Cullen and Shovlin - CR Scuderia Ferrari 430 GT
The first race of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship was incident-packed before it had even begun, and ended in one of the closest finishes for years. Unfortunately the Cadena Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9 of Barrie Whight and Gavan Kershaw was missing from the grid after the car experienced engine failure in the first qualifying session. Also missing was was the Team Eurotech - Preci Spark Ascari of David and Godfrey Jones and James Gornall (#40 Team Trimite Brookspeed Viper Competition Coupe) had his qualifying times disallowed after the ride height of the Viper was found to be below the permitted level. This dropped Gornall from 3rd on the grid and forced the Southampton driver to start from the pitlane. He was joined at the end of the pits by Hunter Abbott in the Rob Austin Racing Ginetta G50 after he joined the track after the pitlane had closed.
Team Modena Lamborghini Gallardo
Michael Meadows (#14 CR Scuderia Ferrari 430) started his first British GT race from pole position and he led the 24 car grid around the 2.7-mile Oulton Park circuit behind the pace car. As the lights went out Meadows got a good start but was immediately under pressure from Paddy Shovlin and had to defend his line through Old Hall. As the pack headed down to Cascades Piers Johnson's Team Modena Lamborghini dramatically ended up on the grass and in a shower of dirt rolled, bringing out the safety car. Johnson was OK but his car wasn't going to be taking any further part in the weekend's proceedings. After three laps the race went green once again and Michael Meadows continued to lead Shovelin, with the third CRS Ferrari of Jeremy Metcalfe shadowing the leading pair. At Knickerbrook Meadows appeared to outbrake himself and went straight through the chicane. He headed up Clay Hill in the lead but through Druids Shovlin and Metcalfe went past the lead Ferrari as Meadows obviously had a problem. The No 14 Ferrari trundled into the pits.
Hunter Abbott crashes his Ginetta G50
Paddy Shovlin and Jeremy Metcalfe were now 1st and 2nd, with the Tech 9 Lamborghini of Oliver Morley in 3rd and Phil Burton in the VRS Motor Finance Ferrari. In GT4 Hunter Abbott (#55 Rob Austin Racing Ginetta G50) and Peter Snowden (#63 Chad Racing Aston Martin N24) were side by side across the line, with Abbott getting ahead as they went down towards Cascades for the 8th time. However Abbott's car slide sideways on the run down the hill and dug into the soft ground, the Ginetta rolling a number of times before coming to rest. Hunter Abbott walked away from the massive accident that destroyed his car, a testiment to the strength of the safety cell installed by Ginetta, but went to hospital suffering minor burns to his hands and face. However this caused a red flag to be displayed, stopping the race. The restart would be over 30-minutes, with the pit window coming after 10 minutes and last 10 minutes. It would also be a straight race to the flag and the grid would be formed by the positions of the cars on the track when the red flag was shown.
Paddy Shovlin started the race from pole position and when the red lights went out he moved ahead of Metcalfe, who in turn came under pressure from Morley in the Lamborghini. David Ashburn in the Trackspeed Porsche spun at Cascades but recovered as did the number 20 Viper of Craig Wilkins. The two leading Ferrari's started to pull away from the Tech 9 Lamborghini, with Morley coming under pressure from Phil Burton and Nick Foster in the #2 Team RPM Viper. James Gornall continued his move up through the field and as the pit window opened he had risen to 5th place, overtaking Nick Foster at Cascades on the 4th lap. With the pit window open the cars started to stream into the pits to change drivers. Shovlin and Metcalfe pitted at the same time and while Shovlin's teammate Michael Cullen exited in good time, Luke Hines found himself stranded in the pitlane with a Ferrari that wouldn't start. A 20-second delay put Hines down the order and out of contention. When the pitstops had all been completed it was Cullen in the lead ahead of Adam Wilcox in the VRS Motor Finance Ferrari, with Tom Ferrier in the Tech 9 Lamborghini ahead of Paul O'Neill in the #1 Team RPM Viper and Allan Simonsen in the CiM Ferrari.
Ferrier was the first to fall by the wayside when he went off at Hislops Chicane on lap 12. O'Neill was now 3rd but one lap later he too went wide at the allowing Simonsen and Richard Williams in the Trackspeed Porsche to go through. Cullen and Wilcox were now split by just 0.3 seconds, with Simonsen closing the gap to the leading pair by 2 seconds a lap. With two laps remaining Simonsen was right on the rear bumper of the Wilcox Ferrari, the top 3 split by 0.6 seconds. The Dane tried every trick in the book to get past Wilcox and the Englishman was forced to defend, allowing Cullen a bit of breathing space. This is how it remained until the chequered flag, the gap between 1st and 3rd just 0.518 seconds, with the Trackspeed Porsche of Richard Williams another 0.801 seconds behind Simonsen. In GT4 a long pitstop gifted Michael Broadhurst in the #51 Team RPM Ginetta G50 the win in GT4 ahead of Stewart Linn in the #88 IMS Motorsport Ginetta.
Round 1 – Provisional Results
1 – 15 – GT3 – Paddy Shovlin / Michael Cullen – Ferrari 430 – 30:31.307 – 17 laps
2 – 12 – GT3 – Phil Burton / Adam Wilcox – Ferrari 430 - +0.287s
3 – 23 – GT3 – Hector Lester / Allan Simonsen – Ferrari 430 - +0.518s
4 – 5 – GT3 – David Ashburn / Richard Williams – Porsche 997 - +1.318s
5 – 1 – GT3 – Steve Clark / Paul O’Neill – Viper Competition Coupe - +4.043s
6 – 2 – GT3 – Nick Foster / Oliver Bryant – Viper Competition Coupe - +11.003s
12 – 51 – GT4 – Joe Osborne / Michael Broadhurst – Ginetta G50 – 30:59.264 – 16 laps
13 – 88 – GT4 – Matt Nicoll-Jones / Stewart Linn – Ginetta G50 - +9.837s
14 – 52 – GT4 – Charlie Hollings / Fulvio Mucci – Ginetta G50 - +15.007s
15 – 99 – GT4 – Andrew Howard / Jamie Smyth – Aston Martin N24 – +39.665s
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