BRITISH GT - Round 1 - Race Day
5th April 2010
Ben was keen to get more track time so opted to do the 15 minute warm up session in the morning. This proved to be a fruitful exercise as he topped the G4 times on a slightly damp but drying track.
RACE 1
Driver sequence is dictated by qualifying so Ben did the opening stint for Race 1 where he started P3 behind the Speedworks Ginetta G50 and Piranha Motorsport Lotus 211. A slightly nervous start allowed the Nissan 350Z to jump Ben at the start and it took him a couple of laps to take the place back and start chasing down the class leaders who had built up a bit of a gap. His lap times quickly dropped into the 1.49s. We brought Ben in as soon as the pit lane opened for a swift driver change and Rory roared ( sorry, could not resist that) back on track to chase down the Ginetta. Peter's brilliant pit strategy meant that we came out in front of the Lotus already. A 20 second gap seemed too large in the remaining 35 minutes but a series of laps in the 1.46s made us think differently. Rory was closing the Ginetta down at over a second a lap and a grandstand finish was on the cards. Rory was on the tail of the Ginetta for the last 3 laps and actually got ahead on the penultimate one, but a small mistake let it back through after which it grew in girth and with it's extra grunt crossed the line 0.05 secs ahead of the X-Bow.
RACE 2
Reversed starting driver line up plus a P1 grid position gave us the opportunity to try and maintain position plus build a cushion if possible. The "Knockhill Kid" got his head down and immediately rattled off consecutive laps in the 1.46s again and started building a lead over the Speedworks Ginetta and handed over in another slick changeover to Ben with a 22 second cushion. Ben immediately started building on the lead and increased the gap to 28 secs and was also closing down on the GTC class winning Porsche 997 but an increasingly greasy track plus oil from an Ascari's gearbox resulted in slower lap times generally but he crossed the line after 60 mins still 17 secs ahead to claim the class victory.
So a very satisfying and encouraging opening round with a class win and second place plus fastest laps in both races.
The next round at Knockhill is on 8th & 9th May
Images from the races courtesy of Excel-R8 below
