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Brands Hatch Race report Saturday April 16th `05
This was to be the first outing for our car sporting it`s new livery. How would the über slippery new paintwork fare ? We had fitted some new 3 way Pro-trac shock absorbers the night before testing and so it was fingers crossed that they would both work and be possible to adjust up to provide a stable platform on which to race. With only a pair of single hour test sessions it was going to be tight. Luckily Steve winter at Jaz, who runs the car, had fitted the very same items to Craig Rapp`s GT3 prior to it racing in Bahrain this winter so we had data to work with and weren`t just stabbing in the dark.
My co-driver for the weekend was old friend and fellow Porsche Club racer Pete Morris who last year won class one of the club championship -rather worryingly going backwards across the line at Donnington ! His GT3 experience was a little limited but we`d tested together at Silverstone. We arrived at Brands Hatch the night before testing only to find it locked and had to camp out on the doorstep - well ok we set the motor home up so it wasn`t too much of a hardship ! Arriving at the pit garage just before 7.00am it was pandemonium with lorries everywhere, once at our garage the Mc Cormick / Lockie Ferrari team had left their assortment of vans trailers and pickups blocking the entrance, things didn`t get any better when they did arrive as their mechanic was more interested in pottering around with their car than clearing some space for us to set up camp for the weekend. My anger management classes paid off and he still has both testicles, ears and nose in tact and unharmed. Not a good start. The Jaz crew worked their usual magic to get the car ready for the 10.15am practice even though they only had 30 minutes once we finally got the car in the garage, I think I might even have seen a little bead of sweat on Steve`s forehead !
The first test session started dry, I popped the car round for a few laps to make sure all was well and then handed over to Pete so he could familiarise himself with the car. The suspension settings were spot on and the car was looking good. I took over for the last 15 minutes or so just as it started to rain. GT3`s on slick tyres and rain don`t make for a happy marriage so I opted to sit out the last 5 minutes of the session. The afternoon session was properly wet which gave us a chance to run a wet setting on the new shocks, once again out of the box the car felt lovely. The Dunlop Wet tyres are fantastic and although quite heavy the GT3 is actually very civilised in the rain. By close of play we were very happy with the car and celebrated car chief engineer Warren's birthday with a bite to eat and a small glass of shandy.
Race day dawned bright and sunny - well as bright and sunny and Dartford in April can be and the forecast was for good weather for the whole meeting. Pete qualified first and put in a very respectable time of 0.50.67 which put us in 11th overall and 4th in class, as usual sandwiched between a pair of Marcos Mantis`. I couldn't better his time and didn't want to break anything trying so took things steady on my stint behind the wheel. Things were looking up. Although in class one, (we were put up to class one for this meeting but then moved back to class 2 just before we went out to race), the DTM Opel had set fastest lap followed by British touring car and Le Mans veteran Kelvin Burt`s Porsche 911 GT3, former British GT champion and FIA racer Mark Sumpter followed closely behind in the GT3 he was sharing with Porsche Cup veteran Pete Chambers. Phillip Harris` GT3 had powered it's way to a sub 0.50 time as well. Top of the class 2 tree was David Leslie in the wonderful BMW M3 he shared with Harry Handkammer. The only other person to squeeze bellow a 0.50 time was British GT champion and Endurance racing maestro Callum Lockie in Bo Mc Cormick`s Ferrari 360.
One of the interesting things about the Britcar series is not only the variety of cars but also the driver pairings. An international superstar will often be partnered by a gentleman driver and that is the potential weak link in the chain. Our hope, as a pair of gentleman drivers rather than international mega-stars, was to be consistent. If we could beat the 2nd driver's times by enough the 1st driver may not be able to compensate enough. You never know until the last minute which driver is going to start the race. We decided to put Pete in the car first and see how things went. Given his penchant for eating pies we thought we could get him out of the car quicker than we could get him in it !
The rolling start went off ok with Pete suffering a little going into Paddock Hill for the first time but the coming up to Druids the was pandemonium. Phillip Harris` Porsche GT3 and the Noble M12-2 made contact and Harris speared into the wall taking the David Leslie`s M3 with him. Thankfully Pete managed to avoid the action and after the inevitable pace car whilst the mess was cleared up racing resumed. Pete steadily picked off the cars one by one until we were not only leading class 2 but 2nd on the track. Things were look up, most of the top drivers were yet to get in their cars but if Pete could keep up the pressure it looked likely we might see a class podium. Then disaster struck. Going down Paddock Hill Pete heard a bang and feared a blown tyre, he radioed to the pits and came in only to find all 4 wheels were still looking good, he'd mistaken the noise of debris hitting the underside of the car for something more sinister. Pulling back onto the track we had now lost nearly 3 laps and our podium hopes had just evaporated.
Once out on the track we did a little calculating in the pits to see if we could negate another pit stop and use Pete's unplanned visit as our mandatory 1 minute stop. Having not put any fuel in the car there was a lot of head scratching before we decided it wasn't quite going to happen so we pulled him in again for a planned driver change and re-fuel. Out on the track all I could do was hold station and hope that others may push a little too hard on tyres that by now had seen better days. Actually my patience did pay off and I managed to un-lap the Ferrari 355 of Gamski / Robinson twice to gain a place back and also managed to take a place off one of the BMW`s. Back's Ferrari 360 fell off at Paddock Hill, I suspect whilst pushing on now old rubber a little too hard - it is so tempting to push on rather than play safe late on in the race, you know the car has faster laps in it but forget the tyres haven't anymore ! Right at the end Kelvin Burt's Porsche GT3 had a suspected clutch failure going down towards Graham Hill bend and was forced to retire, luckily there was just enough time to un-lap ourselves to beat them.
In the end we came 7th on the track and 5th in class. Not a bad result given the dramas that had unfolded, we were the highest placed Porsche in the race, given there had been a podium on the cards at one stage inevitably we were a little sad to have lost out, but that's racing. Once again the Marcos` had a strong finish making up the bulk of the field behind the two Ferraris. The Australian Ford Falcon proved it's self to be mustard in a straight line, woe betide the rest of us if they ever find out how to get the power down round the corners !
And those mid race calculations - could we have kept Pete out, not stopped for the 2nd pit stop / refuel and picked up our inaugural class podium ? Even with the safety car when the Ferrari beached at Paddock we would have been 4 litres short !! Next time we're packing a plastic fuel can and playing piped music on the radio so Pete can't hear any more funny noises !
As always a great race and many thanks to Steve, Warren, Tony, Rob and Ian for all their help. Looking forward to Snetterton.
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