver Richard Westbrook claimed their second win of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship this morning at Spa-Francorchamps, their Trackspeed Porsche beating the Duncan Cameron/Matt Griffin MTech Ferrari to the chequered flag by 2.5s after an hour of fraught action. In GT4, Dan Denis and David McDonald claimed their first class victory for the Scuderia Vittoria team.

Westbrook sealed his victory thanks to some deft pitwork by the Trackspeed team and masterly handling of the traffic by the driver. A mid-race safety car period - brought into play when cars from some of the other championships involved in the race fell by the wayside - gave all the frontrunners the opportunity to pit together for their driver changes; Westbrook took over in front after the stops and handled the restart perfectly to pull a five-second gap over Griffin.

Though Matt whittled that advantage down to less than a second in the closing laps, and even managed briefly to nose ahead, his effort came too late to prevent Westbrook’s victory. “It was the safety car which killed us because Westie somehow managed to put a lapped car between him and me,” said Griffin. “We lost five seconds at the restart as a result and I pushed very hard to catch him, maybe hurting my tyres a little in the process. I made a good passing manoeuvre on him at Les Combes, but it was too slippery to hold it and he got me back.”

Cameron had put in a solid first stint in the MTech Ferrari, pitting from third behind the Ashburn/Westbrook Porsche and the new McLaren MP4-12C, which was making its international track debut as an non-points scoring invitation class runner. Chris Goodwin held the lead in the CRS Racing-run McLaren all the way to the 10th lap, before surrendering top spot to Ashburn and following him into the pits.

After the stops the McLaren held fifth for a lap before contact with another car resulted in a spin and a considerable loss of time. The MP4-12C was classified 12th overall.

Westbrook put the team’s victory down to good traffic management: “The Porsche isn’t really a match for a well-driven Ferrari 458, so you have to do as much as can; use your head, make a break with the traffic and that’s the only way we can compete. It was a good race, and in the end I just had enough. Matt was eating into my lead at the end. It was tough. It’s always nice to win, and all credit to David for bringing the car into the pits in the lead.”

The CRS Racing Ferrari 458 of father-and-son pairing Jim and Glynn Geddie claimed third, Jim driving well in the early laps to haul the car up from eighth on the grid to fifth before the stops; Glynn soon moved into third and closed down on the leaders to cross the line only 5s behind.

Andrew Tate and Alex Mortimer were another pairing to make good progress from a lowly grid slot, converting 12th on the grid to fourth at the line, ahead of the Andrew Howard/Jonathan Adam Beechdean Aston Martin, which picked off the faltering Trackspeed Porsche of Gregor Fisken/Tim Bridgman on the penultimate lap. Bridgman’s sixth became seventh on the final lap when he was passed by the United Autosports Audi of Mike Guasch/Matt Bell.

Phil Burton/Adam Wilcox claimed eighth in the Predator CCTV Ferrari, just ahead of the Ron Johnson/Piers Johnson Speedworks Corvette, which enjoyed a strong and reliable run to ninth and the team’s first points of the year. Godfrey and David Jones, the only front-runners not to pit at the start of the safety car period, completed the top 10 in the Preci-Spark Mercedes.

For once everything went right for the Scuderia Vittoria GT4 pairing of Dan Denis and David McDonald; Denis started from the pole in the Ginetta G50 and led comfortably all the way to the stops, and McDonald maintain the gap over the pursuing Ginetta of Josh Wakefield and Jake Rattenbury to score a handsome class victory, the duo’s first of the season.

“My qualifying yesterday was fantastic,” said Denis. “I got a good start and built a comfortable lead, and my pace was good. I was a bit worried when the safety car came out that I would lose my big lead but the team did a great job in the pits and David drove quickly and sensibly. It’s great finally to get a win.”

Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin and the MTech team ran out the winners of the second Spa-Francorchamps race this afternoon, taking their first victory of the season at the wheel of their new Ferrari 458 Italia. They beat the Gregor Fisken/Tim Bridgman Trackspeed Porsche to the chequered flag by 0.9s, with Aston Martin drivers Andrew Howard and Jonathan Adam third for the Beechdean Motorsport team. In GT4, Ollie Jackson and Phil Glew claimed their first class win of the season, and a maiden win for the Lotus Evora GT4.

First-race victor Richard Westbrook led the way from pole position for Trackspeed, building an eight-second lead by the eighth lap, but his team-mate, reigning champion David Ashburn, failed to get his turn at the wheel - the Porsche collected some tyre damage on lap nine and was forced to retire to the pits.

That put Griffin, who had made a cautious start in the slippery early laps, into top spot for six laps until he pitted to hand the Ferrari over to Cameron. The rest of the top five, headed by the Geddie family CRS Ferrari and the Fisken/Bridgman Porsche, all pitted at the same time. Pit work and driver changes complete, Cameron maintained the lead by 3.8s from the Howard/Adam Aston and the Geddie Ferrari.

But fourth-placed Fisken was in determined mood, dislodging Jim Geddie for third on lap 16 and Howard for second three laps later. By this stage Cameron was 7s to the good, but Gregor whittled away at the gap and brought it down to a second by the start of the final lap. It was not quite enough. “It was very close,” said Gregor. “I certainly wasn’t going to settle for second if I could have taken the win. The team kept telling me I was taking time out of him, but it would have needed a mistake from Duncan really to get past him cleanly. Duncan was driving very well; it was a real good scrap.”

Griffin was delighted by his team-mate’s performance to hold on to the lead: “I didn’t get a great start and was fourth. It took a little time for our car to get to where I wanted it to be grip-wise, but once it did I was able to get past Alex Mortimer and Glynn Geddie and started to catch Richard; he then must have had some sort of problem and I got the lead and was able to get my head down and build a lead. Duncan jumped in and did an incredible job under a lot of pressure. We got the win and we’re over the moon.”

Added Cameron: “Fantastic. First win of the season; let’s hope it’s the first of many.”

Howard brought the Aston home third just 6.7s behind the winner, with the new Invitation class McLaren passing both the Geddie Ferrari and the Guasch/Bell Audi on the final lap to claim fourth at the line. The championship-leading Audi also passed the Ferrari on the final tour to gain a crucial points advantage over the CRS pairing.

Another superb drive by Piers Johnson and Ron Johnson brought the Speedworks Motorsport Corvette pairing seventh, and earned the Sunoco Driver of the Weekend Award for Ron. The Allan Simonsen/Hector Lester Rosso Verde Ferrari never recovered from a poor start and finished eighth, ahead of the Michael Lyons/Charles Bateman Scuderia Vittoria Ferrari and the John Bintcliffe/Jay Palmer United Autosports Audi.

After missing the first race through technical problems, the GT3B MTech Ferrari 430 of John Dhillon and Aaron Scott fought through from the back of the grid to finish 12th overall and claim class honours.

In GT4, the first-race class victors, Dan Denis and David McDonald fought a pitched battle with the Phil Glew/Ollie Jackson Lotus for much of the race. The Lotus gained the upper hand after three laps and maintained its advantage after the pit stops to win by 23s. It was not Denis and McDonald in second spot, however - their afternoon went wrong on the penultimate lap when their Ginetta’s gearbox developed a problem.

That allowed class points leaders Marcus Clutton and Peter Belshaw in their ABG KTM through for second, ahead of Aston Martin men Chris Holmes and Peter Erceg, who claimed a maiden class podium placing for the Secure Racing/Barwell Motorsport squad.

“Phil handed the car over to me in the lead,” said Jackson, “and though it was tough out there with all the cars on track we made it through in the end for a great result for Lotus Sport UK.”

The British GT Championship is sponsored by UK tyre manufacturer Avon Tyres and is further supported by Sunoco Racing Fuels, Anglo American Oil Company and OAMPS.