Second British GT One-Two for Scuderia Ecosse at Castle Combe

26 June 2005

Scuderia Ecosse stormed to yet another one-two finish at Castle Combe on Sunday afternoon. Nathan Kinch and Andrew Kirkaldy finished in first place in the nr 35 Ferrari 360 Modena just ahead of the sister car, the nr 34 driven by Tim Mullen and Chris Niarchos. "It can't get better than that," a very happy Kinch commented after the race. "We had to work hard today but it was a great race."

Tim Mullen was under immense pressure from the nr 55 Embassy Porsche, Ben Collins behind the wheel, in the opening stages, while Kirkaldy pulled away at the front, extending his lead to up to 5.9 seconds after only five laps. However, on lap six Tim Mullen managed to pass the Embassy Porsche and started to chase his team-mate for the top spot.

The Safety Car was called out on lap 21, just as the pit stop window opened, after Steven Wood spun in the nr 99 Team Eurotech Porsche. All the leading cars came into the pits and when the SC was called in, the Embassy Porsche was leading ahead of Nathan Kinch and Chris Niarchos. Kinch was able to close on Cunningham easily and when the Porsche driver ran wide coming out of the chicane, Kinch charged past.

Meanwhile, the nr 77 Team Eurotech Porsche of Mike Jordan and Michael Caine was running in a solid fifth place. But a manoeuvre past their team-mates Jones in the nr 22 Porsche and an additional pit stop from Embassy Racing meant the Eurotech car nr 77 found itself in third position. "This is as good as it gets," Mike Jordan said afterwards. "We are very pleased to be on the podium and it's good from a Championships point of view."

The nr 55 Embassy Porsche of Ben Collins and Neil Cunningham finished in fourth, followed by the nr 22 Team Eurotech Porsche of the Jones brothers, just ahead of the nr 69 Eclipse Motorsport Mosler of Phil Keen and Steve Hyde.

Chris Beighton and Jon Finnemore in the nr 81 Team Tiger Marcos Mantis snapped victory in the last lap of the race from nr 21 United Christian Broadcaster with Allan Simonsen and Hector Lester behind the wheel. The nr 21 Ferrari 360 was running in first for the entire race and was even in sixth place overall at one stage. Even a spin for Lester on lap 36, coming out of Camp Corner, couldn't spoil their lead.

However, the Marcos Mantis, which was slowly moving its way up the order, found itself in second place in the last laps of the race, closing in highly on the Ferrari of Hector Lester. On the last lap of the race, the Marcos, with Chris Beighton behind the wheel at the time, made a great move and took home victory number two for the Team Tiger team in the 2005 season. "It was a great race," Beighton commented later. "It was a really good fight with Allan and he drove really well. Every now and then we get everything together and have a really good day and today was one of them."

GT3 class leader Tech 9's Piers Masarati and Dimitris Deverikos finished the race in third position.

The nr 15 Damax Ferrari of Marco Attard and Nick Adams came fourth, followed by the nr 12 JMH Ferrari 360 of Phil Burton and birthday boy Adam Wilcox. 17-year-old Miles Hulford and his team-mate Jamie Smyth took home a good sixth place in the nr 16 Damax Ferrari after suffering from technical problems in the last couple of races.

SRO

See 2005 series calendar for British GT Championship

Related Story 26.06.2005 - Kinch and Kirkaldy Storm to Victory at Castle Combe