Not really sure what to make of this one. For 30 minutes we had an entertaining tussle down the field, followed by a 40 minute or so procession which served only to re-establish the status quo. More people were in the grandstands for the warm-up at ten o'clock than were present for last year's race. All the Cup runners save for the pole sitting GT3 of Patrick Pearce and Matt Griffin ventured out on the track. Amongst them was the reassembled Mantis of ISL Motorsport, the team having found the parts necessary to repair the damage overnight - helped in no small part by Glen Eagling Motorsport. The ten minute session was pretty unremarkable save for the GulfAir Racing Golf GTi Turbo, which managed to improve on its qualifying time by a second and a half. The car's builder, Ashley Blenkhorn, explained where the time had come from: “We've put a new gearbox and diff in the car and had to fit a new anti-roll bar. Because we only finished the gearbox on Wednesday, we had to use whatever bar we had to hand. Then on Friday, the changing weather meant we couldn't get any consistent track time. This meant that, come qualifying, the set up was awful! So I softened all the settings overnight and suddenly we found nearly two seconds. We ran on new tyres in qualifying and warm-up, so we know that tyres aren't an issue.”
A mere six hours and twenty minutes later (the already-late race time was delayed by a further 45 minutes to 4.30 due to tumbling SEAT Cupras and F3 drivers who were struggling to cope with a new element in their program – overtaking), the nine Cup cars joined in the anti-clockwise charge to Turn 1, watched by at least 25,000 of the 44,000 present at this remarkable venue. As the field ploughed through the Deene hairpin, the crowd held its breath and waited to see who would emerge unscathed. Tom Shrimpton was pushed wide, but everybody else made it through without incident. We thus had Patrick Pearce's #76 GT3 leading through Chapman, followed by Steve Wood in the Golf and Enzo Mucci in the Clio. Eh? That wasn't in the script! Another look confirmed this unusual, but welcome, order as being the case. Tom Shrimpton's GT3 was behind the Clio and the two Morgans were behind the Porsche. Shrimpton quickly found his feet and claimed second place by the end of lap two. Mucci had by this time also been passed by Henry Taylor in the #66 Aero 8 and the latter was now closing on the yellow VW. The next twenty minutes were a joy to watch. The expected overtaking manoeuvre on Wood by Taylor just wasn't happening, the Golf driver enjoying his time in the sun by denying the Morgan the opportunity. The two cars ran nose-to-tail for lap after lap, often running side-by-side before Wood found the required few inches to once more shut the door in Taylor's face. The Morgan did get by at Gretton after a few minutes, but Wood superbly snatched the place back at the Turn 1 Chicane. While it was great to watch, Henry Taylor's failure to pass Steve Wood at this stage of the race was to ultimately deny Neil Cunningham any chance of challenging the Tech 9 Porsches later in the race. This wasn't the only fight in the Cup race – a three-way battle for sixth in class was forming up between the #46 Morgan of Rob Wells, the #43 Elise of Michelangelo Segatori and the #44 Mantis of Alun Edwards. The Italian was proving that the Lotus had made progress since the start of the season by taking the Morgan for position through Pif Paf. This truly was a day for surprises! Rob Wells took back the place when race leader Jay Shepherd came through to lap the pair in his Ultima, but Walter wouldn't let him go. Alun was right behind this pair but was unable to find a gap. After a poor start, the Virgo Motorsport Ferrari 360 in the hands of Martyn Simms was back on the pace and hot on the heels of Henry Taylor's Morgan. Thus, at 25 minutes, we had three cars fighting over third place. Shortly afterwards, Simms made his move on Taylor and claimed fourth into Gretton. It seemed he would also take Wood, but the Golf held its ground and Steve put some air between his car and the Ferrari when another GT battle swept by. Way ahead of this trio, Patrick Pearce was making it all look so easy. Another assured and controlled drive meant that he had no trouble staying out in front ahead of Tom Shrimpton, who was also pulling away from third with every lap – a fine fightback by the 17 year old in his first Porsche race. Suddenly, we had the spectacle of the #46 Morgan of Rob Wells running slowly down to Deene with smoke pouring from the car. Strangely, the car didn't pit at the end of the lap and continued round for two more laps, some ten seconds off the pace. In fact, this was a perfect bit of driving from Wells. The Morgan had been hit by one of the other Cup cars in the trio and bodywork was rubbing on a tyre, causing the smoke. By driving slowly for the two laps, Rob was able to enter the pitlane just ten seconds after the driver-change window had been opened. Thus, the damaged tyre could be changed and Keith Ahlers could climb on board at the same time. Good stuff, Team Aero!
As one Morgan left the pits, the other came in, Henry Taylor handing over to Neil Cunningham. On the same lap, Steve Wood finally ceded third place to Martyn Simms after the Golf's tyres started to go off. An excellent stint ended when Steve handed over to Stuart Scott a couple of laps later. Sadly, Stuart's stint was also to end just minutes later when he found only neutral when changing gears through the infield. “I'm flipping annoyed!” exclaimed Ashley Blenkhorn (one of his actual words has been changed for publication purposes). “The gearbox was the one thing I wasn't worried about. It cost £14000 and the bit that broke (a selector spring) was probably the cheapest thing on the car!” A great shame for the team, but they did themselves proud at Rockingham and were the stars of the show. Another car in difficulties was the Atlanta Motorsport Clio. Despite it's encouraging start, the car was in the pits after five laps with clutch problems. The car rejoined and ran to the finish, but was too far down to be classified.
The Golf was the last car to stop for a driver change and its demise signalled the end of any real incident in the race. Matt Griffin controlled the race at the front, while Liz Halliday drove consistently and impressively to ensure that the #77 GT3 would not be threatened by Neil Cunningham in the time remaining. The New Zealander had a hot and lonely race to third in the Richard Thorne Aero 8 and it's a shame that the huge crowd was denied seeing just how good a driver he is. A Porsche/Morgan scrap was sorely needed in the final half hour of the race. Neil had actually done superbly well to finish at all; the Morgan having spewed oil all over its own windscreen in the last ten minutes of the race. He had also had to contend with failing power steering. There was one driver making progress in the final part of the race, though. Keith Ahlers was having great fun hauling his Morgan back up the field, passing the Elise and Ferrari en route to fourth, “I expected to be in fourth but I didn't think it would be so much hard work to get there!” he beamed afterwards. And that was pretty much it! “We seem to be doing everything right. With a car like that you can't help but win,” was Matt Griffin's modest appraisal of the #76's seventh win out of eight races. Matt and Patrick Pearce are undoubtedly a very good driver pairing, but you can't help thinking that they would prefer a good scrap on their way to the podium.
The fact is that a serious
challenge to Phil Hindley's Porsches is unlikely to materialise
this season. That said, the race at Rockingham certainly had its
moments and it would be unfair to dismiss it as just another Porsche/Morgan
walkover. Ashley Blenkhorn is convinced that his Golf will perform
wonders in a wet race, so perhaps it's just a question of waiting
for the right elements to come together. What can Thruxton throw
into the pot?
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