Scuderia Ecosse Take 10th Victory of 2006 as Machitski is Crowned British GT3 Champion

25 September 2006

Tim Mullen and Chris Niarchos (Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari 430 GT2) scored another overall victory in the 2-hour Avon Tyres British GT Championship race at Silverstone, finishing well ahead of the Team LNT Panoz of Tom Kimber-Smith and Luke Hines. Thye now hold a 4 point lead in the championship battle with two races remaining at Magny Cours next month.

However it was all smiles for Leo Machitski as he was crowned as British GT3 champion, finishing, with Jonathan Cocker in the Barwell Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9, 2nd in class behind Piers Masarati and Matt Harris (Trackspeed Porsche 997) but well ahead of the Lotus Exige of George MacKintosh and Sam Blogg to lift the title.

GTC was won by Phil Keen and Ryan Hooker (Trackspeed Porsche 996 GT3), ahead of Bradley Ellis and Alex Mortimer (Team RPM Porsche 996) and Matt Allison and Jonny Lang (Trackspeed Porsche 996). The title is still undecided pending an appeal against the steward's decision to reinstate Phil Keen and Ryan Hooker to 2nd in class in Round 13 at Brands Hatch.

At the start it was Ian Flux who shot off the line in the 7-litre Mosler to take a decisive lead at the end of lap 1 ahead of the very rapid Damax Ascari with Andrew Thompson at the wheel, which was running in the Invitation class because of ballast weight problems. The #57 Panoz driven by Luke Hines was right behind the Ascari and soon swept past to take 2nd place on lap 2. The pole position holder Chris Niarchos in the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari was back in 4th place now behind the Ascari but not able to close the 2 second gap that Thompson was enjoying.

By lap 2 Flux had opened up a 5.4 second cushion to Hines and by lap 6 this had risen to 13.5 seconds. In the GT3 class Leo Machitski in the Aston Martin DBRS9 was coming under pressure from Barrie Whight in the little Lotus Exige and on lap 5 Whight swept past as the two cars entered the complex. It was looking good for the Lotus Sport Cadena Exige but on lap 11 it all went wrong when a trip into the gravel at Bridge put an end to this early pace. Whight managed to rejoin but he was well down the order in 20th. This promoted Machitsky back to the head of the class but was now coming under pressure from Matt Harris in the Trackspeed Porsche 997. The two cars were nose to tail as they crossed the line to begin lap 18 and at Ireland Harris managed to squeeze past the Aston to take the class lead and 5th overall.

The Emotional Engineering Monaro had beached itself in the gravel at Becketts when Luke Hines span the Team LNT Panoz all on its own. A cautionary oil flag was displayed as a suspected oil leak was the cause of both cars misfortune. Hines rejoined quite quickly but he was now 4th behind Chris Niarchos. Two laps later the Richmond Racing Ginetta went off at Becketts with broken suspension and came to rest in a dangerous position. This brought the safety car out much to the disappointment of Ian Flux and the Rollcentre Racing team who had a built up a 38 second advantage, which was now going to be nullified in one fell swoop.

As the safety car circulated many of the competitors took advantage to take their pitstops early. The Beechdean Ferrari came in to refuel but a flash fire nearly spelt disaster for the team. Quick thinking by the fire marshal allowed the team to rejoin the battle without much delay.

After five laps under the safety car the race went green. The GT3 championship leaders in the #20 Lotus Sport Cadena Exige had to make an unscheduled pitstop with a puncture, pushing MacKintosh and Blogg further down the order and further away from Machitski, their GT3 title hopes fading fast.

The gravel trap at Becketts claimed two further victims as the Eclipse Mosler of Elliot Cole and teh Team Skater Marcos of Mark Powell both ended up in the 'kitty litter'. Meanwhile the lead had passed to Tim Mullen in the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari after Andrew Thompson in the Damax Ascari went off at Becketts, rejoining in 8th place. Mullen had a big advantage over the Rollcentre Mosler, which was now being piloted by Kevin Riley but Riley had Tom Kimber-Smith homing in after the Panoz had neatly dispatched the Trackspeed Porsche 997 with Piers Masarati at the wheel. As the race entered the final quarter, the Panoz got past the Mosler but Mullen now had a 54 second advantage over Kimber-Smith and increased this gap lap after lap.

Kevin Riley decided to head to the pits to hand the car back to the rapid Ian Flux for the final few laps.

In GTC Matt Allison had been heading for a class win when a drive through penalty was handed to the #5 Trackspeed Porsche, dropping them down behind their championship rivals Ryan Hooker and Phil Keen. After the drive through Allison came under attack from Alex Mortimer and in the final stages of the race Mortimer took the position, 8th overall and 2nd in class. Phil Keen was passed by Flux but he took the class win well ahead of Mortimer.

At the front the chequered flag was shown to Tim Mullen for the 10th time this season, with Tom Kimber-Smith in second over a minute down the road. Piers Masarati brought the Trackspeed Porsche 997 home in 3rd overall and 1st in GT3, four places ahead of Jonathan Cocker in the Barwell Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9, but he had done enough to secure the GT3 drivers title for his co-driver Leo Machitski.

'Fluxie' had managed to get back up to 5th overall and 3rd in GT2 by the time the chequered flag but was left thinking what might have been if the safety car had not spoilt the race for the ultra radid Rollcentre Racing Mosler.

Leo Machitski: "I don't have any words to describe what I'm feeling right now. This is only my second year of motorsport and to be crowned British GT3 champion is absolutely incredible. I want to say thank you to Barwell, thank you my parents and thank you to Jonny (Cocker), he has helped me bring me here. I also want to say a huge, huge thanks to my wife for being so understanding of my racing career and I want to dedicate this win to my unborn baby. I think we're off to celebrate now, I hear we're having a party at home. We going to do FIA GT3 next year so the aim now is to win that, that's the goal. We're a good pairing, we work well together, so it's definately Jonny next year, we're just working on the deals."

Jonathan Cocker:" It's been a fantastic season. I'd like to say thank you to Leo for giving me the opportunity to compete this year in both championships (British GT and FIA GT3). The aim of today and the weekend was to get enough to get Leo the win, there was no point pushing. We ended up with second, which was a good result in the end but we did what we had to do. A fantastic result for Leo, myself and the team."

SRO

See 2006 series calendar for British GT Championship

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