British GT Win Number Two for Kinch and Kirkaldy at Thruxton

30 May 2005

The no 35 Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari 360 Modena of Nathan Kinch and Andrew Kirkaldy made it two out of two wins with victory in the second race around the 2.356 miles of Thruxton on Sunday afternoon. "It was a straightforward victory for us," Kirkaldy said in the press conference. This was our strongest track and we had to get two wins. Tim stayed with me until the start of the pit stops and that was our only real concern."

Kinch had a good fight with team-mate Tim Mullen in the no 34 Ferrari. However, when Chris Niarchos took over the car in the pit stop his car refused to start, which meant Niarchos could only re-join in fourth place after getting a helping hand from some of his mechanics. "It's so frustrating," Tim Mullen said when he got out of the car. "My stint was so good and it would have got very close between the two of us. We should have taken more advantage here at Thruxton, because it suits our car so well."

After the start, both LNT TVRs followed the Ferraris in third and fourth position. Running towards the complex, contact between the no 55 Embassy Porsche of Ben Collins and the no 43 TVR of Warren Hughes caused a rear left puncture and the TVR had to come into the pits after lap one. Back out again the TVR was running well until a piece of Porsche wheel rim punctured the floor and broke the brake cylinder. "It's a real shame, because the car was in such a good shape," Hughes said.

The other TVR of Jonny Kane and Andrew Thompson was running in second place until the last lap, when the car suffered a puncture and had to slow down with Thompson bringing the car home fourth.

This made the way clear for Phil Keen and Steve Hyde in the no 69 Eclipse Motorsport Mosler. Starting from 23rd position on the grid, the team had a superb race which saw the Eclipse Motorsport team finishing on the podium in second place. "With my early efforts and Phil [Keen] doing some stunning laps we were able to make up the places," Hyde commented. "We didn't expect to be able to get second and it's a really good result."

New entry Cadena Racing with Barrie Whight and Gavan Kershaw had a great finish, putting another Mosler on the podium in third place. "It's a great result of us and the lap times were really quick.," Kershaw commented. "The thing which shows how well we did are the cars we had to pass. We inherited one position in the end but we had already fought up to fourth with some very good laps from Barrie [Whight] and myself."

The Marcos Mantis of Team Tiger, which retired in Saturday's race, took the win in the GT3 Class with Chris Beighton and Jon Finnemore behind the wheel. Starting the race in fourth place, the Marcos Mantis quietly worked it's way up the field and got the lead after the pit stops. The top three were very close together but in the end Bryant in the no 11 Morgan Aero couldn't spoil victory for Team Tiger. "The car was great today," Beighton said. "We finally managed to get our season started. Hopefully things will get better from here and we will go well again in the next race at Castle Combe. "

After first place yesterday, Oliver Bryant and Keith Ahlers finished second in the no 11 Morgan. Benefiting from an additional pit stop by Tech 9, the Team Aero took silverware for the second time this weekend. "It was brilliant," Oliver Bryant said later. "This was a really good weekend for us. The car ran well and I enjoyed the races. The team did a really good job, we had a great race yesterday and we had a great battle with the Marcos Mantis."
The Tech 9 team, who were running in second place, suffered a rear left puncture which forced Piers Masarati to come in and get a new tyre. Masarati and Deverikos finished the race in fourth position.

Andy Britnell and Tim Harvey finished in third position in the no 23 Motorbase Performance Porsche.
" Two podium finishes has been a good weekend. I had fun at the start of the race and was able to get ahead of some of the GT2 cars. Apart from a slight problem with the ECU towards the end of my stint it was the perfect race.

SRO

See 2005 series calendar for British GT Championship

Related Story 30.05.2005 - Kinch and Kirkaldy Clinch British GT Victory at Thruxton