GTs at Oulton
Drama in last lap! Tuscan R romps home in welcome return to GT series
Today's GT race started with more drama than necessary as the 22 car field hurtled into the first bend. As if competing in a sprint race cars jostled for position with the end result that a handful speared off into the barriers.
Amongst those was Nathan Kinch in the Ferrari who rejoined the back of the field showing a battle scarred car to the assembled crowds. The damage was cosmetic however and he set about the mammoth task of clawing his way back to the front of the pack.
Other cars failed to rejoin and the safety car was immediately deployed whilst the mess was cleared up.
At the restart it turned into a battle between the Jordan/Sumpter Porsche and the RSR Tuscan R. Following them were the Peninsula TVR, the Kershaw Elise and the Marcos. It was a good showing for British marques.
The race settled into a routine with a bit of jockeying for position up front with the Ferrari all the while climbing up the field from the rear. The Eclipse Tuscan R piloted by Piers Johnson fought its way into the lead in the final period of the race with the Sumpter Porsche in pursuit and the RSR Tuscan.
In the last few minutes it all changed however as Sumpter went into a spin coming out of the chicane and took himself off onto the grass. His spin wrong footed the 76 Porsche who crashed into the barrier a hundred yards up the track. It rejoined, spewing coolant over the track. Come the flag the Eclipse Tuscan came first, the RSR Tuscan was nowhere to be seen (spun off on the coolant?) and Kirkaldy took an amazing second place in the Ferrari. Sumpter rejoined to take third but Rob Croydon remained AWOL in the Tuscan - a frustrating end to a cracking race for the team.
Gavan Kershaw and Barrie Whight won GT Cup class in an undramatic style, simply leading their class from start to finish.
Was a good race, no rain in the afternoon aswell!!
Looks like the weather is going to be nice tomorrow: www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=1597
>> Edited by Caye_nne on Saturday 17th July 20:22
with five minutes to go.
Came up over the blind Water Tower to find it blocking his path and the
T400-R was totalled.
Such a shame after an excellent showing on his first drive in the car, so I wish
he and all the team well for Silverstone and hopefully a double RSR assault will happen.
Well done to Eclipse Motorsport and Peninsula TVR / JCB.
GCerbera said:
lnt said:
the RSR TVR will be out at silverstone as will the new car. unfortunately the new car was not ready for the race this weekend.
Excellent news Lawrence.
Best of luck to you and the team.
Are you angling for a drive or something? Seemingly your every post heaps praise on RSR!
Anyway, bad luck Lawrence - it was just poor timing, like our shunt at Brands last year. I thought your chaps would've chopped up the new car to get the old one out for Sunday though... Hmm, perhaps not. Oh and thanks for those wheels - they were a great help. I believe our chaps will return them soon.
Thanks to those who congratulated us - it's good to be back on the pace. We've got more parts in the pipeline, so Silverstone should be good for us too. We've finally found the root of our problems, sadly about five months too late...
Steve @ Eclipse.
>> Edited by Ahonen on Monday 19th July 16:18
Ahonen said:Of course!....and then I woke up.
lnt said:
the RSR TVR will be out at silverstone as will the new car. unfortunately the new car was not ready for the race this weekend.
Excellent news Lawrence.
Best of luck to you and the team.
Are you angling for a drive or something? Seemingly your every post heaps praise on RSR!
In reality, I support all the TVR teams, but RSR have made a great entry to the
championship this season and were actually kind enough to email me directly
about a few questions I had, so naturally I am following their progress closely.
I know Rob was fired up for his first race and felt very bad come Saturday
evening and I'm delighted both cars will line up next month
Delighted to see you on the podium twice over the weekend and your exit from a
championship winning position at the last race of 2003 still makes me cringe
everytime the Autosport advert comes on, so I can't imagine how you guys felt / feel.
Nothing would give me more pleasure than a repeat of Silverstone last year
when TVR filled the podium, so don't let me down!
Question is, which one of the four T400-R teams will be left looking up at the podium?
zebedee said:
http://paulsands.org/oultongt/gt8.html
Cheers zebedee! Does anyone have any more - I was particularly after some before and after pics of the Ultima if anyone has some?
The Embassy girls t-shirts were on-form again this weekend - "8 races, 22 points, 4 engines"
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