Scuderia Ecosse and Team Tiger Celebrate Two Wins from Two British GT Races

17 April 2006

Scuderia Ecosse celebrated two wins out of two at Oulton Park today with Chris Niarchos taking the chequered flag at the end of the second 60 minute Avon Tyres British GT race. The pairing of Tim Mullen and Chris Niarchos, starting from pole position, dominated the proceedings with the Team LNT Panoz Esperante GTLM of Luke Hines and Tom Kimber-Smith not having an answer to the pace of the Ferrari 430 GT2.

The Team Tiger Marcos Mantis also added a second win in the GTC class to the one they took on Saturday but they had to fight all the way to the chequered flag with the Trackspeed Porsche’s of Jonny Lang / Matt Allison and David Ashburn and Ryan Hooker taking 2nd and 3rd respectively.

As the pace car pulled into the pitlane and the lights flashed to green the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari of Tim Mullen accelerated down towards Old Hall side-by-side with the Team LNT Panoz of Tom Kimber-Smith. On the exit Mullen got ahead, with Ian Flux in the Rollcentre Racing Mosler slotting in behind the leading pair. Ryan Hooker (Trackspeed Porsche 996 GT3) led the GTC class on the run down towards Shell Oils Corner with the Team Tiger Marcos of Jon Finnemore filling the rear view mirrors of the Porsche.

On lap 2 Finnemore got the run on Hooker and over took the Porsche on the run down to Shell. The first casualty of the race was the second placed GTC car from race 1 of Ian Stinton who pulled off the circuit at Fosters. The GT2 Porsche of David Jones dropped down the order from 6th to 17th after a spin and then began a race long run back up the field for the Team Eurotech Porsche.

At the end of the second lap Mullen was leading Kimber-Smith by 0.8 seconds and slowly opening up a lead at about 0.6 seconds per lap. Finnemore got a breather when the Mosler of Lee Caroline, making his way up the field, got between the leading GTC car and the chasing David Ashburn.

As the race continued Tim Mullen continued to set a franetic pace and by lap 8 had opened a 3.9 second gap to the Panoz. The Mosler of Lee Caroline managed to get past the quick GTC Marcos at Knickerbrook and the Eclipse Motorsport driver set off after the sister Mosler of Ian Flux in 3rd place and 18 seconds further up the road.

Further back Matt Allison in the number 5 Trackspeed Porsche was on the move, overtaking the David Dove Racing Ferrari of Calum Lockie on the run down through Cascades.

On lap 10 Gary Eastwood (Motorbase Performance Porsche) stopped on the circuit at Clay Hill but managed to pull off the circuit. The GTC battle was hotting up as Ashburn got on terms with Finnemore, with Phil Glew in the #17 RPM Porsche joing the three way battle for the class lead. On Lap 12 Glew pulled into the pits and in retirement, leaving Finnemore and Ashburn to fight it out as the pitstops approached.

On lap 20 the leading Ferrari came into the pits after building a 10 second cushion to the following Panoz. Mullen handed over to Niarchos and the Scuderia Ecosse team got their man back on the track in good order. The Panoz came in on the next lap and Luke Hines took over from Tom Kimber-Smith. As the Panoz came out of the pits Hines saw a flash of red at the end of the pitlane. At the end of the lap teh gap had been reduced to 2.7 seconds but the Ferrari still held the advantage.

Niarchos then started to build on his lead, with Hines unable to stay in touch with the flying Ferrari. By lap 30 the gap had increased to 4.5 seconds.

In the GTC class Chris Beighton had taken the controls of the leading Marcos Mantis, with David Ashburn and Jonny Lang fighting for the other class podium positions.

At the flag it was the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari for the second time this weekend, with the Team LNT Panoz 6.1 seconds adrift in second place. The Eclipse Mosler of Caroline and Keen was a distant third but still on the lead lap, ahead of the recovering Team Eurotech Porsche of the Davies brothers.

In GTC Chris Beighton got past the Rollcentre Racing Mosler of Kevin Riley to finish 5th overall, with Jonny Lang taking second place from Trackspeed team mate David Ashburn.

SRO

See 2006 series calendar for British GT Championship

Related Story 16.04.2006 - First Blood to Mullen and Niarchos in British GT