Mullen and Lester Win British GT Round One Thriller

10 April 2007

Hector Lester and Tim Mullen scored the first win of the season in their Ferrari 430, winning a four way battle for the lead which saw Ferrari, Aston Martin, Ascari and Porsche finish in the top four.

Jonathan Cocker (#1 Barwell Motorsport Aston Martin) stormed away at the start from pole position to open up a large gap to the squabbling Oliver Bryant (#9 Tech 9 Porsche) and Hector Lester (#23 CiM Ferrari 430) with Lester having to defend his second place from a very determined Bryant. Bryant had earlier lost out to Guy Harrington in the #3 Barwell Aston Martin but regained the place on lap 3 to attack the second placed Ferrari.

Meanwhile Chris Beighton (#81 Team Tiger Marcos), having started at the back of the field following problems with a defective ECU in qualifying, was carving his way through the field in a car that was now firing on all eight cylinders. The GTC competitor was gaining on the class leader Jamie Smyth in the RSS Performance Porsche and Steve Hyde in the Team Aero Morgan. By lap 7 the Marcos had passed the Morgan and was closing on the Porsche but had the Barwell Aston of Tom Alexander between them.

By lap 11 Cocker had opened up a 11 second lead over Lester but it was all for nothing when the safety car was deployed to recover the Ascari of Phil Hopkins. The field closed up but Cocker had the Beechdean Motorsport Ferrari of Andrew Howard between him and Lester as the field circulated behind the Ford Focus ST.

The lights went out and the safety car peeled off into the pitlane at the end of lap 10 and racing recommenced with Cocker once again pulling away as Lester failed to get past Howard in the GTC Ferrari into Old Hall. On lap 12 the pit window opened and Lester decided to come in to hand over to Tim Mullen while Cocker continued to circulate, pulling away from Oliver Bryant, who was now in second and third placed Guy Harrington. Chris Beighton used the safety car to good effect to move ahead of Jamie Smyth at the restart to take the lead in GTC.

As Mullen came out of the pits Alex Mortimer came out in front and Mullen took a couple of corners before he could get past the mighty Team RPM Dodge Viper.

Cocker finally came in on lap 19 to hand over to Paul Drayson and he had opened up enough of a gap to allow Drayson to rejoin in the lead as Mullen was fighting with Matt Harris in the Tech9 Porsche for 2nd place. While the two cars fought for the minor podium places, Drayson was able to keep the lead. Meanwhile Godfrey Jones (#22 Team Eurotech - Preci Spark Ascari) closed up the battling cars , with Michael Bentwood (#2 Barwell Aston Martin DBRS9) closing up to join in the fun.

On lap 25 Mullen finally got past Harris and started to put pressure on the lead car, which worked as Drayson 'over cooked it' on the exit of Lodge and spun across the track, rejoining in 5th place behind teammate Michael Bentwood.

Mullen then consolidated his lead at the front of the field, opening up a 4.4 second gap by lap 28 to Harris. Bentwood made his move on the same lap, moving into 3rd ahead of Jones and a lap later moved into 2nd, driving past Harris at Cascades.

As the race drew to a close Jones got alongside Harris as the pair crossed the line, with Harris on the inside and Jones on the outside. However the Ascari carried the speed into the corner and Jones drove around the outside of Harris in the move of the race.

As the chequered flag was displayed it was Mullen who took the win, 5.1 seconds ahead of Bentwood and a further 2.3 seconds ahead of Jones.

Jon Finnemore brought the Team Tiger Marcos home for the win in GTC, ahead of Graeme Mundy in the RSS Performance Porsche 996 and Keith Ahlers in the Team Aero Morgan Aero 8.

SRO

See 2007 series calendar for British GT Championship

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