Britnell and Stockton Win Wet British GT Race at Croft

08 May 2005

New team Motorbase Performance made a great start to their 2005 British GT season with victory in the second Croft race in their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.

Heavy rain before the race gave the GT3 teams reason to worry before the start, but with the circuit still wet following the first Formula Ford race, most of the field decided to start the race on full wet tyres. Only Ian Flux in the JMH Ferrari and Allan Simonsen in the United Christian Broadcasters Ferrari started on intermediate tyres but it proved to be the wrong choice as Simonsen went off at the first corner and Flux was forced to pit for wets at the end of the first lap.

Starting from sixth on the grid, Andy Britnell worked his way up the order during his time behind the wheel and had soon battled his way up to second place. That left him chasing Oliver Bryant in the Team Aero Morgan; as he said afterwards, he felt confident that he was catching the leader. "After I overtook Piers Masarati, I slowly made my way up to catch Oliver [Bryant]," Britnell commented afterwards. "The conditions weren't too bad. The visibility at the front was good, but I couldn't see what was behind me. I knew Allan Simonsen was there somewhere, and I was sure he would be getting closer when it dried, as he was on intermediates."

After the driver changes, Britnell's team-mate, Chris Stockton, eventually passed Bryant, who was driving the Morgan alone, due to Keith Ahlers racing in Germany. Stockton therefore found himself in the lead, even though it was the first time he had raced a Porsche in the wet. "The first two laps I didn't even look at the lap times. I just wanted to get my head down and be as quick as possible," Stockton said later. "To be honest the Porsche felt just really nice to drive. I tried to get as close as possible to the backrunners coming down towards Tower to be able to overtake Oliver. He was very fair in the manoeuvre. After that we just kept it clean and stayed in the lead."

Despite missing out on a possible victory, Bryant managed to hold on and finish the race in second place. "I was a bit shocked to see myself leading the race after the first lap," Bryant admitted afterwards. "I thought that as long as I didn't get overtaken by too many people I should hopefully get a podium finish here today. Towards the end, when it started to rain again, and the Porsche of Chris Stockton and Andy Britnell came past me, I just settled for second place and tried not to make any mistakes."

Miles Hulford and Jamie Smyth, in their Damax Ferrari 360, were unlucky during Saturday's race, losing the ABS and going into the barriers, but had a better race today. Hulford had an excellent stint, which saw him start from ninth and climb up to fourth position before coming into the pit stops. "I was a bit disappointed not to drive yesterday, but I made up for it today," Hulford said. "I just tried to go at an even pace and catch Martin Rich again. But Jamie did a really good job and managed to go past him later on." After Smyth got back onto the track he soon got up to third position - a position he maintained until the end.

Marco Attard and Nick Adams in the second Damax Ferrari 360 finished in fourth place, followed by the Porsche of Martin Rich and Julian Westwood (Team Parker Racing), who set the fastest time of the race of 1:33.576.

Tech 9's Piers Masarati, who started the race from pole position, dropped through the field with an ill-handling car, and commenting after the race, he stated that the car was very stiff and difficult to handle in today's difficult conditions. A switch to intermediate tyres didn't help team-mate Dimitris Deverikos when it started to rain again later in the race and the team had to settle for sixth.

The Marco Mantis of Chris Beighton and Jon Finnemore, which started in third place on the grid, led for the opening lap but went off on lap four. Beighton had to pit with a damaged rear wing; from then onwards, the Team Tiger car ran near the rear of the field, eventually finishing in 16th position.

Despite his first lap off, Simonsen and team-mate Hector Lester recovered to bring the United Christian Broadcasters Ferrari home in 12th place.

SRO

See 2005 series calendar for British GT Championship

Related Story 08.05.2005 - Clean Win for Tech 9 in British GT Race One at Croft