Brookspeed Drivers Tighten Grip on British GT Title at Thruxton
30
June
2008
James Gornall and Jon Barnes extended their championship lead with
victory in Round 10 of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Thruxton,
leading home Jeremy Metcalfe and Luke Hines in a 30-minute shortened
race. Nigel Moore and Joe Osborne took the honours in GT4, ahead of
championship leaders Stewart Linn and Matt Nicol-Jones.
The race was red flagged after just six laps after an accident between
the Ginettas of Rob Austin and Bradley Ellis on the fast run into the
last corner. The accident resulted in the Team RPM Ginetta shooting
off the circuit and hitting the marshal‘s post before coming
to rest well off the track. Ellis clambered out of the wreckage but
was taken to hospital in Winchester where he was diagnosed with a chipped
bone in his neck which will mean he will miss the next FIA GT3 races
in Germany.
Michael Bentwood led the field into Allard for the first time with
Allan Simonsen putting the CiM Ferrari alongside the Aston Martin to
challenge for the lead. As they entered the Complex for the first time
the two cars touched with the Ferrari spinning off the track and the
furious Danish driver rejoining the field at the back. Aaron Scott
in the ABG Motorsport Viper had made a great start from 4th on the
grid and took advantage of the situation at the front to nip through
to take the lead. The VRS Motor Finance Ferrari of Adam Wilcox had
also made rapid progress to end the opening lap in 3rd place from 7th
on the grid.
The leading Viper started to pull away from the Aston as Bentwood
pulled away in turn from the Ferrari but on lap 6 the Red Flags came
out to stop the race after Bradley Ellis’ accident at the approach
to the final corner at Club.
The race was restarted over 30 minutes with the 15-minute pit window
opening after 10 minutes of racing. The grid formed up as they had
finished the first 6 laps with the ABG Viper of Aaron Scott at the
front of the grid. Scott pulled away from Bentwood as the pace car
released the GT field and for 3 laps looked to in with a chance of
the teams first overall British GT victory. However a loose undertray
forced the car into the pits and into retirement, gifting the lead
back to pole position holder Michael Bentwood who now had the #14 CRS
Ferrari of James Sutton all over his rear bumper after Sutton had passed
James Gornall on the second lap.
The top three circulated in unison as the pit window opened, the top
drivers all electing to stay out as long as possible. In GT4 Joe Osborne
was holding a comfortable lead over Stewart Linn as Rob Austin’s
battered Ginetta was moving back into a podium position after starting
from the pitlane.
The leaders came in right at the end of the 15-minute pit window and
Tom Alexander emerged in the lead but on lap 20 a spin at the Complex
denied him his first British GT victory of the 2008 season. Second
placed Jon Barnes was now at the front of the field ahead of Jeremy
Metcalfe and Hector Lester. However the CiM Ferrari was coming under
pressure from Michael Meadows for the final podium position and two
laps from home Meadows swept past to deny Lester a double podium at
Thruxton. He lost a further place to Paddy Shovlin on the last lap
to come home in 5th place.
At the front Jon Barnes punched the steering wheel with delight as
he crossed the line for the teams third victory of the championship,
which increased their overall to 25 points with just four races remaining.
A full round up of the races at Thruxton can be found on the Championship
website at www.britishgt.com where you can also find the TV schedule
for Channel 4 and Motors TV
SRO
See 2008 series calendar for British
GT Championship
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