Monday 9th June 2008

British GT Round 8 - Snetterton

Ford GT takes first ever win at British GTs

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Mortimer/Ellis - Team RPM Ford GT GT3

A Ford GT won the Avon Tyres British GT Championship for the first time over the weekend. After the rain had made way for some sunshine, Bradley Ellis and Alex Mortimer finished just 2.8 seconds ahead of championship leaders Jon Barnes and James Gornall in the Team Trimite Brookspeed Viper.

James Sutton and Michael Meadows came a distant third in Round 8 of the championship at Snetterton. At the start of the race 24 cars lined up behind Bradley Ellis in the Matech Ford GT with Adam Jones in the #21 Team Modena Lamborghini alongside as the lights went out to. At the end of the opening lap it was Ellis from Jones, Simonsen, James Sutton in the CR Scuderia Ferrari and Wilcox. 

Jonny Cocker in the #9 Tech 9 Lamborghini had lost three places to finish the opening lap 8th, one place ahead of Jon Barnes in the Team Trimite Brookspeed Viper who had climbed an impressive five places. Ellis started to pull away from Jones as Simonsen began to pile on the pressure with Sutton keeping pace and watching to see if he could take advantage of any mistakes made by the battling duo. 

The Ford GT leads at the start of race 2

On lap 7 Cocker started to move back up the order after his earlier slip and went down the inside of the #3 Chad Peninsula Racing Ferrari of Anthony Reid at Riches, with Reid losing another place at the next corner as Barnes followed Cockers lead. The Viper closed up on the Lamborghini and Cocker was demoted back a place on the next lap by the charging Barnes.

With Ellis holding a 5.9 second lead it was a sense of déjà vu for the Ford GT team as the safety car boards came out to close the field back up. With an extra 30-seconds on the pitstop time for the Ford GT pairing this was the last thing they needed. 

The safety car circulated while a cars undertray was removed from the racing line at the Esses and on lap 13 racing resumed with Ellis, Jones and Simonsen moving ahead of the rest of the field as 4th placed James Sutton had to negotiate some slower GT4 cars. Ellis started to pull away from Jones as Simonsen resumed his assault on the second placed Lamborghini. 

Gornall/Barnes - Trimite Viper

Aaron Scot in the #20 ABG Motorsport Viper swept past Anthony Reid at the Esses on lap 16 and further back Oliver Bryant passed Michael Cullen, Matt Griffin and Anthony Reid in the #2 Team RPM Viper as the pitstops approached. At Sear there was contact between two cars, with the #12 VRS Motor Finance Ferrari of Adam Wilcox making it back to the pitlane with damage to the front right quarter. 

The team got the car going again with Phil Burton at the wheel but the Ferrari eventually expired. Meanwhile in GT4 Stewart Linn finally made it past the Beechdean Aston of Jamie Smyth just as the pit window opened and he decided to come in early to hand the car over to Matt Nicol-Jones.

With the pit window open confusion reigned as the back markers came in for their mandatory stops while the leaders elected to stay out for as long as possible. Once the pitstops had all been completed it was the #23 Christians in Motorsport Ferrari of Hector Lester who was in the lead, 20 seconds ahead of the Matech Ford GT, now with Alex Mortimer at the wheel, with James Gornall a further 6 seconds up the road in the Team Trimite Brookspeed Viper. 

Team RPM Ford GT GT3

Mortimer was rapidly catching the leading Ferrari and on lap 35 swept past the Ulsterman on the Revett Straight to retake the lead. It was now the turn of Gornall to catch and pass the CiM Ferrari, which he duly did on the next lap. 

Gornall then set off after the leading Ford GT and closed the gap to less than a second before Mortimer was able to respond to the challenge and unintentional intervention by some backmarkers also delayed the Vipers charge. Michael Meadows was also making progress in the #14 CR Scuderia Ferrari, passing Hector Lester on lap 43 to secure the final podium position.

Race 2 podium

Moore took the lead on lap 37 only to lose it again two laps later, dropping to third behind Hunter Abbott in the Rob Austin Racing Ginetta and this is how it stayed until the chequered flag. At the front it was Alex Mortimer who secured the first ever win for a Ford GT in the Avon Tyres British GT Championship, 2.8 seconds ahead of James Gornall, the 2nd place moving the Team Trimite pairing further ahead at the top of the championship table. 

Michael Meadows brought the Ferrari home in a distant but comfortable 3rd ahead of Marco Mapelli in the #15 CR Scuderia Ferrari. Hector Lester was 5th, fending off a last lap charge from Leo Machitski in the Tech 9 Lamborghini.

Round 8 Result 

1 - 6 - GT3 - ELLIS-MORTIMER -  Matech GT Racing - 1:00:50.411 - 48 laps

2 - 40 - GT3 - BARNES-GORNALL -  - Trimite Brookspeed - +2.833s

3 - 14 - GT3 - SUTTON-MEADOWS -  - CR Scuderia - +30.921s

4 - 15 - GT3 - CULLEN-MAPELLI -  - CR Scuderia - +33.112s

5 - 23 - GT3 - SIMONSEN-LESTER -  - Christians in Motorsport - +33.962s

6 - 9 - GT3 - COCKER-MACHITSKI -  - Tech 9 - +35.168s

7 - 16 - GT3 - HINES-METCALFE -  - CR Scuderia - +50.473s

8 - 2 - GT3 - BRYANT-FOSTER -  - Team RPM - +55.274s

9 - 20 - GT3 - SCOTT-WILKINS -  - ABG Motorsport - +01:13.101s

10 - 1 - GT3 - O NEILL-CLARK -  - Team RPM - +1 lap

11 - 3 - GT3 - REID-MARSH -  - Chad Peninsula Racing - +1 lap

12 - 42 - GT3 - BENTWOOD-ALEXANDER -  - 22GTRacing - +1 lap

13 - 8 - GT3 - FERRIER-MORLEY -  - Tech 9 - +1 lap

14 - 88 - GT4 - LINN-NICOLL JONES -  - IMS Motorsport - +2 laps

15 - 55 - GT4 - AUSTIN-ABBOTT -  - Rob Austin Racing - +2 laps

16 - 51 - GT4 - OSBORNE-MOORE -  - RPM - +2 laps

17 - 52 - GT4 - REDWOOD-MUSSI -  - RPM - +2 laps

18 - 99 - GT4 - SMYTH-HOWARD -  - Beechdean Motorsport - +3 laps

19 - 54 - GT4 - Derek PALMER -  - Promotorsport - +4 laps

20 - 50 - GT4 - TANDY-BAILEY -  - RPM - +4 laps

21 - 71 - GT4 - STINTON-CLARK -  - Stark Racing - +5 laps

22 - 4 - GT3 - GRIFFIN-BAMFORD -  - Chad Peninsula Racing - +12 laps

Not Classified

DNC - 12 - GT3 - WILCOX-BURTON -  - VRS Motor Finance - +19 laps

DNC - 21 - GT3 - JONES-JOHNSON -  - Team Modena - +27 laps

DNS - 18 - GT3 - KERSHAW-WHIGHT -  - Cadena Motorsport -  

Fastest Lap

6 - GT3 - Bradley ELLIS  -  1:08.802 - 102.13mph - 164.37kph

51 - GT4 - Joe OSBORNE -  1:15.310 - 93.30mph - 150.16kph

[BigHeartedTone]

Watched it with the family. The Ford really was in a race of its own.

[Puddenchucker]

That Ford GT sounded absolutely brutal - it was drowning out everything else within 50 yards of it.

[Mannginger]

The topic header on the front page still shows the Brit GT championship 2005!

As for the GT - great looking piece of kit well done to all

[scoobybloke]

Yeah it really did sound amazing It's a great looking car aswell

[Luca Brazzi]

I'm fortunate enough to have been invited out to the south of France by the Matech Racing Team this weekend to photograph their Ford GT doing hospitality runs for select guests at the Paul Ricard Test Circuit.

They've even been kind enough to offer me a ride too

Excited???? God yes!

What a car. Will post up some of the photos from Snetterton tomorrow, assuming folks are interested.
LB

[Mannginger]

Oh - and if you do get a drive in it and happen to have a videocam with you...that'd be nice! :jealous:

[Luca Brazzi]

A couple from Snetterton at the weekend. Want any more?





















LB

[Mannginger]

Luca Brazzi said:

Can you add a border to that and make it a desktop sized picture?

That's a great shot!

[Luca Brazzi]

Thanks

what size desktop do you have? Cropped to fit desktop area, or black bars above and below?

[Mannginger]

1680 * 1050

Will it go to that size without borders? If not black bars are cool.

Thanks in advance

Phil

[Luca Brazzi]

Mannginger said:

1680 * 1050

Will it go to that size without borders? If not black bars are cool.

Thanks in advance

Phil

no probs..can I have an email address.

[Mannginger]

Thanks very much!

Edited by Mannginger on Monday 23 June 06:20

[YT_69]

Zee Germans did really well...

Bradley and Alex are champions so no wonder they one! well done to the guys.

Since they had a 30 second extra penalty they DEFFINATELY should have stopped for a few photos having a cup of tea at a table while they we waiting, would have been perfect!

[thunderbelmont]

I see there's lots of whining going on about the Ford GT among the other teams (those that haven't got one on order)

Every year recently there's something.

Mosler,
ProSport,

Now.. Ford GT.

I wonder if any of the other manufacturers will do a "retro-GT".

Hmmmmmm Ferrari 250LM, Aston Martin DB5, Jaguar D-Type....

[Dragaan]

thunderbelmont said:

I see there's lots of whining going on about the Ford GT among the other teams (those that haven't got one on order)

I didn't see Brookspeed whining They just got on with the job. They have an identical car to the other viper teams (including RPM) but despite the Ford GT being having the fastest lap, they beat it in Race one and were closing up rapidly in race two. Who knows what would have happened if the race had gone on for another couple of laps?

[ginettag27]

New GT3 equalisation was out on Friday, so the GT will be slowed down a bit... I think it was the only one that was
adjusted on the previous equalisation..