Second Win of 2007 for Harrington and De Zille Butler
27 August
2007
Guy Harrington and Ben de Zille Butler scored a hard earned victory
at Thruxton, taking the chequered flag in Round 10 if the 2007 Avon
Tyres British GT Championship 2.4 seconds ahead of their team mates
Paul Drayson and Jonny Cocker. Alex Mortimer and Bradley Ellis took
their second podium of the weekend to stay in the championship hunt.
The GTC class was won by the Beechdean Ferrari of Andrew Howard and
Aaron Scott, with a popular 2nd place for the Richmond Racing Ginetta
of Richard Hollebon and Nick Marsh. The championship leading Porsche
996 finished a distant 3rd to claim 6 championship points after the
clutch cable snapped on the opening lap forcing Graeme Mundy and Jamie
Smyth to do the entire race stuck in 3rd gear.
Round 10
From pole position it was Jonny Cocker in the Barwell Motorsport Aston
Martin DBRS9 who led the grid away at the start of the race with Allan
Simonsen (#23 CiM Ferrari 430) latched onto his rear bumper. The rest
of the field led by Adam Wilcox (VRS Motor Finance Ferrari 430) started
to fall away from the leading pair.
Jamie Smyth (#54 RSS Performance Porsche 996) was the first visitor
to the pits with the Porsche stuck in third gear. On inspection a broken
clutch cable was diagnosed. The mechanics signaled the end of the race
but Smyth had other ideas and knew it was possible to get the car home
in third gear and collect the valuable championship points, so he instructed
the team to put the car off the jacks and he shot out of the pitlane
to rejoin the race.
Nigel Redwood (#7 Team RPM Viper) was making early progress from 11th
on the grid, finishing the opening lap in 8th and challenging teammate
Tim Harvey in the sister Viper for 7th. It took three laps but Redwood
finally passed Harvey on the outside of the the final chicane.
At the front Cocker was unable to shake off Simonsen, who maintained
a one second gap to the lead car. Third placed Adam Wilcox was falling
away from Simonsen as he had to defend his position from the attentions
of Alex Mortimer (#6 Team RPM Viper), Michael Bentwood (#2 Barwell
Aston Martin DBRS9) and Guy Harrington (#3 Barwell Aston Martin DBRS9)
who were all lined up behind the Ferrari for the opening laps of the
race.
Further down the field the Ascari of Godfrey Jones was moving up after
a poor start, passing Tommy Erdos (#10 Damax Ascari) on lap 6. Paul
Whight in the Cadena Motorsport Aston Martin was also making steady
progress passing Mark Cole (#4 Team 4Car Porsche 997) and Erdos in
short order.
Tim Harvey was being caught by Phil Keen (#11 Damax Ascari) and by
lap 10 the Ascari was all over the back of the black and red Viper
but then disaster for Keen as he went straight on at the Complex and
stopped against the barriers to retire with an unknown problem.
As the pit window approached Cocker finally started to open up a small
gap over Simonsen and by lap 25 this had opened up to 6.9 seconds.
Simonsen came in to hand over to Hector Lester, with the Christians
in Motorsport crew standing by with some fresh rubber. However as Lester
attempted to restart the Ferrari the car failed to fire up. Frustration
reigned in the pitlane as they eventually got the car started, but
precious time had been wasted and their chance of a podium with it.
Wilcox and Mortimer both pitted at the same time, Wilcox also electing
to change tyres on the Ferrari after handing it over to Phil Burton.
Mortimer handed the number 6 Viper over to Bradley Ellis but the Viper
crew didn’t put any new rubber on the car and they got back out
on track in short order. However as Ellis rounded the complex the drivers
door flew open and he struggled to shut the offending article while
steering with one hand. He eventually managed to get the door latch
to operate and continued at pace.
Jonny Cocker was one of the last to pit and used the cushion he had
built up to change both front tyres after handing over to Paul Drayson.
Daryson rejoined the track in the lead but he now had the sister Aston
Martin of Ben de Zille Butler catching him, with Bradley Ellis in 3rd
ahead of Tom Alexander in the third Barwell Aston. On lap 30 the gap
at the front was just under 13 seconds but the number 3 Aston was clawing
back a second a lap and Drayson knew he was going to have a fight on
his hands.
The Viper of Bradley Ellis started to fall away from de Zille Butler’s
Aston, while behind Ellis, Nick Foster at the wheel of the number 7
RPM Viper was being caught by Barrie Whight now at the wheel of the
Cadena Aston Martin. However Foster’s race came to a disappointing
end as he was forced to crawl back to the pits with a punctured front
left tyre.
At the same time the two leading Astons were nose to tail as de Zille
Butler had finally caught his team mate with two laps remaining. He
swept past the lead car on the approach to the Complex and by the end
of the lap had opened up a two second gap.
Henry Fletcher (#5 Team RPM Viper) was having a great battle with Tom
Alexander (#2 Barwell Aston Martin) and went around the outside of
the Aston into the Chicane to move up into 6th place behind Barrie
Whight.
In the GTC class Andrew Howard was nursing the Beechdean Ferrari home
to the teams third win of 2007, well ahead of the second placed Ginetta
of Richard Hollebon. Graeme Mundy was still further back in the one
geared Porsche but still circulating and on course to take those valuable
championship points.
On the final lap Ben de Zille Butler was still pushing the car to maintain
a healthy cushion over Paul Drayson, who in turn held a big gap to
Bradley Ellis. David Jones (#22 Team Eurotech Ascari) was catching
Tom Alexander’s Aston Martin and as the pair entered the Chicane
for the final time Jones put the Ascari on the inside of the corner
to move ahead into 6th place at the end of the race.
At the flag it was Ben de Zille Butler who celebrated but it was Paul
Drayson and Jonny Cocker who now move two points ahead of Bradley Ellis
and Alex Mortimer at the top of the championship table with four races
remaining. Barrie Whight took fourth place for the Cadena Motorsport
team, ahead of Henry Fletcher, David Jones, Tom Alexander, with the
final championship point scored by Richard Hay in the Team Trimite
Brookspeed Viper.
For the latest British GT TV schedules (Channel 4 and Motors TV), race
reports, championship positions and interviews visit the championship
website at www.britishgt.com
SRO
See 2007 series calendar for British
GT Championship
Related Story 13.08.2007 - Ellis Maintains British GT Championship Lead at Silverstone
