Nathan Kinch and Andrew Kirkaldy Clinch British
GT Victory at Thruxton
30 May 2005
Nathan Kinch and Andrew Kirkaldy in the no 35 Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari
won today's first GT race of the weekend at Thruxton. Their sister
Ferrari 360 Modena had
less luck with Chris Niarchos behind the wheel when a huge cloud of smoke out
of the back of the car signalled a broken gearbox and meant they didn't leave
the starting grid. "I had a good start but there was oil on the track and
I spun and lost a few positions," Kinch said in the press conference. "Thankfully
the safety car came out and we benefited from it. Today showed that anything
can happen, it doesn't matter if you have the fastest car or not."
The no 69 Mosler MT900R had a very strong run consistently fighting
for the lead and giving both TVR's a hard time. However, when the
Safety Car was called out
following a spin for the no 2 Mosler of Gavan Kershaw, the four leading cars
came in for their driver changes with the positions altering drastically. Once
the stops had been made, Warren Hughes emerged at the head of the field in
the TVR with Andrew Kirkaldy in the lone Ferrari having jumped
up to second place.
Steve Hyde had dropped from first to third in the Mosler, with Michael Bentwood
having benefited from a great pitstop from the RJN Motorsports team to move
up to fourth in the Nissan 350Z.
Kirkaldy was soon right on the tail of the leading TVR and having battled
from Club right through to Segrave side by side, the Ferrari finally
found a way through
on the next lap. From there, Kirkaldy eased himself away at the front to take
another victory with Hughes maintaining position to give LNT an impressive second
following the disappointment of Knockhill a week ago. Jonny Kane battled up the
order past both Hyde and Bentwood to give LNT a two-three finish with Bentwood
bringing the Nissan home in a superb fourth place.
Patrick Pearce and Andrew Thompson of LNT who started the
race in second and fourth position, battled with each other in the
opening laps
of the race, which
saw Pearce moving passed his team-mate's car. But in the end, Patrick Pearce
and Warren Hughes had to settle for second position in the no 43 TVR T400R. Jonny
Kane in the no 42 TVR battled up the order past both Hyde and Bentwood to finish
in third place. "It's been a while since I had some silverware," Thompson
said after finishing his first ever British GT race. "The track conditions
were a bit warmer for the race and I struggled to adapt at first. Patrick got
past me but we had a fair gap to the car in fourth so we just settled down and
drove consistently."
After starting the race in sixth position in the Morgan, Keith Ahlers
and Oliver Bryant won in the GT3 class after a fantastic performance
from both drivers." I'm
delighted," Ahlers admitted. "This is our third season in GT3 in
the British GT Championship and we've had numerous podiums but have always
missed
out on the top spot and to have done that is just fantastic!"
Andy Britnell and Tim Harvey from Motorbase Performance finished the
race in second position after a superb stint from Harvey in the Porsche
GT3. "I
qualified terribly in 14th but got us up to eighth or ninth when we pitted under
the safety car," Britnell commented. "But by then we'd already lost
a lap to the leaders. Tim just drove 40 minutes as quickly as he could and
did a fantastic job."
Team Tech 9 had a disappointing race, which saw them dropping from
the lead down into third position after a puncture forced Piers Masarati
to come into
the pits
a second time. However, both Masarati and his team-mate Dimitris Deverikos
haven't lost hope. "I'm disappointed but we still got points for the championship," Dimitris
Deverikos said. "We are still optimistic for the race tomorrow."
SRO
See 2005 series calendar for British GT Championship
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GT Heads South to Thruxton
