Trackspeed – British GT Snetterton – 15 / 16 July 2006
Virtually A Clean Sweep

The likes of Audi and Porsche have achieved a 1-2-3 at Le Mans, but a 1-2-3 in the British GT Championship is a unique achievement: that’s what Trackspeed managed at Snetterton on Saturday July 15 – and followed that up with a 1-2 on Sunday. It was a remarkably successful weekend for the team.

The only change to the driver line-ups at Mondello Park was that Andreas Demetriou partnered Ryan Hooker in the #3 Porsche. Ryan knew that his new partner is quick – but Andreas (Andy) had never competed in a GT race before…. Although on this remarkable weekend for the team, that didn’t seem to matter at all.

Car #3 – Ryan Hooker / Andrea Demetriou

“Everyone knows me as Andy,” said the personable new man at Trackspeed (right).

It wasn’t the ideal start for him in GT racing though: he’d tested one of the other Trackspeed Porsches at Snetterton a week before the race, but the #3 car wasn’t ready to go in testing on Friday.

Ryan Hooker: “The diff. and gearbox were still being put in the car on Friday, so we missed all four 45 minute sessions. That really affected us throughout the meeting.

“In the Saturday morning practice session, I had to spend half an hour running the diff in, and then we need to get Andy some track time. We started off with the Mondello set-up and worked from there, but I didn’t get more than five or ten minutes in the car when I could run quickly. Andy had to get on with fine-tuning it, and he got us within half a second of the best times, so suddenly things were looking good. After that, we didn’t went to alter the set-up and find that we’d gone the wrong way, so we stayed with that for the rest of the meeting.”

“The balance was reasonable,” continued Andy Demetriou. “Ryan did a 12.7 in qualifying, and I’d had more time in the car, so I was able to set a 12.2.”

So race 1 saw Ryan Hooker starting from second on the GTC grid, that half second behind Jonny Lang in #5.

“Ryan did a brilliant job,” reckoned Andy Demetriou afterwards.

So what did you do Ryan? “I knew that they were more aggressive on their tyres in #5, so I was happy to let Jonny pull out one and a half to two seconds initially, then I started to haul him in. It was great to have someone to chase, and we had a good battle for two or three laps.

"I slipstreamed him down the back straight and overtook into the Esses, then se sat behind me – but I managed to pull out a few tenths a lap, so by the time of the pit stops, the gap was about four seconds.”

Could the new man hang onto that lead, and bring Ryan Hooker his first win in British GTs… and Andy’s too?

Oh yes he could. “It’s all pressure, isn’t it? But Ryan had done a brilliant job, although I had to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes. I just found a comfortable groove, and the tyres still felt pretty good.”
So with the minimum of fuss, Andy Demetriou brought #3 home first.. (two laps to go, we think, below)...

... a comfortable 12 seconds or so up the road from the team’s #5 car, with #4 in third, for a memorable 1-2-3.

Ryan Hooker has monopolised the “unlucky” tag this season, and could have had several wins in the first half of 2006 – “if only”.

“We’ve had a few niggles,” summed up Ryan Hooker. “We led both races at Pau, then lost power both times. It turned out that the baffles in the exhaust were coming apart, which dated back to David Ashburn’s incident at Donington – but it was one of those things that you couldn’t see. We were leading at Mondello when we had diff. trouble, then the tyres went off at the end in the second race, and the front-engined cars got me right at the end. We should have won at Oulton Park, but were stuck in fifth gear. But it’s come right now.”

An interesting problem for Team Manager Piers Masarati on Sunday morning was finding enough ballast to go in his successful Porsches. “We brought 30 kilos with us but I didn’t think we’d need 60!”

But despite 30, 30 and 10 kilos in the three cars on Sunday, it turned out pretty well in race 2, too.

Andy Demetriou got a good start, led across the line at the end of the first lap...

.. and then ran second behind pole man Matt Allison. These two were getting away from the rest, and a Trackspeed 1-2 was looking on the cards – but on this occasion, #3 wouldn’t be dicing with #5.

Ryan Hooker: “After 10 or 15 minutes, Andy had a bit of a long, soft brake pedal. That allowed Matt Allison to get away, and with their car having the edge, the best we could hope for was second. In my stint, we suffered a loss of power, something to do with a fuel pump I think, and I had to short shift at 5,000 revs. If it had been a circuit like Mondello Park, we’d have been in real trouble, but with hardly any slow corners (to accelerate out from) at Snetterton, that saved us from slipping too far back.”

The Morgan was a good 20 seconds back in third place – and the only low spot in Sunday’s proceedings was that the #4 car had a driveshaft fail early on, so it wouldn’t be a 1-2-3 this time.

Ryan Hooker has 47 points in the drivers’ championship, two behind the Team Tiger Marcos drivers, and eight behind Jonny Lang and Matt Allison. Andy Demetriou has a remarkable 18, after just two races.

Car #4 – Miles Hulford / Matt Harris

Snetterton would see something of a repeat of Mondello Park fortunes for the drivers in #4: a good race on Saturday, but misfortune on Sunday – but of a rather different sort from that which befell them in Ireland.

The chassis damage from that attack had all been sorted out, and Miles Hulford had a pristine Porsche with which to attack in qualifying on Saturday.

“I set exactly the same time as the Marcos, to the thousandth of a second, in qualifying – a 1:12.996. I was really pleased with that. It’s taken me a while to get used to the Porsche, which is completely different from the Ferrari I drove last year – even more so with the tyres we’re using this year. But I pushed really hard in qualifying, and was pleased with fourth (or equal third) on the grid.”

Matt Harris felt that it was Miles’ “best qualifying session of the season: really, really impressive.”

Miles Hulford was less than impressed with the way his tyres went off in the race though, as early as four laps into it, he reckoned, and when he pitted for Matt Harris to take over, #4 resumed racing behind the Morgan, which hadn’t yet pitted – and was therefore a lap ahead for now.

“I unlapped myself, and chased after the RPM Porsches,” said Matt Harris, “but one of them had engine trouble. Then the Morgan pitted, and came out just ahead of me again – so I passed it again, and caught one of the GT3 Aston Martins. That helped me get onto the tail of the other RPM Porsche, but that retired too.

“There was no one ahead of me or behind me, so I settled for third place.”

With the Trackspeed cars lining up sixth, seventh and ninth on the grid (first, second and fourth in GTC) for Sunday’s race, there was the likelihood of another very good result for the green and yellow cars.

Matt Harris (on the grid with Miles, above) lost one place to Calum Lockie’s Ferrari initially, but settled down in an early fifth in class – but he trickled into the pits at the end of lap four, a driveshaft having broken. The car was pushed away: no 1-2-3 this time, but it still ended up as a Trackspeed 1-2. Miles Hulford missed out on his Sunday race, but could at least reflect on a very good Saturday one.

Car #5 – Matt Allison / Jonny Lang

Jonny Lang summed up the Snetterton meeting as “a brilliant weekend for the team”.

Matt Allison was equally happy – after a second place on Saturday and then the win on Sunday: “A great team weekend, helped by the fact that the Marcos didn’t score well – but I’m sure there’ll be some twists before the season is over.”

The pair of them each had a pole position at Snetterton, and Jonny Lang started the first race. “We had some niggles in the first race, in particular the gearchange, which wanted to go from sixth to fourth. The set-up wasn’t quite right, but we had it much better on Sunday.”

Jonny started well enough to lead the Ascaris though.

“I took over about six or seven seconds behind the #3 car,” continued Matt Allison, and I’d heard Jonny talking about a touch of understeer and oversteer, and I was struggling a bit for the last half hour. I couldn’t catch Andreas, but having been told over the radio that the Marcos was well down, it was case of settling for second. You’re never absolutely happy about being beaten by your team-mates, but the result for the team was fantastic.”

Matt Allison lost out a little at the start of the second race, “but I soon got past Barry Horne and Andreas (in #3), and the small changes we’d made on Saturday evening produced a car that felt really good. I built up a nice little lead.”

“Matt did all the hard work, and with #3 struggling a bit, I was just cruising,” said Jonny Lang. “But in that heat it was still hot work. But a great weekend, we’re leading the championship, and I’m loving it!”

Which just goes to show how straightforward racing can be, when you’re winning.

Rockingham will inevitably provide some new challenges for all the GT runners, very few of whom will have raced a GT car at the Corby track before.

But for the buoyant Trackspeed team – well, they’re all, quite rightly, gloating at the memory of the Snetterton weekend. Five podium places out of six: you can’t do much better than that. This was the podium on Saturday.