Xero On Tour – 2004 – Thruxton – Rounds 13 And 14

Dramatic Racing To Conclude The British Season

It was an upbeat end of season atmosphere that dominated the Xero camp for the August Bank Holiday weekend meeting at Thruxton. While the British GT circus does go on to Brands Hatch, Xero is bringing its British season to a close a month early. “We don’t want to race on the Indy circuit at Brands, it is pointless and will probably end up with the car being ruined so we are choosing to go off to Spa instead and race there in the Belcar race,” explained Ricky Cole.

That didn’t mean they were taking their eyes off the ball this weekend though and indeed the team had a good showing, some great driving from both Cole and Peter Le Bas being marred only by a couple of spins.

Practice went well, with a 1:15.794 from Peter Le Bas placing the Corvette 5th on the timesheet. “I think he took his brain out for that lap!” said team boss Dave Beecroft on perusing the data – rare credit indeed, normally he doesn’t think Pete has a brain to take out!

A few hours later it was qualifying time and the most clinical timing from the rain gods ensured the last F3 car pitting at the end of its session got a few spots of moisture on its rear wing as it pulled into the garage. Only minutes later and the mist of a dense wetting rain had descended on the circuit – this would be a full wet session for sure.

Ricky Cole didn’t mind and a superb third spot on the grid was just reward for an excellent session – hanging back in traffic and only pushing towards the end when he had some space. His racing mind is maturing along with his driving: with less than two seasons of GT racing under his belt this was impressive stuff indeed. I even think I saw him smiling after he got out of the car, but I could be mistaken… “I was just sitting there plodding along, but I got bored of that, my last lap would have been even quicker but I got held up right at the end in the chicane.”

Peter Le Bas’ qualifying almost mirrored Ricky’s third, but Tim Sugden put in a late one to dump him back a spot. Pete then had to keep the pressure on to get back ahead of a charging Tim Mullen in the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari and did so, leaving Mullen only 3/1000ths of a second behind. In the end Pete and the Corvette held out, only to be knocked down to fourth again at the flag after an impressive lap from Shaun Balfe. He had skulked and hidden away for the first fifteen minutes, then banged on some intermediates, put just enough fuel in to do his hot lap and finally made an appearance - second place on the grid.

“The second and third row are all good,” commented Pete, “and we have such a good chance tomorrow, it really won’t matter if it is wet or dry.”

Raceday

The biggest surprise of the day was seeing Ricky Cole awake before 9 o’clock in the morning, but he had to be as the first race was due to start at 9:12am.

Cole brushed his tiredness to one side and was in attack mode from the rolling start, tucking the wedge nose of the Corvette under the expansive rear wing of series-returnee Shaun Balfe’s Mosler, but Mike Jordan had a clearer view into the first corner and swept past to go and challenge for the lead.

The dimunitive (but effective) GKR dailysportscar.com Cup class Elise offered Ricky temporary respite from the two Scuderia Ecosse Ferraris that were stacked up behind it.

Bizarrely, Kinch would go off the track across the grass, only to emerge in front of the two cars he had just been tailing. Aren’t there rules against this kind of thing? The grass he had collected did him no favours anyway and necessitated a trip to the pits to have the vents cleared.

Ricky Cole was then brushed aside rather rudely by Neil Cunningham in the Embassy Corvette – the two friends finding it hard to see eye-to-eye on whether Ricky’s defensive driving or Neil’s desperation to make up for his twenty second pitstop penalty should rule the day. It seemed to have been a physical pass, whatever the circumstances: “Ricky has been bashed about like a pinball machine,” joked Beecroft.

Ricky kept Neil Cunningham’s pace well over the next couple of laps and had reached the leader’s pace when he pushed a little too hard and spun. Rejoining in seventh it soon became eighth as a fired-up Kinch blasted past, fresh from his grass-clearing pitstop.

It was a slow in-lap for Ricky after a couple of laps in relative space but Le Bas rejoined the circuit without too much drama. Pete spent the second half of the race closing down on Dan Eagling, single-handedly hustling the TVR round Thruxton for both races. Once he had closed the gap down he passed relatively easily, but the next man (Jones in the Porsche) was just too far ahead as the chequered flag loomed. The Jones car had a spin though so Pete was through to seventh, only to spin himself just before the chequered flag came out, so eighth it was. “I had taken that corner the same every lap but the tyres had just started to go off and I ran wide onto the grass – I lost drive right at the end as well, hope it’s not serious…”

Race two was better for Xero, with a late afternoon start the car had plenty of drive about it, after Jay and the boys had identified the transmission problem.

“We should have found a bit more grip for race two, especially at the rear – Dunlop has done a fantastic job,” commented Beecroft, whilst Peter Le Bas was still practising his victory punches into the air.

Despite Pete having a handy gap in front of him from a missing car on the grid, it was Mullen who made the strongest get-away and dropped Pete a spot. Things got worse the first time going up to Church when the rear window popped out, disrupting the airflow over the rear wing and sending the Corvette spinning across the grass. It was dismaying to see the car down in 19th with so much to do to get back to a respectable position, but it would be fun trying…

Pete was well into picking his way through the Cup class cars when Martin Short’s Noble sheared a wheel at Church and ended up in a dangerous place on the track. The safety car was out and suddenly Xero were in a stronger position.

With only two more Cup class cars ahead (both Porsches) it was soon time to be racing the N-GTs again and that is what Pete did, just a lap passing before the Cup runners became diminishing mirror-items. Ninth became eighth after a recovering Jones twins Porsche lost ground after an excursion.

The second safety car fell at the halfway point in the race so it was logical for the handover to take place then, and good pitwork saw them return to the train of cars in fourth place overall.

With just under twenty minutes of racing left the pack was unleashed, but the lead trio had the legs on Ricky (“the rear end had definitely lost a lot of downforce without the rear window”) and he had to be content with trying to keep Jones, Jordan and Niarchos behind him. Once Jordan had passed the black Porsche of his team-mate the pressure was really on Ricky, and he had to use every last bit of late-braking he was capable of into the chicane lap after lap.

On lap 28 after a lengthy side-by-side period up the hill, Jordan finally made it stick into the chicane. Despite the lack of downforce, Ricky still matched the Porsche’s pace beautifully to hold that fifth place to the end.

“It was a fast-paced race and given where we were after the spin, to be running in fourth was great, fifth is still ok but without the spin a podium should have been possible. It was hard to hold onto the car at times though and even that fifth is hard-earned,” summed up Peter.

Good luck to the team in their Belgian adventure at the end of September, we don’t need to remind them to enjoy themselves. They’ve spent every British GT meeting doing just that, and have provided some marvellous entertainment. Chris Niarchos joins in the fun, below.
Paul Slinger