Kinch and Kirkaldy Storm to Victory at Castle Combe

26 June 2005

Nathan Kinch and Andrew Kirkaldy secured victory in the first race at Castle Combe, which took place on Saturday afternoon.

Kinch and Kirkaldy had a trouble-free race in their nr 35 Ferrari 360 Modena. However, the nr 69 Mosler of Eclipse Motorsport, with Phil Keen behind the wheel at the time, did give Nathan Kinch a run for his money, when he charged past the Ferrari in the opening laps to take the lead. But an unforeseen pit stop for the Mosler crew forced Keen to come in, returning the lead to Kinch. The Mosler rejoined in 16th place.

The nr 35 then retained the lead, allowing Kinch and Kirkaldy to take another win and extend their Championship lead. "Nathan [Kinch] lost some time coming into the pit stop as he had a slow back marker in front of him, but apart from that it went really well for us," Kirkaldy commented after the podium. "We expected to do well here."

Tim Mullen and Chris Niarchos in the sister nr 34 Scuderia Ferrari 360 finished in second place behind their team-mates, despite Niarchos having a spin coming out of Camp Corner at the beginning of the race. Niarchos was attempting to overtake the nr 77 Team Eurotech Porsche of Mike Jordan when he spun coming towards the pit straight.

The nr 55 Embassy Porsche of Neil Cunningham and Ben Collins finished the race in third place, followed by nr 77 Team Eurotech Porsche of Mike Jordan and Michael Caine. After running in the top three in the opening laps of the race, the nr 69 Eclipse Mosler MT900R of Phil Keen and Steve Hyde finished in fifth place with the nr 10 Nissan RJN Motorsport of Michael Bentwood in sixth position.

Team LNT did not take the start, having opted to withdraw further to issues with noise. The T400Rs were unable to run at the reduced noise limit imposed at Castle Combe following the local residents' Noise Nuisance Order, without additional risk of engine damage.

After pulling out of the Thruxton round due to technical problems with the car, the nr 21 Ferrari 360 of Allan Simonsen and Hector Lester (United Christian Broadcasters) won the race in the GT3 category. Hector Lester started the race and was running in mid-field when he came in for the pit stop. After Simonsen took over the Ferrari, he re-joined in fourth place, charging past the likes of the nr 9 Tech 9 Porsche to take a superb win for the team. "It went very well for us in comparison to previous races," Hector Lester said. "We have finally sorted out our engine problems. However we had some last minute panics after we had problems with the noise restrictor. But luckily we fixed that and I really enjoyed the race."

UBC finished just ahead of the nr 20 Porsche of Trackspeed of David Ashburn and Fred Moss. Steven Wood and Mark Sumpter came third in the nr 99 Eurotech Porsche. The nr 30 Porsche of Martin Rich and Julien Westwood finished the race in fourth place.

The nr 81 Marcos Mantis of Jon Finnemore and Chris Beighton was leading most of the race in the GT3 class and was running in fourth place overall at one stage. However the Team Tiger car dropped down the order after they were forced to make a second pit stop. Finnemore and Beighton eventually finished in fifth position, followed by the nr 23 Motorbase Porsche of Andy Britnell and Chris Stockton.

The nr 15 Damax Ferrari of Miles Hulford and Jamie Smyth appeared to be aiming for a podium finish after running in a strong second place at the beginning of the race. However, the team had to overcome the same engine problems they had in earlier races in the season. Hulford and Smyth were forced to retire mid-race.

SRO

See 2005 series calendar for British GT Championship

Related Story 25.06.2005 - Kinch and Kirkaldy on Pole for Both British GT Races at Castle Combe