Would anyone like to bet who will be crowned the 2007 Avon Tyres British GT Champions
by the end of the final weekend at Rockingham? The season has been the closest fought championship for many years, with the top seven drivers separated nine points, with the top four by just one point.
Things can change very quickly in British GT. Guy Harrington and Ben de Zille Butler left Thruxton five weeks ago five points behind their Barwell Motorsport team mates Jonny Cocker and Paul Drayson. However two second places at Croft catapulted them to the top of the championship table in their rookie season, one point ahead of Drayson and Cocker in the bio fuelled Aston Martin – a car that is ‘green’ in more ways than just the paint job. The three podiums secured by the two driver pairings at Croft were enough to wrap up the British GT team championship in favour of the Barwell team, putting it well out of reach of the rest of the GT3 field.
Team RPM might have lost out in the team championship but Bradley Ellis and Alex Mortimer are still in the hunt for the driver’s crown. The youngest driver pairing on the grid stepped up from the GTC class last year and a double race win at Brands Hatch in the V10 Dodge Viper has underlined their performances at every circuit in 2007.
Four wins in 2007 has made the CiM Ferrari 430 of Hector Lester has put the Ulsterman in the frame as an outside bet for the title, just nine points adrift of . This is thanks in part to the on track performance of the Italian machine and also to the drivers who have shared the car with Lester – 2006 British GT Champion Tim Mullen and top Danish GT exponent Allan Simonsen. But at Croft Hector Lester drove the best race of his career to bring the Ferrari home at the front of the field for the fourth time and underline his claim to the overall title.
The Team Eurotech Preci Spark Ascari of brothers David and Godfrey Jones has a mathematical chance of the title and few would argue with the race pace of the Ascari. A debut pole position in the first race at Croft three weeks ago translated into their third podium finish of the year and a race win at Rockingham is a serious possibility.
A new addition to the British GT grid will be the arrival of a pair of Apex Motorsport Jaguar XKRs. Neil Cunningham and Chris Ryan are due to race the ‘Coventry Cat’, with Phil Keen and Steve Keating in the second car, and Jaguar becomes the tenth different manufacturer to race in GT3 this season.
The Team Modena Lamborghini Gallardo returns for the season finale after an engine problem at Thruxton forced the Adam Jones into retirement. The team decided to miss the races at Croft to allow them to get the car sorted for the final two races in the teams’ debut season that has seen the Gallardo set new GT3 lap records at Snetterton and Brands Hatch.
Team Modena will be hosting the final PH Fan Forum at 10:30 on Sunday. All PH’ers are invited to come along to the team area in the main paddock at Rockingham and see the Lamborghini up close and put your questions to Team Principle Graham Schultz and regular driver Adam Jones. Remember the person who asks the best question in the forum, in the opinion of Graeme and Adam, will win a pair of grid passes which enables the winners to go onto the grid in the build up for both the GT and F3 races at Rockingham.
The GTC class championship is nearing its conclusion with the RSS Performance Porsche of Graeme Mundy and Jamie Smyth needing just one more point to beat the Beechdean Ferrari of Andrew Howard and Aaron Scott to the title. Engine problems with the Team Aero Morgan have hampered the title hopes of Keith Ahlers and Steve Hyde and the double race winners have set the pace in the class when the car has held together for the race distance.
Rockingham is unique in providing a view of the whole track and with so much racing action in prospect spectators might find it difficult to catch every part of the two 60-minute races.
Remember you can always catch it again on TV, with Channel 4 showing at 8am on the 14th October with repeats during the week and Motors TV beginning their comprehensive run from 13th October at 16:00.
A full TV schedule can be found on the series website at www.britishgt.com.
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