Calum
Lockie and Dave Welz battled against an ailing engine to finish fifth in round
nine of the Privilege Insurance British GT Championship at Donington Park on
Sunday (July 22).
Unfortunately, the engine problem on Welz's Porsche 911GT2 developed right at
the start of the race and so they were forced to nurse the car to the finish in
a race that was shortened following a major accident.
In qualifying, Calum posted the eighth best time, to be fifth in the GT
category. However, penalties applied to two of the GTO class Porsches meant that
Calum would start from sixth place on the grid.
"We just couldn’t get the speed out of the car," admitted
Calum after qualifying. His best lap was a second away from his best race lap
from the previous Donington race in April. "We had expected to go
quicker than that," added Calum, finding the car struggling in the
prevailing track conditions.
"We’ll go for it and see what we can do in the race,"
promised Calum after the Sunday morning warm-up session.
Sadly, any plans of a major attack in the race were thwarted even before the
28-car field took the rolling start. "The engine dropped onto five
cylinders on the warming up lap," explained Calum after the race.
Despite the immediate loss of power, Calum slotted into fourth place and even
challenged the top three cars on the opening lap before they got into their
stride. He then held fourth place until the much more powerful Porsche 911GT2 of
Steven Stokoe went ahead. "Even the GT3 Porsches from the GTO class were
pushing me on the straights," said Calum. "It was getting worse
as the race went on."
After the driver change, Dave maintained the best pace that the car was able
to produce and was holding fifth when the race was stopped after 43 minutes of
the hour-long duration. Shane Bland's Marcos Mantis GTO crashed heavily at
Redgate and with the driver needing medical attention, the race was halted.
Ironically, that was good news for Calum and Dave as it ensured they retained
fifth place. Providing that the engine problems can now be resolved in time,
they plan to contest the tenth round of the championship at Knockhill in
Scotland on August 19. Unlike many of his rivals, Calum has actually raced at
Knockhill before, although not in a GT car!
