British GT – Knockhill – Race Two
Morgan Takes It
Now they can talk about race success down Malvern way. Same 1-2-3 in GT.

GT Race

It would be very easy to criticise a championship where the results of the first four rounds have had the same 1,2,3 each time, but that would demean the efforts of three teams who have pushed massively hard to race hard and win this season.

Round 4 did indeed see Balfe Motorsport take the win from Rollcentre Racing and Eclipse Motorsport, but that result masks fine recovery drives from both Shane Lynch (whose #69 Eclipse Motorsport TVR stalled on the grid) and Tom Herridge (who had a lengthy trip through the gravel after running wide at the hairpin).

The grid for Race 2 was formed according to the race result from the morning’s first sprint race, with the exception of the aforementioned #69 TVR which started from the back of the grid.

Shaun Balfe again hared into a substantial lead in the #33 Balfe Motorsport Mosler. One man on the move however was Peter Le Bas in the #50 Xero Corvette, up to fourth by Duffus and pushing hard to get by the #27 CDL Racing TVR ahead.

Lynch was already making good progress through the Cup class runners, but Allen Lloyd, starting from the back after his ‘off’ this morning in the #31 AJL Racing Jaguar was being altogether more cautious. Lynch’s strategy would prove to be the better one however, as he was already clear of Jeff Wyatt’s Marcos Mantis before it spun in the hairpin. Poor Lloyd went wide in avoidance and ended up beached in the gravel, race over in the opening laps again.

Next time around and it was time for Tom Herridge to find the gravel trap. Was there fluid down as a result of the earlier spin? Herridge wasn’t sure but the result was a trip through the kitty litter and ninth position on the road just a metre or two ahead of Shane Lynch.

With all these dramas Gareth Evans in the #27 CDL Racing TVR T400R emerged in second place, well down on the leading Mosler but battling hard to keep Peter Le Bas at bay.

Tom Herridge had got the red mist by now and was pushing very hard to recover lost ground. The Mosler was sounding like it was under small arms fire from the inside as the better part of a sack of gravel rattled its way around the underside of the #33 car. He was quickly on the tail of the Ultima and Marcos Mantis GTO and passed both on the start finish straight for fifth place. Shane Lynch was using the Mosler as a pathfinder through traffic: he too was soon past the Ultima and Marcos but by now Herridge had relieved John Hartshorne of fourth place with Peter Le Bas the next target.

The Corvette driver wouldn’t give up easily however and fended off the advances of the Mosler through the quick Clark corner and down through the hairpin. But the Mosler has pure straightline speed as a party piece and blew by the Corvette on the start finish straight. Le Bas had a last shot at retaining the position with an attempted demon outbraking manoeure, but the Mosler just had enough of a gap to keep third.

Second placed Gareth Evans was next on the agenda but he was also determined not to make things easy for the Rollcentre Mosler. Herridge closed up but was slowed by the TVR in the hairpin. Le Bas, still in close attendance, saw an opportunity to have a crack at grabbing back fourth but got it wrong, sideswiping the Mosler into a second minor ‘off’. Le Bas’ error was not entirely an unforced one: the gear lever on the Corvette was broken and the Irishman was driving with just an inch or so of lever with which to change gear.

Herridge eventually found his way past Gareth Evans for second at Clark before Lynch too began to close down the CDL car. John Hartshorne meanwhile was making progress in the #23 Peninsula TVR T400R, he too passing the struggling Corvette which was now under pressure from Steven Brady in the Master Motorsport Ultima. Dan Eagling was also closing in, the #21 Marcos Mantis GTO again showing that Glenn Eagling Motorsport can do a phenomenal job of preparing a race car.

Evans was doing a fine job of keeping a ducking, weaving Lynch at bay but eventually the Eclipse car and driver’s pace showed and the orange car was through into third from the back of the grid, a fine drive again from Shane and a good run too from Gareth Evans.

At the front of the race it was a Mosler vs Mosler battle again and again the #33 car was getting the better of it, the lead had grow to almost 20 seconds but Herridge then began to chip away – as the pit stops began in earnest, Piers Johnson taking over the Eclipse TVR and Peter Le Bas handing the ‘Vette over to Ricky Cole, the C5 rejoining with a mole wrench attached to the broken gear lever to give the young Englishman better purchase.

With 15 minutes to go Graeme Mundy, now behind the wheel of the #23 TVR had a huge spin out of Clark and was almost collected by a chasing Steve Hyde, the CDL car being wrestled across the grass in avoidance.

Tom Herridge now pitted to give Rob Barff a shot at catching the mercurial Balfe Motorsport Mosler and rejoined with the leader bearing down on him to try to put the Rollcentre Racing car a full lap down.

With 12 minutes left Balfe finally pitted, and a very slick stop saw Jamie Derbyshire emerge with a 20 second lead still intact. It would now be a race to the flag – again!

Ricky Cole had grabbed fifth place after Mundy’s spin but the TVR soon recovered both momentum and the place, leaving Cole involved in a titanic scrap with Aaron Scott in the Ultima and Tom Shrimpton in the Marcos.

Cole was defending bravely but eventually the pressure told and as the ‘Vette exitted the hairpin with two wheels on the grass, Aaron Scott powered by into sixth.

The Mosler chase was as hammer and tongs as we have come to expect but, as we have come to expect, the gap just couldn’t be closed fast enough. At the flag it was still 13 seconds and it was a fourth consecutive win for Shaun Balfe and Jamie Derbyshire.

With a substantial gap now opening up at the head of the points table, Rollcentre Racing badly need a race win at the next round, the three hour race at the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit.

Cup Race

A second titanic battle but with a different result for race two at Knockhill.

It was a poor start this time though from Neil Cunningham and a clean getaway for Patrick Pearce in the #76 Tech 9 Porsche. Cunningham crossed the line to complete the first lap behind not only the Porsche but also the Tim Bartlett pedalled Glenvarigill Ferrari and the Keith Ahlers Morgan.

But Cunningham is on fire at the moment and within just a couple of further laps he was already up to second in class and was closing very quickly on the Porsche.

Further back Jeff Wyatt had had an exciting first lap with a spin in the hairpin in the ISL Marcos Mantis, which indirectly resulted in the retirement of the GTO Jaguar.

This was a race of two real stories – could Cunningham catch and pass the Porsche, and who else would figure as a player? Cunningham had the disadvantage of a pitstop that would undoubtedly be longer than the well drilled GruppeM Tech 9 crew, as a solo driver he had a compulsory 10 seconds out of the car before getting back aboard.

The answer to the first question wouldn’t be finalised until the dying laps of the race. The answer to the second involved a surprising range of marques: Morgan, Ferrari and …. Volkswagen.

The Ferrari was quick throughout and the Keith Ahlers / Rob Wells Morgan would feature as a contender for the podium, always in reach of the champagne but never quick enough to dominate. It trailed the Ferrari throughout and was sporadically very pacy indeed. It was the sporadic nature of its progress that allowed the VW Golf to pass for third place overall in the closing laps and it was only the recovery of pace from Rob Wells that soured the picture for Steve wood and Stuart Scott. They would eventually finish fourth, with the Morgan filling the third step on the podium.

The Ferrari would complete its debut weekend in the championship with second place, albeit a full two laps down on the eventual winner.

The winner was the hard charging Neil Cunningham, the exciting battle for the lead ending five laps from the end of the race with contact at Clark. The #66 Morgan was hard on the heels of the very quick young Irishman Matt Griffin: the Porsche pilot had already slammed the door shut on the Aero 8 several times before at the same curve but this time Cunningham was closer than ever. Both cars crested the brow very quickly and Cunningham was looking for a line exiting the corner that would give him a run on the Porsche down towards the hairpin.

Was the Porsche already out of shape before contact? Was the contact accidental?

From this observer’s viewpoint the Morgan seemed to do everything it could to avoid contact. Either way though the result was the same, the Porsche was pitched into a spin and its race ended in the gravel, rear end damage to the 911 matching front-end damage on the Aero 8. Cunningham had kept both Cup Class races fully alight throughout and it was sad that a racing incident took some of the shine off the victory.

Matt Griffin was understandably unhappy, but at the time of writing the result stands. Commiserations to the hard charging Tech 9 crew but congratulations to Neil Cunningham and Richard Thorne Motorsport, a debut class win both in this Championship and worldwide for the Morgan Aero 8.

With Silverstone’s three hour race next up the new Cup Class is getting into its stride: close and competitive racing can surely only be an encouragement for new teams and drivers to join in the fun.
GG