British GT Championship - Castle Combe

Castle Combe circuit always puts out the red carpet for the F3-GT circus and once again the Wiltshire circuit made the crowds and competitors feel very welcome.

The sun shone brightly – does it EVER rain at Castle Combe? - but there was a dark cloud above the Xero Competition awning, the #50 Corvette sidelined after Ricky Cole’s uncharacteristic ‘off at the end of Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session, which had caused damage too serious to be fixed at the circuit. A bleary eyed Dave Beecroft explained that there was damage to the chassis and rear wing and that with no time or parts available to effect the repair, the team had opted to retire to a local hostelry to drown their sorrows. They’ll be back for the next round at Oulton Park.

So it would be 21 starters for the 60 minute race, a one-off return to last year’s standard, 60 minute sprint format and what was looking like a titanic battle between the Mosler pair, the TVR quintet, the Eurotech Porsche of Mike Jordan and Mark Sumpter - and anybody else who could keep up.

Before the end of the afternoon we were to have some truly fantastic racing action, a couple of very scary accidents, controversy on the track and in the pitlane and scenes of organisational confusion that will surely leave the true race result in some doubt.

GTO / GT

With new entrants (#3 Ferrari F40), returning entrants (#74 Eurotech Porsche and #8 Marcos LM600) and guest appearances (#91 and #92 De Walt TVRs) adding to the usual cocktail, there was a great deal to look forward to.

The misfortune for Team Eurotech of suffering an engine failure in free practice on Saturday morning would only add to the mix, the sight of a well driven GT car making up ground through the pack is great for the spectators, less so for the drivers. Mark Sumpter would take up the challenge in the #74 Porsche 911 GT3-RS.

With special guest Andy Wallace on pace car duty in the fabulous Pagani Zonda, the 21 car field cruised around, Castle Combe’s biggest crowd for 30 years on their feet in anticipation of the race to come.

As the Zonda pitted, Tom Herridge kept the field under control, Richard Hay alongside in the #92 TVR, a front row starter in his first ever British GT race.

Behind this pair another Mosler / DeWalt TVR combo, Shaun Balfe alongside Rob Barff with a pack of three ‘privateer TVR T400Rs in hot pursuit. The switch to show the green light to this lot would switch on an awful lot of power.

At the green it was Tom Herridge who got the jump, both DeWalt TVRS were looking for a way around the outside but Balfe took Route One to grab second. Out of the first corner though and down towards Quarry it wasn’t a yellow and black TVR making the early challenge. Instead it was the usual suspect this season: Shane Lynch in the #69 Eclipse Motorsport TVR was right on the tail of Balfe after a lightning fast start.

Back in the pack there was near disaster as the #8 TFM Marcos, Gerry Taylor at the wheel, suffered a mechanical failure in the drivetrain. Taylor was helpless as the big Marcos spun in front of the pack and was miraculously missed by all of them! Sadly the car was out on the spot though, down to 20.

On the move through the pack was Mark Sumpter. John Guest’s 1000 guests surely mightily impressed to find their man easily picking off the Cup class runners, up to 13th at the end of lap 1.

Meanwhile though there was a six car train up at the front, the Mosler pair plus Lynch were being hotly pursued by the DeWalt cars, but these two had been split by a charging Graeme Mundy in the #23 Racesport Salisbury TVR. Mundy though wasn’t done yet.

As Lynch began to worry about a warning light (and a wisp of smoke or two) in the cockpit of #69, Rob Barff took advantage, grabbed third and Lynch now found himself fending off Mundy. This race was fully alight, the first six cars separated by just 0.9 seconds and the crowd was loving every minute of it.

Sadly though we were to lose another major competitor on lap 2 as the #27 CDL TVR of Gareth Evans ground to a halt, a fault in the fuel lift pump ending the race for Bert Taylor’s team.

Mark Sumpter was still charging on, the #74 Porsche now in amongst the GTO runners. Within four laps he was up to 8th blowing by Dan Eagling in the #21 Marcos.

Barff was pressurising Balfe very hard indeed, with the Lynch Mundy combo equally fully engaged. It was Mundy who made the first move at the start of lap 9. He lined up Lynch over the start/finish line and then passed him at the first turn, the #23 car almost fully on the grass to complete the move and up to fourth position.

Fourth would soon become third however as the Moslers would gift the chasing pack an advantage. Balfe was looking for a way by Tom Herridge, the temperature gauges in #33 showing that the Mosler needed clear air. As is usual in these cases, the accounts differ sharply in the chain of events, but the indisputable result was contact between the two in the Esses and a red and white Mosler spinning off into the midfield cornfield. It would rejoin, pit for a tyre to replace a deflated front left but then pit again to retire with a lower wishbone bent from the impact. The car which won the first four races of the season has now hit trouble early in the last two.

Herridge didn’t escape scot-free either though, he too pitted for a puncture (rear right), Rollcentre team boss Martin Short then having Shaun Balfe's views made known to him across the pitlane.

All of this left an astonishing TVR 1,2,3,4 at the head of the pack after twelve minutes of racing, and the TVR Car Club contingent at Tower corner wase clearly delighted! First non-Blackpool built car was one of Stuttgart’s finest, Sumpter still charging in #74. He had passed Eagling and had found a way by Steve Brady in the #20 Ultima too.

He would claim fourth position next as Lynch pitted for a rapid investigation of his dashboard alarm. John Griffiths was happy that it was simply a rogue reading and the Irishman howled out to chase back the ground he’d lost, now back in seventh spot.

Herridge had rejoined but was almost a full lap down on Barff, the TVR pilot showing no loyalty to his co-driver in several races so far this season, clearly looking to put a lap on the Mosler.

With just 90 seconds to the opening of the pit ‘window’ Graeme Mundy’s fine run came to an end. He was still pushing very hard chasing the flying Rob Barff when changing down from fifth to fourth for the quick Tower Bend he briefly found neutral. It was enough to lose the fine balance needed for cornering with total commitment and the results were horrifying: he lost the back end and slammed with barely abated speed front end first into the barrier.

The front of #23 was heavily damaged, the race over on the spot for Mundy. Mercifully though, despite the violence of the impact, he was fine, but a sad end to his best run so far this season.

With the tyre barrier at Tower in total disarray and the TVR in a dangerous position the Safety Car was deployed almost immediately. But it failed to pick up the leader and so started a chain of events that was to lead everybody - drivers, spectators, timekeepers, commentators (and yours truly) - utterly perplexed.

With the pit stop opening the vast majority of the remaining runners pitted immediately. The leader (Rob Barff) elected to stay out, presumably hoping to limit Richard Stanton’s stint (or was he unready?), the team owner still in pain after his big shunt at Le Mans last weekend.

The train of cars behind the SEAT safety car was somewhat confusing, the leader emerging from pitlane ninth in the train and with no attempt seemingly being made to wave cars by to preserve the status quo.

Before long though it was clear that this would be a long clear up job and, for the first time since Oulton Park in 2002 the race was red flagged (after 27 minutes).

The decision was reached quickly that there would be a restart for a 20 minute run to the flag, the race being decided on aggregate time of the two legs.

Confusion and controversy reigned however over the grid order for the second leg. The charging Team Eurotech Porsche squad were utterly convinced that their pit strategy had left them in the lead. The timing screens however showed them fourth and a lap in arrears! There was similar confusion over the third placed car, Tom Shrimpton in the Glenn Eagling Motorsport Marcos was shown just a whisker down on the DeWalt TVRs, but 90 seconds clear of all of the other GTO runners.

With drivers, team members, timing marshals etc etc poring over reams of printouts, it seemed anything was possible. The production of a revised grid for the restart did absolutely nothing to help matters, it showed the #33 Mosler restarting in sixth position when it had actually retired many laps before!

After all of the furore and with most people still confused over the true position, the cars reformed on the grid for a 20 minute sprint to the flag. It looked like being a walkover for the DeWalt pair, with only the Marcos within striking distance.

So it would prove, but only after Shrimpton gave them an almighty shock from the restart by splitting the two before Quarry. Before the end of the lap though order was restored, the two TVRs then finishing the race in fast cruise mode, Michael Caine taking the win (making Richard Hay a winner on his debut!) and Richard Stanton wincing to second slot to put smiles on the faces of the squad after the disappointments of the previous weekend.

Behind this pair though there was a real ding dong. A three car train of Martin Short, Piers Johnson and Mike Jordan were pressing each other hard for fourth. The gap to the Marcos ahead was enormous but it was tumbling. Tom Shrimpton was really struggling with a Mantis GTO whose gearbox was self destructing. He had already lost sixth gear and was having to drive one-handed, the other being required to hold the car in fifth, the sole remaining functional ratio.

The dice on the track was fascinating but confusing, the order on track was Jordan, Short, Johnson but the aggregate time told a different story with Johnson leading Short and Jordan. Piers had been given the right advice, “Just get right behind him, you don’t need to pass.” This he did, almost welding the TVR to the towhook of the Mosler as the lap times tumbled again.

The three were dicing on track, dicing for position and scything through Shrimpton’s advantage. Wit lap times in the 66 and 67 second bracket, the hobbled Marcos had no answer and all too soon it was Johnson in third, Short fourth and Jordan fifth.

It wouldn’t finish like that though as two laps from home Piers Johnson found himself in the tyre wall: a rose joint had failed leaving the Eclipse Motorsport driver a passenger, a hard fought podium position had gone.

It was left to Short to take the flag for third, but even that almost went very wrong. With the leading TVR behind him on track, the Rollcentre boss was shown the flag a lap early, worse still he was under the impression that he had won the race, cruising round with the door open waving to the (very confused) crowd). Luckily someone, somewhere had the presence of mind to direct the Mosler back to the pitlane rather than the paddock, the final lap was thus completed and third place confirmed.

With the top two cars not featuring in the championship the Short smile quickly returned, but there must still be thousands of people asking “Who really won that race?”

Rob Barff in the second placed #91 TVR was quite naturally very pleased with the result: “Whoever wrote the script today was inspired. After the dire straits of last weekend the team have worked wonders even to be here. To score a 1-2 in front of this crowd is just mega.”

Third placed Martin Short was happy with his lot too: “That was a fantastic race with Mike Jordan and Cainey, it was just like the old days in Tuscans plus Piers out there and pushing me very hard. I was struggling just a little, we had a bit of play in a wheel bearing, probably from the clash with #33, I enjoyed it thoroughly though and I’d like to thank Steve O’Rourke for allowing me to be here today!”

The winning car though was pedalled to the flag by Michael Caine, and he was full of praise for the racing, his team mates but most of all the RSS pit crew.

“The lads worked really hard at Le Mans and felt it really hard when the car broke. They’ve worked really hard again just to have the cars here. To bring them both home 1-2 is a dream result and it’s a credit to them – Thanks lads.”

A great result therefore for the RSS DeWalt squad and a second consecutive win in the championship for TVR. With the temperature between the Mosler squads now at boiling point and the TVR squads scenting all sorts of possibilities, the next round at the fabulous Oulton Park circuit could be another classic.
GG