GruppeM – Mondello Park – Sunday May 9

Race 2 – Race Report
On Saturday in Round 3 the Rover Safety Car had lead almost as many laps as the fastest competitor. On Sunday it pulled aside at the end of the green flag lap and was never seen again. Round 4 would be a race of very different complexion, but a remarkably similar result. It all began with a final tyre-warming jiggle through Dunlop Corner from Kirkaldy and Sugden before the two red cars moved slowly up the main straight. The Scot, narrowly on pole, held the front row in tension all the way past the pits. In a repeat of Saturday’s rolling start, the GruppeM Porsche was a short head to the fore as the pair neared the lights, but it was Kirkaldy who crossed the line first, flooring the Ferrari’s throttle in an attempt to get into the corner ahead of Sugden. It was nip and tuck, but the Scot just managed to get his nose into the turn first, and with Sugden on the outside, the pole-setter’s lead on the exit was assured. “It was a battle of wits to try and get the jump on him,” conceded Sugden, “but on the outside there wasn’t a lot I could do. He covered me too well.”

Behind them the rest of the field came through the tight right-hander without incident. It was a remarkably clean start, with barely a touch throughout the twenty-five car grid. This was some hint, perhaps, that Sunday’s race would be cleaner than Saturday’s. As he braked for Turn 3 Kirkaldy looked to have gained some breathing space, which then extended as Sugden briefly locked-up the front tyres on the run down to the fourth corner. For the first handful of laps it seemed as though the pre-race predictions would prove correct. The Ferrari, released from the success ballast applied following good results at Donington but poorer showings since, appeared to have the legs on the GruppeM Porsche, now carrying an extra 40 kilos of lead after victory less than 24 hours previously.

It might have only been a tenth of a second or so each lap, but Kirkaldy was certainly pulling clear. Trying to keep on terms in the #38 Porsche, Sugden was also aware of Kirkaldy’s advantage. “For those first few laps he had so much more grip than I did, and he was able to carry speed and traction through the corners.” GruppeM had elected to run harder compounds in the weekend’s second race, and these were taking a little longer to reach an effective working temperature, but when they did, about five laps into the race, the tables began to turn. “I was pushing as hard as I could, and when the tyres came in I realised I was catching him again,” said Sugden, whose lap times had been matching Kirkaldy’s almost exactly, but now began to give him the edge.

Making excellent progress from the back of the grid was Adam Sharpe, co-driving with Jonathan Rowlands in the GruppeM Tech 9 Cup Class Porsche. He’d been forced to start from last place after the car failed to participate in second qualifying with a driveshaft problem. He made up three places on the opening lap, and then one more with almost every additional lap until he was standing eleventh overall just ten minutes into the race. It was later admitted that this performance had been almost enough to net him the “Driver of the Day” award, and it certainly impressed the crowd.

The leader’s advantage then began to narrow visibly, while both cars were easing away just a fraction from Mullen and Greensall’s dispute for third. A few seconds further behind these two came Paula Cook and Godfrey Jones, with Cook having just got the better of Jones at some cost to one of her own wing-mirrors. She now couldn’t see much down one side, which was making her defence slightly less predictable.

By lap seven Kirkaldy’s lead had shrunk to just four seconds, while Greensall looked well placed to snatch third from Mullen. Jones, having lost seventh to Cook on lap two, was determined to get it back. He thought he saw an opening into Turn 3 early into the ninth lap, and made to dive down the inside into the right-hander. Cook, partially unsighted by the skewed wing-mirror, began to turn in on the racing line, only to encounter Jones careering by across her nose. There was quite heavy contact and the Porsche was sent tripping into the gravel, never to return. Cook, her mirror now miraculously readjusted, pressed on. Godfrey wasn’t best pleased.

Sugden was now enjoying much better grip from his tyres, which had warmed to the task he’d set them, and the gap to Kirkaldy was falling by a second or more with each lap. An error by the Scot as he came out of the sweeping Turn 3 on his twelfth sent the Ferrari skipping through the rough, kicking dirt and dust into the air. As he and Sugden came around to start the next lap, the GruppeM Porsche’s yellow headlights suddenly burst into life, reminding Kirkaldy – as if he’d ever been likely to forget – that “Suggy” was on the way. By the time the pitlane opened for driver changes, with twenty-three minutes gone, he’d arrived, the two cars crossing the line with just the length of a towrope between them.

Catching the Ferrari had been a very gradual process, but passing it would have to be done quickly and efficiently, and Sugden knew exactly where that would have to be. He tested his theory on lap fifteen, threatening a tighter line through turn four, labouring under the name of “Holiday in Ireland” following Mondello’s decision to rename most of its corners after the circuits' major sponsors. He had to back off as Kirkaldy shut the door, but he now had the measure. “He was really struggling through those tight left-handers,” observed Sugden, “especially turn four. I reckoned I could get him there.” For the next two or three laps he was never more than a hair’s breadth from the Ferrari’s tail, and when the Scuderia Ecosse driver went deep into Holiday on lap eighteen, Sugden pounced. Getting his nose alongside on the way in he hung like a limpet to the kerb, all the way through the bend, while Kirkaldy scrabbled to hold his pace through the lengthier outer line. The two red cars ran side-by-side for what seemed an agonisingly long time, but Sugden made the better exit, leaving Kirkaldy to tuck back in behind as they set off for the bend called Lola. Amazingly, both still had a full complement of wing mirrors, but Sugden was leading.

The first car to pit had been Barry Wright in #88 Lotus Elise, and his co-driver Gavan Kershaw would grab the little black and silver car by its scruff as he dragged it up through the ranks, ultimately taking the top prize in the dailysportscar.com Cup, and “Driver of the Day”. His rival for that honour, Adam Sharpe, had risen as high as fourth before passing the baton to Jonathan Rowlands, but an oversight during the change-over, when the Porsche’s engine should have been switched off, would eventually cost the pair any chance of repeating their class-winning form. A stop-go penalty relegated them to a class fifth.

Andrew Kirkaldy wasn’t about to surrender the lead without a fight, and he attempted to get back on terms with Sugden for several more turns before Sugden finally made it tell. The contract was effectively sealed when the Ferrari driver became entangled with the Lanzante Lotus through Holiday in Ireland (fast becoming Kirkaldy’s least-favourite corner). The diminutive Elise had made room for Sugden, who still seemed able to hold a much tighter line through the lefthanders than the Ferrari, but in doing so moved directly into the path of the still-chasing Kirkaldy. Committed to the corner, Kirkaldy had nowhere else to go but onto his brakes. The Ferrari slewed almost to a standstill amid thick clouds of rubber smoke, and by the time the air cleared Sugden was gone, never to be threatened again. “That was it,” said Sugden with a grin. “Once I was in front it was a clear run to the driver change.”

With a lead of over sixth lengths, Sugden was able to hand over to Jonathan Cocker at the end of lap 20 knowing that his young co-driver would most likely not only retain the lead, but also gain an extra half minute or so on the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari. “When you’re leading, and you stay out longer then everyone else, so all the rest have pitted before you do, it’s more than likely that you’ll retain that lead,” calculated Sugden. Having an inexperienced but hugely talented partner is also an obvious benefit following the British GT Championship’s adoption of a driver-grading system. Even though Tim Sugden is a category “A” driver, Jonathan Cocker’s lowly “C” status assures no additional time penalty in the pitstop. All cars must stop for a minimum of 40 seconds, but Kirkaldy and Kinch, as an A+B pairing, face a surcharge of 25 seconds. It must have been enormously frustrating for the Scuderia Ecosse crew to hear the Porsche’s exhaust rasping confidently up the pitlane, knowing that Kinch would still be there for almost half a minute. In the end it was worse. He didn’t hear the call to “go”, and sat for another ten or fifteen seconds before finally setting off. It would be a costly mistake for the #35 pairing.

True to Sugden’s prediction, Cocker’s lead was still intact and stood at almost 40 seconds. The #34 Scruderia Ecosse car, now driven by Chris Niarchos after the driver change with Tim Mullen, was second, but would soon face the same stop-go penalty that hammered Sharpe and Rowlands’ chances – for not switching off their engine during the pitstop. Fastest man on the track was Mike Jordan, well over a minute behind Cocker and only marginally quicker, and the #51 Corvette had been forced to make an additional pitstop from sixth and was now out of contention.

The penalty on Niarchos dropped the second SE Ferrari down to fifth, and promoted Lawrence Tomlinson in the RSR TVR T400 to second. Mike Jordan, however, had his own eye set on that podium step. Cocker’s advantage was a country mile by this time, extending to 64 seconds, while Jordan was now onto the TVR’s tailpipes. On lap 28 he closed right down onto the back of the bronze car as they come through MG and Bike World, and then drew up even tighter as they rounded Dunlop. Throttle to the floor, he eased ahead as they thundered up the pit straight, and Jordan was running second by the time they crossed the line.

Meanwhile, half a lap ahead of the second-placed Jordan, Cocker was just heading out of MG towards Turn 7. In front of him lay the #55 Embassy Racing Corvette, it’s blunt blue and white rump a tangible barrier to progress. By rights Niel Cunningham should have posed scant obstacle to the leader, being a lap down and due for a lapping, but the Kiwi is ever a fighter. He held his line through every corner, using the Corvette’s sheer grunt to pull away in between. “I showed him my nose several times,” explained Cocker afterwards, “but he just cut across me!” Overhearing this, Tim Sugden chipped in with; “Didn’t you pip your horn?” Then, with a more serious look on his face. “I do sometimes wish these cars were fitted with a horn – a really loud one!”

The gap to Jordan shrank to almost fifty seconds, and memories of Sugden’s reeling in of Godfrey Jones from a similar situation the day before must have been passing through minds all around the track. Steadfastly ignoring the blue flags, now being waved quite frantically by astute marshals, Cunningham carried on regardless. Finally, after nearly two full laps of sheer frustration, Cocker saw the narrowest of gaps on the entry into Dunlop and lunged through. “My heart was really beating very fast at that point,” admitted Kenny Chen, watching from the pit wall.

A little further back Nathan Kinch was attempting to do the same on Tomlinson’s TVR for third place, but it wouldn’t happen for another two laps and the scene would be played out at Honda instead. By then just two laps’ racing remained and a light rain was starting to fall. “At the end I felt as if I wasn’t pushing at all,” said Cocker with a shrug, “yet the times were still there. I’m really pleased.”

After thirty-four laps and a little over an hour of hard-fought racing, the chequered flag fell on Irish win number two for GruppeM Racing. Kenny Chen, team, principal, was delighted, of course. “It was not as dramatic as yesterday,” he conceded, “but it was still a great race and it feels so good.” His satisfaction was reinforced by the knowledge that his two drivers had achieved both victories despite a warped brake disk, which the team had been unable to replace after identifying the fault in qualifying. “I’m really impressed,” he continued. “Our strategy was for Tim to go out there and do his best, despite the extra weight and the vibration, but that wasn’t enough for him. He said he would go out there for the lead, and he did!” Chen is wary of any result that could be misinterpreted or flattered by the misfortunes of others, and was clearly pleased that both his team’s Mondello wins could be attributed to merit and, perhaps, just a little bit of luck. “This shows that both our drivers are very competitive. I don’t want people saying we win by advantage – we have a good car and good drivers and we win because we deserve to.”

Credit in equal measure must go to Jonathan Cocker. “I think Jonny did very well,” said an impressed Chen. “He’s a very young driver and this is only his second full season, yet I don’t believe anyone could have done any better today. It’s great for us, and it must be very encouraging for him as well.” Cocker’s co-driver and mentor was equally generous. “Jonny did a brilliant job. He was setting a good pace, and most important of all, he got the car back in one piece.”

Kenny Chen admitted to being impressed by the performance of Dunlop’s race tyre. Although sole supplier to the series, Dunlop is still able to offer a choice of compounds to the teams competing in the British GT Championship. In Saturday’s race GruppeM had elected to fit a soft compound tyre, and this had withstood the full hour of intense racing around a demanding track. On Sunday, with Tim Sugden starting, they’d chosen a harder compound. “Yesterday the soft tyres lasted very well indeed, and Dunlop were as pleased with their performance as we were,” said Mr Chen. “Today’s harder compound took longer to reach temperature, but it seems to suit the car.”

Final word must come from the hero of both races, Tim Sugden, who staged such a brilliant comeback in Round 3, and then set the foundation for an emphatic win in Round 4. “We couldn’t do much better than this, except two poles perhaps – oh, and fastest lap would have been nice. All in all, it’s been a perfect weekend.” Was it easy?

“ When you’ve driven well, the car’s right and the team have done a good job, that’s when it’s easy. That’s when it’s straightforward, although my lucky ball helps.” He picked out a small pink and blue plastic ball from the depths of his kit bag. “It’s been with me at every race since 1991. I was on pole for my first ever touring car race, and I found the ball under the bed in the hotel on the night before the race. I was so bored I started playing with it; bouncing it against the wall. The next morning I decided to take it with me and I won the race. I’ve kept it with me ever since.” The team will be hoping he doesn’t forget it when they head for the wild and windy steppes of Snetterton for rounds five and six in four weeks' time.