GT Trophy - Round 1 - Brands hatch
22nd May 2010
Glorious weather greeted us on Friday for testing which provided a good "contest" between father and son Mowle who were trading lap times within 1 second of each other albeit on the Indy circuit. The 4 sessions were trouble free which bade well for race day.
Qualifying was satisfactory especially bearing in mind that this was the first time Sam had driven the GP circuit and ??? years since Colin had peddled around so although we were only P5 and P4 in Qualifying 1 & 2, the boys were quietly confident for the 2 hour endurance race.
BUTE were possibly trying out the Beetle Fun Cup starting process because the grid bore very little resemblance to qualifying positions and Colin started from the back of the grid but he again made good use of the X-Bows phenomenal acceleration and immediately made up 2 places from the start. The JD Racing NSX decided to celebrate November 5th early and burst into flames on lap 1 which brought out the safety car. Most teams used this opportunity to make their first mandatory pit stop and car 77 dived in on lap 3 to change.
Sam made up good time as a result of the safety car and was lapping consistently in the low 1.37s and enjoyed a good scrap with their regular protagonist from GT Cup - the BMW E36 of Ussi & Webster with a particular sweet pass going into Surtees.
Our new fuel rig worked flawlessly in the second stop and Colin set off for the final hour on fresh tyres and a full tank of Sunocos finest brew. Even with a full tank, Colin was lapping in the 1.36s and started a battle royal with the Ginetta G50 of ex ABG drivers Aaron Scott and Craig Wilkins. As the last 15 mins approached the top 3 cars in Class 3 were in line astern. Peter's excellent pit to car communications kept Colin right bang up to date and gave him the impetus and motivation to really push and try to catch the Draper/Draper G50 Cup Ginetta. Such was his pace that he made up 2.5 secs on the last lap alone whilst setting his fastest lap in the process. Alas he missed P2 by 0.4 secs.
So another podium finish and a well earned rest before the next GT Cup round at Snetterton in late June. However, there is a bit of momentum gathering amongst the ABG X-Bow boys about tackling the next round of the KTM X-Bow battle at the Euro Speedway in mid June - so watch this space.
