British GT – Silverstone – Qualifying Report
Quicker – And Quicker. Very Interesting…
The qualifying order threw up no real surprises in the end, but it seemed like things might be shaken at last when a red flag halted the session with ten minutes to go. Although a Mosler led the times for most of the session, it was not the expected one – the Balfe Motorsport car took quite some time to get on the ultimate pace.

This initially gave the others a shot at the limelight, and first to capitalise was Peter Le Bas – going faster than all weekend (as so many others were doing) with a first lap of 1:57.934, then a 1:56.676. That would eventually be an excellent fourth on the grid – and still ‘taxiing’. It took Rob Barff’s Mosler to shake Le Bas from the early top spot – Rob working his times down to an impressive, best of the meeting so far, 1:54.580.

Pat Pearce initially led GT Cup with a 2:01.763 with Neil Cunningham (the only driver to better Tech 9 so far this season) some two seconds further down. Neil improved to a second off Porsche pace but then an unusual challenger in the shape of the RML Elise, piloted by Chris Goodwin, slipped into second with a highly impressive 2:01.911, very similar to Amanda Stretton’s (improving) pace in the Viper - which has an engine over four times larger. What a fascinating mix we have this year. Goodwin's time ended up best of the rest behind the two GruppeM Tech 9 Porsches.

The #23 TVR was up and running again for Qualifying, its gearbox having been swiftly replaced after yesterday’s woes, but it was setting relatively leisurely laps in the late 1:59s in the hands of John Hartshorne. Piers Johnson’s Eclipse example was building up the pace nicely to go second. Newcomer to this season Peter Cook was impressive in the immaculately turned out GTO spec Point Prep. Porsche, with a 1:56.820 being good enough for fourth - for now.

Jamie Derbyshire was only sixth at this point as the first of the driver changes began and he was having some difficulty linking together all the sections of this long, long lap.

Gerry Wainwright took over the beautiful Jaguar XK8, but all too soon it was coasting beside the pitwall on three wheels. The front right suspension had come away completely, and as Gerry tried to park the car away off the circuit it wouldn’t go any further, forcing the red flag to appear - with only two thirds of the session run. The order was Barff, Johnson, Le Bas, Cook, Brady, Hyde….and Derbyshire was by now in a distant seventh.

With the stricken (and sadly too badly damaged to race tomorrow) Jaguar removed, the session was re-started and Balfe made a quick statement of intent – a 1:53.745 thrusting him back to the front, with a margin of 0.8 seconds. The gauntlet had well and truly been thrown down again.

It was great to see Ben McLoughlin back behind the wheel of the Eclipse TVR in anger, and he improved on his team-mate’s time with a 1:54.886. But this was not as satisfying as it could have been. “My theoretical fastest was quicker – I felt a bit rusty so I made a few little misjudgements. I know where I lost the time, so I hope I can get a bit more driving in tomorrow morning – it just depends what the team wants to do.”

Rob Barff jumped into the Rollcentre Mosler and improved with a late 1:54.376, but that was still over half a second down on Shaun Balfe. Moslers one-two, Eclipse half a second back from the blue one.

GT Cup squabbles eventually resolved themselves in favour of Phil Hindley’s Tech 9 outfit – Bob Berridge setting a 2:01.154.

Matt Griffin starts second in class. “It’s very tight, we made a few changes just before Qualifying and I think the car was a little bit worse as a result. Hats off to Bob though, he did a great lap. Tomorrow is a different thing: our two drivers should be stronger than their three and I think we can do a one-stop – that’s the intention anyway – we may need a Safety Car period to help us but it is worth trying the strategy.” Very interesting.

Bob Berridge: “I managed to trick Phil Hindley into letting me into his youth driver training scheme. Seeing as he’s from Liverpool, I knew he’d be easily conned! That wasn’t too bad for an old bloke was it? Phil builds a good car, that’s why I’m so happy to drive it, I only want to drive cars that are capable of winning and that’s what I have here. He’s engineered a few winners in his time so I hope we can give him another.”

Team boss Phil Hindley was understandably pleased. “Bob did a mega time because Nick was on the new tyres and got the best out of them before Bob got in, so it’s very impressive. It’s a three hour race tomorrow and considering our drivers are so close to each other, we know what pace to stick to, and I think that will do the job.”

Doing the job for Mosler was Shaun Balfe: “Today is today but it’s all about tomorrow. I was happy to let Jamie get more track time in as he has never been round here before in a race car and track time has been very limited this weekend, with so many red flags in testing. He hasn’t found his pace yet but if he approaches it maturely and doesn’t let his head drop he will find it. It’s such a mammoth lap round here it takes a while to do it cleanly without any mistakes. With such a long race, tomorrow is much more than about the drivers – it’s about the car, the set-up and the strategy as well. We really want to win, pole is just a bonus.”

And Rob Barff: “I only got one lap out of traffic but I had to lift for that because there were yellow flags. I had to pass both Marcos and a Porsche on my fast lap but I’m happy anyway, we’ve got a stonking race pace and Tom is really quick. Our strategy could open a few people’s eyes as well, I’m really looking forward to it, just hope I feel a bit healthier!” Sweat it out tomorrow Rob.

There are enough unknown factors, mixed with the longest race the Championship has yet seen, so the scene is set for tight battles throughout the field for hour after hour. You have Monday off work anyway, so why not make a trip to Silverstone tomorrow and take in some real endurance racing?

PS. A late afternoon meeting between the organisers and the non-Mosler entrants is something we’ll catch up with tomorrow. We’ll find a few flies on the wall, no doubt.
Paul Slinger