According to Phil Hindley, this was the magic ingredient that allowed his Tech 9 / Gruppe M GT3 to romp away with the opening round of the 2003 Cup Class Championship. In Patrick Pearce and Matt Griffin’s hands, the car firmly put the competition in its place and announced its title aspirations.

The 75-minute race started with a challenge however. Keith Robinson, in his first GT race, momentarily forgot that he wasn’t in his normal Caterham Superlight and muscled the #66 Aero 8 into the lead at Redgate. Patrick Pearce quickly regained his composure and retook the lead into MacLeans. From hereon in, Pearce took the fight away from the Cup class and to the GTO runners, moving ahead of the Xero Competition Corvette on lap two.

At the rear of the field, a three-way Cup fight was briefly taking place. Enzo Mucci had sneaked the Clio ahead of Jeff Wyatt’s Mantis at the start and was holding him back. Staying close behind these two was Walter Colacino in the Lotus Elise. The Italian flattered to deceive, unfortunately, and soon began to fall back at a rate of knots, becoming the first car to be lapped on only the sixth circuit. Mucci held Wyatt behind him for those six laps before yielding to the inevitable.

At this point the Cup class began to string out alarmingly. Pearce was pulling away from Robinson at more than two seconds a lap, while Rob Wells in the #46 Morgan was losing ground to the second-place car at a steady rate. Robinson’s car wasn’t 100%, however. “The car felt superb at the start, but the brakes started to feel a bit spongy going into left-handers. That knocked my confidence a bit, as I’d only run about five laps in the car before the race. After that, I decided to drive sensibly and make sure I was able to get it back to Neil (Cunningham) for his stint.”

Back up front, Pearce was flying the flag for the Cup class by holding back a couple of GTO runners. Amanda Stretton was unable to pass the Porsche in her GT Viper until lap eight, and the Corvette couldn’t find a gap until lap 11. By this time the Porsche was secure in seventh overall, and had already lapped the ailing Elise. The Norfolk machine with the Italian team was struggling with all sorts of maladies, wheel-bearing failure ultimately accounting for the car on the half-hour. The team had had problems with the bearings back in their Italian base in Perugia (they are operating out of Great Stratten for the season) and had ended up running with standard-production bearings, which basically melted in the race. Driveshaft and overheating problems also hampered their progress. However, these are early days for this car, and the team are not disheartened by their experience. They will also be protesting the car’s power-to-weight allocation, feeling that they should be running some 50kg lighter at 700kg. They could certainly do with such a lift.

By lap 11, Rob Wells’ Morgan was slipping back into the clutches of Jeff Wyatt’s Mantis at the rate of two seconds a lap. The Luton Town supporter took third place on lap 12 but was unable to pull out any significant gap afterwards, Wells keeping him very much in check until he pitted at 30 minutes and handed over to Keith Ahlers. Three minutes later, Keith Robinson brought his Morgan into the pit for its stop, leaving Wyatt second in class. Enzo Mucci brought the Clio in for Adam Sharpe after a dogged 35 minute stint, during which he set the car’s fastest lap of the weekend, and then the remaining two cars pitted. Matt Griffin returned the Porsche to the track more than a lap ahead of the second place #66 Morgan, the evidence of a very impressive drive by Patrick Pearce.

So all five surviving cars had pitted, but the cars were too strung out for any real racing. Keith Ahlers took third place back from Alun Edwards in the Marcos Mantis on lap 33, but there were to be no more changes of position this day.

Instead, we were given a glimpse of what might have been, and what may still be to come. Neil Cunningham was clearly enjoying himself, wringing more and more time out of the roofless Aero 8 – his best being a 1:15.777. More than that, he caught and unlapped himself from the Porsche of Matt Griffin. For the rest of the race the pair kept in close company, at one point lapping within five 1/1000ths of a second of each other. Was this a realistic scenario? “The Morgan was a lap down on us, so there was no point pushing,” was Phil Hindley’s assessment, clearly implying that the Porsche had more in reserve than the Aero 8. Keith Ahlers was also seeing what his Morgan could do, his best being a 1:16.429.

And so the remaining time ran out, and everyone’s attention was drawn to the fabulous GTO scrap for the lead. Adam Sharpe got some miles in the Clio under his belt, and Alun Edwards brought the Mantis home in fourth. A late bonus for the dominant Tech 9 boys was the late demise of the Corvette, the Porsche inheriting sixth place overall to add to the class win.

Matt Griffin was clearly delighted with his win, standing atop his car for a Le Mans-style salute. He and Patrick Pearce drove superbly. The four Morgan boys were greeted by loud cheers as they graced the podium. It appears there will be an enthusiastic following for these cars this year. Keith Ahlers got the top-three finish he desired, while Keith Robinson was a bit shocked to be spraying the bubbly: “I only got the phone call the other night, so this is a bit amazing”. The 28 year-old is looking to build a career in GTs, so let’s hope he gets the chance of more drives in the Aero 8. Who better to guide him than Neil Cunningham?

Overall, a quiet start for the Cup class. However, with a bit of tweaking, a bit more confidence, and perhaps a revision of the power-to-weight ratios for some, today’s runners should be able to mix it a bit more at future rounds. Throw in a few more cars and longer races and it could get very interesting.

Above all else, while Phil Hindley may attribute his team’s success to ‘German efficiency’, it helps if you can prepare a car as well as he does.
Mark Howson