CiM Ferrari Gallops to British GT Win at Croft
11 September
2007
The Christians in Motorsport Ferrari of Hector Lester and Allan Simonsen
took the chequered flag from 12th on the grid in an action packed race
at Croft finishing ahead of the Barwell Aston Martin of Guy Harrington
and Ben de Zille Butler. Alex Mortimer and Bradley Ellis took the final
podium position to end the day only to receive a penalty for blocking
and handing the final podium place to the Team Eurotech Ascari of David
and Godfrey Jones.
The Team Aero Morgan of Keith Ahlers and Steve Hyde returned to winning
ways with a lights to flag victory in the GTC Class ahead of championship
leaders Graeme Mundy and Jamie Smyth in the RSS Performance Porsche.
At the start it was the two Ascari’s of David Jones and Michael
Greenhalgh who led the 22 car grid towards the first corner at Clervaux
but it Guy Harrington in the Aston Martin who got the best start to
get alongside the Berlanga Ascari and sweep into second place ahead
of Greenhalgh on the exit of the corner.
As the leaders exited the Chicane to join the long straight down to
Tower bend it was Jones from Harrington from Greenhalgh and Nigel Redwood
in the number seven Team RPM Viper. Jones had the Aston Martin in his
mirrors as they exited the Jim Clark Esses but a miscalculation by
the Leicestershire driver put the Ascari’s wheels on the grass,
dropping Jones down to 5th by the end of the opening lap behind the
Viper of Alex Mortimer.
As the cars crossed the line for the first time it has the Aston Martin
of Round 10 winner Guy Harrington in the lead, with the Berlanga Ascari
of Michael Greenhalgh just one second adrift. The Team RPM Vipers of
Redwood and Mortimer were joined by the Ascari of the recovering David
Jones in a three way battle for 3rd.
As the top two cars started to pull away from the battling pair of
Vipers and the Jones Ascari 6th place Paul Drayson in the bio fuel
Aston Martin was being challenged by the Tech 9 Porsche of Tom Ferrier,
however Drayson had been learning a few tricks from his co driver and
was able to keep the nimble Porsche behind him.
The Beechdean Ferrari of Andrew Howard pulled into the pits with a
broken alternator which the team started to replace immediately. The
Ferrari managed to regain the track but had lost so many laps it wouldn’t
figure in the finishing order at the end of the race.
Meanwhile back on track, Jones was challenging Mortimer’s Viper
as the pair exited the Hairpin for the 5th time. Jones managed to get
the better run out of the corner and was able to place the Ascari alongside
the V10 Viper into Clervaux and moved into 4th place on the way into
Hawthorn. He then set about the second Viper, putting Redwood under
immense pressure for lap after lap until the grey Ascari was able to
make a move stick on lap 12 into the Jim Clark Esses. A lap later Redwood
lost another place to Mortimer, who then proceeded to pull away from
his teammate.
At the front Harrington was still circulating the 2-mile circuit maintaining
a one to one point five second gap to Greenhalgh’s Ascari. In
turn the leading pair was over ten seconds ahead of the Jones Ascari
in third and pulling away by two tenths of a second per lap.
Behind them Paul Drayson was heading a four car train of Tom Ferrier,
Neil Cunningham in the Team Trimite Viper and the Team RPM Viper of
Steve Clark. However as the pitstop window approached Drayson made
a costly mistake, running wide on the exit of Tower Bend, allowing
the three cars to all pass the Aston by the time the cars got to Barcroft.
The pit window opened just as Drayson exited the Hairpin and he dived
into the pits to hand over the car to Jonny Cocker. He was followed
into the pits by the two Ferrari’s of Phil Burton and Hector
Lester from 11th and 10th places respectively. Adam Wilcox and Allan
Simonsen took over the driving duties in the Ferrari’s, with
both cars exiting the pitlane together with Simonsen ahead. Wilcox
tried to find a way around the Dane, but the Christians in Motorsport
Ferrari was not going to be passed easily. The two cars were side by
side into the Hairpin and there was some door rubbing and paint swapping
as they exited the slow corner with Simonsen still ahead.
Confusion reigned as all the cars now made their stops over the next
few laps. Harrington and Greenhalgh stayed out for another four laps
before coming in together to hand over to Ben de Zille Butler and Erik
Zwart.
Once the pitstops had sorted themselves out it was de Zille Butler
in the Aston Martin from Godfrey Jones in the Team Eurotech Ascari
from Bradley Ellis in the number 6 Team RPM Viper from Nick Foster
in the number 7 Viper, who had the Berlanga Ascari of Erik Zwart and
the Ferrari of Allan Simonsen filling his mirrors at the start of the
23rd lap. However it was the Ascari who lost out to the flying Dane
as Zwart was passed on lap 24 and then he spun at the Hairpin, narrowly
avoiding being collected by Paul O’Neil in the number 5 Team
RPM Viper.
Simonsen’s next target was Bradley Ellis and the Ferrari and
Viper were nose to tail as the cars exited the Hairpin at the end of
lap 23. The pair charged down the main straight towards the first corner,
with Ellis holding his nerve and his position through the next sequence
of corners. However it wasn’t to be and the Ferrari moved ahead
at the end of lap 24 with a move on the inside of the Viper into the
final corner. Simonsen then set off after the Ascari of Godfrey Jones
who was five seconds ahead but was closing gradually on the lead Aston
Martin in turn. However the Ascari went off the circuit on lap 27,
dropping Jones from 2nd to 4th and giving Allan Simonsen a clear run
at Ben de Zille Butler’s leading Aston Martin.
It took five laps to catch the lead car as de Zille Butler upped his
pace after getting a message from his pitcrew that the Ferrari was
closing. However with at least another 9 laps of the race remaining
Simonsen wasn’t going to be denied and on lap 32 he dived on
the inside of the Aston in Clervaux and moved into the lead of the
race for the first time.
As Simonsen pulled away, de Zille Butler set about consolidating his
second place, while Bradley Ellis was coming under pressure from Godfrey
Jones. For the final few laps the Viper and the Ascari battled but
Ellis hung on to claim the final podium position.
At the flag it was Simonsen who punched the air through the window
of the Ferrari to the delight of the team who gathered on the pit wall
to welcome him home 6.4 seconds ahead of the Barwell Motorsport Aston
Martin of Ben de Zille Butler. Just one second split the Team RPM Viper
and the Team Eurotech Ascari at the end of the race, with Jonny Cocker
bringing home the second Barwell Aston in 5th place. Team RPM had all
three of their Vipers in the top eight as Paul O’Neill crossed
the line in 6th, 2.5 seconds ahead of Nick Foster. Matt Harris round
out the top eight in the Tech 9 Porsche.
In GTC there were only two classified finishers but this shouldn’t
take away from the fact that the Team Aero Morgan mechanics had grafted
long and hard to fix the car after two engine failures at previous
events and Keith Ahlers was quick to pay tribute to the entire team.
However there was further drama as Bradley Ellis was penalised 11 seconds
by the race stewards for blocking the Aston Martin of Ben de Zille
Butler on the out lap after the pitstops, dropping Ellis and Alex Mortimer
behind the Jones brothers Ascari and off the podium.
SRO
See 2007 series calendar for British
GT Championship
Related Story 05.09.2007 - British GT Goes Down to the Wire
