British GT Championship - Castle Combe - Saturday
Morning Free Practice

The sun always seems to shine on Castle Combe: it certainly did for the Saturday morning Free Practice session, extended to 90 minutes in lieu of Friday testing.

First to show was the absolutely immaculately prepared #74 Team Eurotech Porsche 911 GT3-RS. Mike Jordan, fresh from a gruelling Le Mans week with the TVR squad - and now helping to keep over 1000 guests of principal sponsor John Guest happy – was showing impressive early pace, but the session would end early, and on the end of a tow rope for #74. A brand new flat 6 had gone pop and the Eurotech crew would have a real fight on its hands to exchange units quickly, the blown engine having a lightweight cooling system which didn’t match up with the spare.

In even worse trouble was the #46 Team Aero Morgan, a huge cloud of smoke signalling the end of the V8 and the end of the weekend for Keith Ahlers and Rob Wells.

There was a BIG scare for Tom Herridge in the #22 Rollcentre Mosler: he had sensed a vibration from the rear of the car but had presumed it was simply a matter of pick-up collecting on the tyres. As he rounded Folly however it became apparent that the problem was far more serious, the rear left hand wheel detaching itself with the car at a three figure speed. Herridge did fantastically well to hold the car steady, bringing it safely to a stop with very limited collateral damage. The Rollcentre crew quickly diagnosed the problem as a failed output shaft and set about fixing it in time for the qualifying session.

There were learning curves aplenty for some of the newcomers, the #3 F40 (fitted with the V12 engine from a 550 Maranello) finding all the niggly problems you would expect from such a new project, culminating in a rear suspension failure at the very end of the session. It would miss qualifying while the problem was fixed, but will start from the back of the grid tomorrow.

The #51 Team Wireless Lotus Elise crew were chasing a setup solution for their Honda VTEC engined car, father and son driving squad Marc (Dad) and Patrick (son) Charlton getting to grips quickly with the beautifully prepared hybrid.

Another newcomer to the series this weekend is Paula Cook. She is joining Neil Cunningham aboard the #66 Richard Thorne Motorsport Cup Class Morgan Aero 8 for this race, and both will feature in the debut of the 2003 Morgan GTO car at next week’s Donington Park round of the FIA-GT Championship. Paula got to grips with the Aero 8 quickly, finding respectable times but struggling for the clean lines at a circuit she has never raced at before, the front end of the car bearing the scars of contact with the corner markers.

The Eurotech Porsche, Rollcentre Mosler and CDL TVR all had their moments of glory at the top of the timing charts before Rob Barff got down to business in the #91 TVR, a 1:06.449 would be good enough to top the timing charts. In the closing moments of the session he was joined at the top by Michael Caine, his TVR team mate last year ending up just a few hundredths shy of the lead time.

In the Cup Class the surprise package was Paul Whight in the #55 RML Lotus Elise, six tenths up on the Cunningham pedalled Aero 8.

Qualifying Session
GT / GTO

With the two Moslers now sporting a smaller air restrictor and the main opposition now numbering five TVR T400Rs, with the addition of the De Walt pair (#91 and #92), qualifying looked set to be a battle royal.

It would end with a smiling Martin Short top of the timing charts with an electric lap of 1:05.847.

Hard on his heels after a titanic session was Michael Caine in the #92 TVR, just a tenth shy of the polesetting time.

The second row would be another Mosler / DeWalt TVR affair. Jamie Derbyshire was to find his session cut short in the #33 Balfe Motorsport MT900R as the red and white car powered by the pits with showers of sparks tumbling from the exhaust sound insulation (necessitated by the circuit noise restrictions). Derbyshire pulled over to investigate, but the heat generated by the dragging insulation then ignited the grass. The marshals responded efficiently and a red flag interrrupted the session: the fight for top dog wouldn’t involve the championship leaders in the final minutes.

Rob Barff was making up for the disappointment of an early exit from the Le Mans 24 Hours after Richard Stanton’s accident by wringing the neck of the #91 TVR. He was chasing hard, but couldn’t quite overhaul the mark laid down by the #33 Mosler.

It was all TVR for row three, the #69 Eclipse Motorsport T400R making it five cars within a second of each other at the sharp end of the grid, and Steve Hyde put the #27 CDL TVR alongside the orange and blue car.

There was trouble though for the #50 Xero Motorsport Corvette, Ricky Cole trying just a little too hard through the Esses and losing the rear end of the big yellow V8. The damage was localised but significant: “If you don’t find us here in the morning it was worse than it looked,” said a still smiling (just!) Dave Beecroft.

The Eurotech Porsche crew made a fantastic effort to exchange engine and cooling system on the #74 car after the morning practice session. But the work was completed just too late for the car to take part in the qualifying session.

The Porsche will join the Ferrari F40, starting from the back of the grid for tomorrow’s race.

GT Cup

The sharp end of the GT Cup qualifying battle would see the two GruppeM Tech 9 Porsches using the lessons learnt in morning practice.

That wasn’t to say they would get it all their own way, far from it in fact. It would take some VERY committed driving from both Matt Griffin and Patrick Pearce in #76 to fend off, guess who? Neil Cunningham in the #66 Morgan. Cunningham split the Porches midway through the session and stayed there. He wouldn’t be the closest to the class leaders though. As the chequered flag came out to signal the end of the session Paul Whight hurtled around Camp corner, the #55 RML Lotus Elise fully sideways, to post a qualifying time just a tenth of a second shy of the class polesitter.

Behind this quartet came the Gulf Air VW Golf, sporting a new rear spoiler and very competitive pace. It may not look like a GT car, but it goes like one. It finished the session half a second quicker than the Glenvarigill Ferrari 360!

With the Team Aero Morgan sidelined by engine failure it should be a 22 car grid for tomorrow’s race.
GG