British GT Championship – Brands Hatch Title Showdown – Cup Report
The Final Twist

Even if the Brothers Grimm had lived in the 21st century, it is unlikely that they would have constructed a fairy tale around a GT race. However, had they been at Brands Hatch for the eleventh and final Cup race of 2003, they would surely have been tempted to put pen to paper, as the Lanzante Motorsport Elise seemed destined to record a debut win. However, every fairy tale needs a villain, and Neil Cunningham played the role beautifully as he contrived to snatch victory from our young heroes mere moments from the end.

Actually, Lanzante’s dazzling performance owed considerably more to excellent preparation than to fairy tales and the immaculate Lotus was a joy to behold both in the paddock and on the grid, alongside the 15 other Cup runners who had all survived the weekend to take the start.

A glorious cacophony heralded the green light as 12 GT and 15 Cup runners hustled around Paddock Hill Bend. 15? Alas, Rob West was forced to pit his Alfa GTV even before he crossed the line to take the start. He quickly rejoined, but was obviously in trouble (gearbox) and he was soon back in for a hefty stop.

Despite spots of rain peppering the first turn at the start, almost all the cars got through unscathed. Unfortunately, the Team Wireless Elise was not so fortunate on the Bottom Straight, into Surtees – and spun out after being ‘pincered’, Warren Carway stepping out of the car almost immediately. We lost a front runner at Paddock 60 seconds later, Rob Wells having a major disagreement with the tyre wall. The Team Aero car was out on the spot - a disappointing way to finish the season for a team that has provided so much on-track entertainment, and a great shame for the spectators who would be denied seeing a Keith Ahlers charge. It also meant that we had effectively lost three Cup runners in the space of one lap (and a bit).

After one tour, in an indication of what was to follow, Chris Yandell crossed the line in his Elise at the head of the Cup field. Predictably, Patrick Pearce was not going to allow this to continue and took the lead on lap two.

Up ahead, things were about to go pear-shaped in the GT battle, and Pearce found himself sitting behind a safety car before he could even think about opening up a lead. Behind him was Tom Shrimpton in the #77 Tech 9 sister car, who had also bettered the Yandell Elise on lap three.

After the carnage in both classes, it was time to draw breath and work out who the survivors were. The Cup order after three laps was 76, 77, 30, 55, 66, 42, 78, 29, 44, 43, 47, 48, 49 and 28. The race continued behind the safety car for ten minutes, which meant that we essentially had a new race of 60 minutes to look forward to when the SEAT pulled off.

It was now time for the next twist in this remarkable race. Patrick Pearce was barely back on to race pace when he had an incident at the bottom of Graham Hill Bend, which put him off the track. He got going again, but wasn’t to re-emerge onto the Indy Circuit, instead slowing to a halt shortly afterwards. “I just made a tiny mistake coming through Graham Hill Bend and went off and clipped the barrier: it tucked the wheel under and I thought I could get the car back. I only made it as far as the back straight, where both left tyres punctured.” Pearce parked it, leaving Matt Griffin without a race today.

When Tom Shrimpton subsequently crossed the line in first place in the #77 Porsche 996, he was followed closely by two other young chargers; Chris Yandell in the #30 Elise and Adam Sharpe in the #66 Aero 8.

The next few laps were remarkable and heartening to watch. Even though the three cars drifted apart, Shrimpton and Yarnell set fastest laps on every lap (the former improving to 1:33.735 and the latter to 1:34.240) while Sharpe set rapid and consistent times in the heavily-ballasted Morgan.

Behind this trio, the other Cup runners were experiencing mixed fortunes. Hector Lester was keeping the #42 Ferrari in contention behind the Morgan and Walter Colacino had worked the #43 Elise into the top twenty in his quest to secure fourth in the championship, setting a fastest lap of 1:41.451 in the process. Paul Wight was having a steady run in his Exige, keeping out of trouble and looking like being handily placed for when he handed over to Gavan Kershaw.

The Golf was not having a happy race and was clearly struggling…but not as badly as the #49 Brunswick Elise, Rachid Bouzouba having to park the car on lap 14. This was the last outing for the Lotus as a one car team, to be joined by a Mazda RX7 in 2004.

Regrettably, a Cup car was about to decide the outcome of the GT Championship. Alan Bonner spun the #44 Mantis at Dingle Dell and was collected by the desperately unlucky Shane Lynch in his TVR. The impact was a violent one, but both drivers were unhurt.

We now had a second safety car period, and this coincided with the pit-window opening. Adam Sharpe ended a very impressive stint by diving straight in to hand over to Neil Cunningham, closely followed by most of the other runners (both classes). One car that didn’t was the #77 in the hands of Tom Shrimpton, and he was to enjoy the feeling of leading the race overall for three laps – the spotlight was thoroughly deserved after a very mature and consistent drive. Dean Lanzante took over from Chris Yandell, who was modest about his excellent drive: “It was a good solid stint, very busy out there and I just tried to keep on the pace and deal with the traffic as best I could.”

The Eclipse TVR had done a lot of damage to the tyre wall, which meant that the safety car was out for longer than anticipated. During this period, the order was shaken up a bit. A good stop from the Glenvarigill team meant that Keith Robinson had emerged from the pits ahead of Neil Cunningham, while Tom Shrimpton’s late stop dropped the #77 car to fourth. Jeff Wyatt and Gavan Kershaw were not waved through by the safety car for some reason, resulting in them both losing a lap to the lead car (the #30 Elise) and effectively ending their challenge.

When the safety car pulled off again, just 30 minutes remained and the race’s penultimate surprise was now about to be delivered.

From the moment Patrick Pearce went out, a Morgan victory appeared certain – Neil Cunningham was likely to outrun both Liz Halliday and Dean Lanzante. The New Zealander quickly regained second place from Keith Robinson and was now six seconds behind the Lotus. However, on the next lap the gap increased. And again on the next lap. Occasionally, traffic would reduce the gap slightly, but it was clear that the Lotus had the legs of the Morgan. Dean Lanzante was driving a superbly consistent pace (in the 1:35s and varying by no more than two tenths per lap), just faster than Cunningham and possibly with a little in reserve.

Suddenly there was a shout from David Addison in the commentary box. Another incident? No – just the return to the track of the Alfa GTV. It was 28 laps down, but nobody had expected to see it again and it ran to the finish. Tony Soper; “Well, the gear linkage broke almost immediately, I got it back to the pits and we thought we’d fixed it but the thing went again almost immediately. We stayed in the pits until the first safety car to fix it and then found the battery had gone flat, we boosted it and got going and then found the alternator had gone and the battery was flat again! The important thing though is that we were here and that the car has shown some good straight line speed. We’ll be back in 2004.”

The battle for first was not the only one on the track. Liz Halliday was racing to claim third and a podium from Keith Robinson. The tall Ferrari driver was not willing to yield to the American lady without a fight, and it took a very brave manoeuvre around the outside at Druids (while being lapped by the lead GT cars) to settle things. That wasn’t the end of it, though. Jeff Wyatt would not let the sister Porsche past him, despite being a lap down – presumably he thought it was a fight for position – but eventually Liz got by. In fairness, Jeff didn’t have a radio, and was enjoying his first Porsche race.

We now had just six minutes to go and the race was in the bag for the Elise. Except that the light drizzle that had been hanging in the air for the previous five minutes was now turning to rain. Suddenly the gap started to come down.

With three minutes to go, the gap had shrunk from ten seconds to seven and the next lap would be crucial. When the cars crossed the line it was clear that the Morgan was closing rapidly. The timing screen confirmed this suspicion; 1:40.154 for the Elise, 1:36.000 for the Morgan! Less than three seconds separated the cars, and we had a repeat of the GT Spa scenario. Which Cup car (this time) would be first around the final bend?

As Martin Short approached the line to hand the GT title to Tom Herridge, a deep growl along the Brabham Straight heralded the approach of the Morgan! Remarkably, the Kiwi had snaffled the lead from Dean Lanzante’s hands at the death. How had this happened?

“It was a bonzer last lap!” said a delighted Cunningham. Don’t you just love him? “Martin blew past me and I used a bit of tow to get by the Lotus. I'd watched the rain clouds coming in and knew it was the right time to push, I don't think he (Lanzante) saw me coming, If he did I guess he'd have thought it was another GTO car following the Mosler. I took him at the turn after Hawthorns - I was foot to the floor, it was win or crash!

“I'm just gutted now that we had a silly DNF at Combe when we should have won. If that had gone our way the championship would have been very close.

“The Morgan has brought something special this year though. It brings it home to you when you come around a turn and the cameras are flashing away - a real buzz."

Dean Lanzante; “I knew he was gaining but didn’t see him coming. The left hand mirror got knocked in by a sideways biff from a 911 and he came by on the tail of the overall leader.”

Lanzante Motorsport were thoroughly deserving of a win at Brands, and it took someone of Neil Cunningham’s ability to deny them that win. They are undoubtedly a class act, though, and Dean’s and Chris’s drives were the pick of the day. Will they be back in 2004? “What we need now is clarification of the rules. I’d be concerned if the powers that be thought that our run here was representative of Lotuses being able to challenge the Porsches. There are a couple of circuits, Brands and Donington, where we could be competitive by driving very, very hard; but for the most part they would crucify us as things stand. All we’ve changed from the Roadsports setup is an extra 100lb on the springs and different tyres,” explained Dean. We’d love to see you back next year, guys. And we think we will.

Liz Halliday hung on to third by half a second from the tenacious Keith Robinson, while Gavan Kershaw brought the green and yellow Exige home in fifth. Liz had used the Gareth Evans TVR to help her cause, but in a subtly different way to Cunningham’s technique. “The TVR slowed as the rain fell, so I pulled alongside and stayed there, filling up the track!”

Paul Whight, fifth in the RML Lotus, sharing with the rapid Kershaw was reasonably happy: “It’s nice not to be amongst the carnage and it was a joy to finish the race and still be running on the pace after mechanical troubles yesterday. We got caught out badly by the Safety Car and the Lanzante boys made up almost a full lap as a result.”

And so the Cup class’s first year drew to a halt on a high note and with the promise of good things next year. Thanks to all the teams who took part, and congratulations to the winners. See you in 2004.
Mark Howson