GT: Dominant Victory for Cocker & Hughes

Ferrari held to second place in Sunday's race

Jonathan Cocker and Warren Hughes took a dominant victory in round ten of the British GT Championship as their rivals struggled with mechanical problems. Adam Sharpe and Dominic Lesniewski sealed victory in the Dailysportscar.com Cup Class.

Hughes/Cocker

Andrew Kirkaldy’s Ferrari blasted away from the Porsche of Hughes in the opening laps, building up a lead of almost 12 seconds before the pit-stop window opened. The pace of the Ferrari was being masked though as Kirkaldy had lost the clutch early in the race. Nathan Kinch struggled to get the car out of the pits when he took over and then received a drive-through penalty after too many mechanics had worked on the car giving him a push-start.

The extra stop extended Cocker’s lead from almost 30 seconds to 45 and effectively allowed him to cruise to his fourth win of the year and moving him to the head of the championship race.

“Warren did a great job this weekend. He put me in a great position when I took over and with the Ferrari’s extra pit-stop it made everything easy. The whole team did everything right today,” said Cocker.

The Eclipse Motorsport pairing of Steve Hyde and Piers Johnson made their second visit to the podium, picking up third place after a great battle with the Mosler of Patrick Pearce early in the race.

Mike Jordan drove a fantastic race to get the JW Racing Porsche 911 GT3-RS into fourth place. He made an incredible move on the Ferrari of Chris Niarchos, going around the outside of him at Lodge corner and finally making the break past into Cascades on the next lap.

Niarchos had to settle for fifth place after Tim Mullen had hauled the car up from the back of the grid, battling with Pearce and Mark Sumpter early in the race. Richard Stanton brought the Mosler home in sixth place with the Embassy Corvette of Neil Cunningham and Paula Cook in seventh.

The Dailysportscar.com Cup Class win went to Adam Sharpe and Dominic Lesneiwski. Allan Simonsen led the class in the Glenvarigill Ferrari before he handed over to Hector Lester. Sharpe stayed out to take the lead before diving in to hand over to his new driving partner who was able to bring it across the line for his first win of the season.

“It’s been great to get Dominic up to speed so quickly this weekend,” said Sharpe. “The car was so good throughout the race and stayed consistent for the whole race. The team has done such a good job for us this weekend,” he added.

Gavan Kershaw chased the Porsche down over the second half of the race. However, the Lotus was unable to close the gap enough to launch a charge for the lead and had to settle for second place at the chequered flag.

Colin Broster and Tony Brown once again impressed the rest of the Cup Class field by picking up third place in their Porsche 911-Cup. Michael Caine and Peter Chambers snatched fourth place away from early race leaders Lester and Simonsen on the final lap. The DRM Ferrari of Adam Wilcox and Ni Amorim managed to claim sixth place after a non-finish yesterday.


Short's Noble sufferered a loose front wheel

British GT Championship – Round Ten

NGT

1 Hughes/Cocker Porsche 911 GT3-RSR 35 laps in 1h00m43.568s
2 Kinch/Kirkaldy Ferrari 360 Modena 1h01m10.044s
3 Hyde/Johnson TVR T400R 1h01m42.512s
4 Jordan/Sumpter Porsche 911 GT3-RS 1h01m53.514s
5 Niarchos/Mullen Ferrari 360 Modena 1h01m58.370s
6 Stanton/Pearce Mosler MT900R 1h01m58.938s

Dailysportscar.com GT Cup

1 Lesniewski/Sharpe Porsche 911 GT3-Cup 34 laps
2 Kershaw/Whight Lotus Sport Elise 33 laps
3 Broster/Brown Porsche 911 GT3-Cup 33 laps
4 Chambers/Caine Porsche 911 GT3-Cup 33 laps
5 Lester/Simonsen Ferrari 360 33 laps
6 Wilcox/Amorim Ferrari 360 33 laps

Pictures courtesy of www.traxtion-control.co.uk

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