Embassy Racing Secures Its First-Ever Victory
at Knockhill
22 May 2005
Jonathan France and his Embassy Racing claimed their first-ever victory
in the
British GT Championship, after a dramatic first race at Knockhill.
In the wet and tricky conditions, Neil Cunningham and Ben Collins took
advantage of an inspired tyre choice to put the memories of Donington
Park and Magny-Cours
behind them, securing the win that team-owner France has been looking for since
his team entered the championship at the start of the 2004 season.
Neil Cunningham, who started the race on slick tyres from fourth position
on
the grid, drove a superb first stint. "The first few laps were scary until
I got heat in the tyres but then I could pick the others off," Cunningham
said afterwards. "Today it came our way for a change. This has been a great
win for the team. We've had some bad luck this season; we did all our testing
but then at the first race, things fell apart. This hopefully sees us on the
road to success and there will be more podiums to come. Everyone needs a good
result and it is excellent motivation for everyone in the team"
As the teams lined up on the damp grid for the start, the majority
of the field elected to go for intermediate tyres, but both Cunningham
and Bryce Wilson in
the RJN Motorsport Nissan 350Z gambled on the rain staying away, and took the
start on slick rubber.
In the opening laps, the runners on intermediate tyres were on the
pace, with Mike Jordan in the Eurotech Porsche taking pole-man Nathan
Kinch around the outside
as the pack headed into Duffus Dip for the first time. The following laps saw
a great battle between Mike Jordan and the Scuderia Ecosse driver.
Behind the front two, Patrick Pearce in the Team LNT TVR - with a fresh
engine after problems in practice - was running in a strong third
place and keeping
pace with the top two, with Chris Niarchos fourth, David Jones fifth and Cunningham
rounding out the top six.
However, despite battling his way past Kinch for second, Pearce was
left to ponder what might have been when the #43 LNT TVR T400 R was
given a stop-and-go penalty,
due to the team working on the car after the two minute board had been shown.
This forced him to bring his car into pit lane and dropping the team down the
order.
By lap eight, the track was starting to become more favourable for
those with slick tyres. Cunningham was fighting with Niarchos for
third, while Wilson was
showing an impressive turn of speed in the Nissan as he hunted down Jones in
the black Eurotech Porsche.
Within a matter of laps, Cunningham had fought his way past Niarchos
for third and then made a move on the sister car of Kinch into the
hairpin to take second.
Half a lap later and the Embassy Porsche was out in front after taking Jordan
at the chicane, with Wilson proving slicks was the right choice of tyre by taking
both Jones and Niarchos to go fourth.
With the driver changes complete, Ben Collins maintained the lead
for Embassy although Andrew Kirkaldy, in the nr 35 Ferrari, was
rapidly closing in. However,
the news soon filtered through that both Scuderia Ecosse cars had been given
drive-through penalties for changing tyres and drivers at the same time during
their stops. This gave Collins some breathing space at the front, of which
he took advantage to secure a maiden win for Embassy, to the delight
of team boss
Jonathan France.
Despite the penalty, the two Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari cars of Kinch
/ Kirkaldy and Mullen/ Niarchos secured podium finishes, with the
Jordan/Caine Porsche overcoming
a spin to take fourth ahead of the Jones Porsche.
"We're pleased but we were after the win," Nathan Kinch
admitted. "We
knew we had a good car but you can't do anything about the weather. We thought
we were doing the right thing by starting on intermediates but unfortunately
the cloud above us never turned to rain. We still got eight points towards
the Championship, which is good. We didn't get the win, but there is
always tomorrow."
Warren Hughes and Patrick Pearce overcame both the penalty and a
trip across the grass following an accident for the Scott/Wood
Porsche to take sixth in the
TVR, with Bryce Wilson and Ally McKever bringing the Nissan home seventh.
In GT3, the early showing of Deverikos was enough to help
Tech 9 to another class win as Piers Masarati brought the Porsche home
in
an impressive eighth place
overall.
"Dimitris made the right tyre choice and did a mega stint so
I didn't have to push," Masarati said afterwards. I had no third
gear so I had to go from second to fourth which isn't easy with a sequential
gearbox but that's no excuse.
We have a good package and as long as the gearbox is reliable then we will
hopefully win some more races."
Marco Attard and Nick Adams secured another second place in the Damax
Ferrari, while Martin Rich and Julian Westwood finished in third
position in the Team
Parker Porsche despite starting the race from the pit-lane. "We came down
from the paddock on wets but when we got here we realised it was the wrong way
to go," Rich explains. "We were five seconds too slow in changing tyres
and the pit-lane closed. Slick tyres was clearly the right decision and it's
just a shame we didn't do it in time. Because we were at the back, quite frankly
you can't go any further back, so I was able to bed things in while I got some
heat into the tyres and then I could make my way up the field and just pick people
off."
SRO
See 2005 series calendar for British GT Championship
Related Story 21.05.2005 - Double
British GT Pole for Kinch and Kirkaldy at Knockhill
