British GT - Thruxton - GTO Report
Car Wars – A 75 minute Race In Three Parts

After the hordes at Rockingham any crowd would have looked small but under clear, bright skies there was a fair attendance at Britain’s fastest road circuit for the 75 minute race, which promised a potentially intriguing tactical challenge, the teams needing to take account of tyre wear on the abrasive Thruxton surface and fuel consumption - to ensure that a statutory two minute fuelling stop would not be necessary.

With engine woes accounting for a pair of Cup class cars yesterday the field was reduced to just 16 starters but the GTO class survived testing and qualifying unscathed and a varied 10 car entry would take the start with the #88 Veloqx Motorsport car and the #91 De Walt TVR T400R joining the regulars this time out.

Part 1 – Return of the Ferrari

After a dominant display in qualifying the #88 Ferrari was widely tipped to dominate the race and indeed, from the off, Tim Mullen simply screamed away from the pack, up to two seconds per lap faster. Behind him though there was action aplenty.

The ever fast starting Shane Lynch had gone for his trademark flying start but this time it didn’t work out, the #69 Eclipse Motorsport TVR coming round to complete the first lap in fifth position among a train consisting of the Jamie Derbyshire in the #33 Balfe Motorsport Mosler, Richard Stanton at the wheel of the #91 DeWalt TVR and Tom Herridge aboard the #22 Rollcentre Racing Mosler.

A little further back, Steven Brady was making progress in the Master Motorsport Ultima: he grabbed seventh spot at the first turn and had pace to spare in hauling in the cars ahead, the team’s overnight efforts in returning the car to their workshop to solve a gearbox issue were clearly paying off. John Hartshorne was the next target and the Ultima powered by his #23 TVR on lap 5. Richard Stanton was having better luck in the De Walt TVR, grabbing second place from Derbyshire as the two cars exited the Complex on the same lap. It was a bad lap for the Mosler pilot, as a spin coming into the chicane left him tumbling down the order to tenth spot. “I nipped a gear taking second for the chicane.”

Brady was still on the move, and lap seven saw him get around Gareth Evans in the #27 CDL TVR who also lost out to a charging Ricky Cole in the #50 Xero Corvette. The Chevy driver was looking for a way by the Ultima, Cole having an excellent stint and the ‘Vette looking strong, but would this pair be in fuel trouble later? For the time being the battle was in full flow and they headed a train of four cars placed 5th through to 8th with the recovering #33 Mosler at its tail. Mullen by now was almost 20 seconds clear.

It was about to be the turn of the #22 Mosler to have a bad spell, in this case though it would be far worse than the woes suffered by #33.

First Shane Lynch, who had been crawling all over the back of Herridge’s car, got by on lap 14 on the run down to the chicane from Church. Just a couple of laps later, Brady too found a way around the Mosler for fourth. Suddenly though the #22 car seemed to have problems and the chasing pack swallowed it up next time around through Church, Herridge falling back to ninth position.

By the chicane, Herridge was already recovering, and Gareth Evans, ahead in the #27 CDL TVR, got it all wrong. He clattered the kerbs very hard indeed on the exit of the chicane and, realising that the Mosler was closing fast moved towards the outside of the circuit to allow Herridge by. But he had underestimated the Mosler’s pace and had missed it closing fast in a blind spot. Herridge had seen the TVR go wide and had seen a gap on the outside easily large enough for the MT900R to fit through. The resulting accident seemed to happen almost in slow motion, and as the TVR cut across the circuit it hit the Mosler side on and the pair, locked together, went head on into the tyre barrier at the pit straight exit road. Despite the relatively low speed of the impact, the frontal damage to both cars was considerable, both out on the spot.

The drivers were both unhurt and walked away from the wrecks barely able to believe how the accident had unfolded. As might be expected, both drivers felt they had behaved correctly and there was no shortage of opinion on both sides of the debate in the paddock later, but the net result was simple. The championship leader was out of the race and his team boss was forthright in his views of the driving standards involved - over the circuit PA. He later observed that the damage to the #22 car’s chassis might mean that the team miss the Spa 1000Kms: let’s hope not.

With the cars in a dangerous position and the tyre barrier requiring some rearrangement, an appearance by the Safety Car was inevitable. At this point, the driver change window was still some minutes away. This was however an opportunity for any teams who felt they would be marginal on fuel to restrict the damage from a two minute stop and the sole taker was the Corvette, Ricky Cole pitting from an excellent fifth place and Team Xero losing a single lap to the field rather than the two it would have lost under green.

But the Safety Car was bad news for Tim Mullen, his large and carefully cultivated lead was down to next to nothing.

With the cars taking time to recover and the tyre barrier needing some heavy duty attention the Safety Car period took the race into the driver change window and the #91, #69, #20, #33 and #23 cars took immediate advantage of the opportunity. Relatively slow stops from the Eclipse and DeWalt teams, necessitated by tyre changes, saw Piers Johnson and Mike Jordan rejoin behind both Aaron Scott in the Ultima and Shaun Balfe in the sole surviving Mosler, this team having changed the left rear for “mental peace of mind”.

The new order in the train was Mullen - still ensconced in #88 - followed by the Ultima, Mosler and Eclipse and De Walt TVRs, but the joker in the pack would prove to be the Cup class Lotus in front of the T400Rs in the train.

Part 2 – Traffic – The Phantom Menace?

As the Safety Car withdrew we had, in effect, a whole new race, but it wasn’t to be a five car chase from the off. The RML Elise emerged from the chicane very slowly, Peter Snowdon seemingly unaware that the Safety Car had been withdrawn. Piers Johnson and Mike Jordan were unable to pass the little Lotus until the green flag at the start-finish line, and by the time they did so the three cars ahead had pulled out a substantial margin.

Shaun Balfe was in no mood to be intimidated by the Ferrari’s earlier pace: he passed Scott in the Ultima almost immediately and set off in pursuit of Mullen. Jordan meanwhile had found a way around Piers Johnson and was charging off in pursuit of the Ultima ahead, 3-4 seconds per lap faster than the #20 machine.

Ricky Cole had stayed out longer than the team had intended due to a faulty radio but the young Englishman acquitted himself very well, and he handed over a healthy Corvette to Peter Le Bas at the 40 minute mark, the Irishman, still a lap down, growling out to play. At around the same time we lost the #21 Marcos, Dan Eagling, again driving a brave solo race in the rapid Mantis GTO, falling victim to a broken hub. The Glenn Eagling Motorsport team just can’t seem to catch a break at the moment.

Piers Johnson meanwhile was hanging onto the flying #91 TVR, and both caught and passed the Ultima with relative ease: next target was more difficult though, because Balfe was storming along in the Mosler and for a while was matching or beating Mullen’s pace in the Ferrari.

The Ferrari would have to pit though and with the Veloqx team suited up in pit lane, it was clearly going to be for more than just a driver change. Mullen stopped with just a 16 second gap to Balfe and, as Andrew Kirkaldy jumped aboard, the red-suited crew set about changing both left hand tyres. But there was an airgun problem at the front and the cure took the team a full 30 seconds to achieve. Kirkaldy would now have a mountain to climb and he emerged from pit lane in fifth slot, 34 seconds behind the new leader.

Mike Jordan meanwhile was pushing VERY hard, the kerbs at the chicane getting very familiar with the underside of the #91 TVR. The gap 1st – 2nd was a full 16 seconds though, and the TVR would need to find something extra.

Balfe was currently clear of traffic and it was now the Mosler’s turn to pull into a substantial lead. With 20 minutes of the race to run the Mosler had the legs on Jordan’s TVR but Kirkaldy was setting faster and faster lap times and was catching Piers Johnson for third (the 360’s pace having proved way too much for Aaron Scott to resist).

Scott’s Ultima was now falling into the clutches of Graeme Mundy in the #23 Peninsular TVR T400R. The challenge seemed simple: could the Ferrari get by the two TVRs and catch the Mosler? The simple arithmetic said no, but that was before Peter Snowdon lost the clutch in the RML Elise and spun and stalled in the complex. It was Safety Car time again and this time it would be a no doubt rather unhappy Shaun Balfe that would see a hard-won 21 second lead erode to nothing!

Part 3 – The Safety Car Strikes Back

The train behind the SEAT this time was an intriguing one. Balfe led the way with Keith Ahlers and Liz Halliday next up in a pair of Cup class cars which were battling for a podium slot. This was not at all what the GTO protagonists wanted, with Jordan and Johnson eager to attack the lead and to ensure that the fourth placed Ferrari, now very large in their mirrors, was either beaten (Jordan) or brought into play to prevent the Mosler taking maximum points (Johnson).

Once again though there was deep frustration for the cars pursuing the leader. With the Elise swiftly removed the cars shaped up for a run by the Cup class cars after the line but Liz Halliday got it all very wrong in the chicane and ran very wide, over the outside kerbs and onto the grass at the exit. She rejoined immediately but had lost momentum and speed and once again the GTO battle was interrupted by the need for a train of cars to have to trundle down the start finish straight behind a slow moving backmarker.

All three powered by the Porsche mere inches after the green flag, but Kirkaldy was all over the back of the TVRs. Johnson let the Ferrari by but Jordan, on the inside line, had other ideas:

“I went for it (up the inside) along the pit wall. I saw the pit boards going up one by one! I thought to myself, I hope this 911 stays wide because I'm coming through."
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Amidst a cloud of dust Jordan did just that, and set up a real ding dong battle.

Whilst Balfe again made good his escape, a full seven seconds clear next time around, Jordan and Kirkaldy were at it hammer and tongs.

Jordan fended off the Ferrari for some considerable time before Kirkaldy made the 360’s better front end grip pay on the back of the circuit and finally passed the TVR. It wasn’t over yet though, as Mike Jordan explained:

"They've really got the front of that Ferrari nailed: At Goodwood I had to lift, and lost two car lengths every time. But we had them under braking, and on power.”

The net result for the crowd was a battle that kept them on their feet for lap after lap and the pace of the battle was closing the gap to the leader too.

There was another battle royal raging too, Aaron Scott battling to resist Graeme Mundy in the fifth place contest. The scrap was further complicated by Peter Le Bas working very hard indeed to unlap himself from the pair: after three laps of tussling between the three, Le Bas pulled clear and proceeded to reel off a series of very rapid laps (fourth best of the race), leaving the Ultima / TVR battle to sort itself out in the closing laps. It would finally fall to Mundy’s TVR, the Ultima hobbling home with drive to just a single wheel after a suspected output shaft failure on the very last lap.

Up front though it was shaping up for a grandstand finish.

Kirkaldy was finally finding some space between his rear bumper and the front item on Jordan’s TVR. He could now focus on the Mosler ahead and proceeded to reel off a series of laps which repeatedly broke the mark for the fastest lap of the race.

Balfe meanwhile was beginning to realise that he had a fight on his hands - and responded. The Mosler too began to set new standards, breaking its own best lap times in response to the threat from Kirkaldy.

The gap shrank rapidly at first but Balfe’s response was a valuable one and the rate of gain dropped. With three minutes to run the gap was just 3.3 seconds, but the Ferrari was now pulling back the deficit in just tenths. It would not be enough and after an extraordinary race the Mosler claimed victory by just two seconds. A car which had spun down to tenth early on had beaten a car which had seemed unbeatable all weekend.

Shaun Balfe was delighted and relieved in equal measure: “I thought our tyres had gone off but I stand corrected. The first Safety Car put us safe on fuel but the second Safety Car really hurt us and made us work. When the others got held up I thought they couldn’t catch us but the Ferrari just got bigger and bigger in the mirrors. I drove it very, very hard indeed at the end, locking up into the complex and the chicane, at one point I went into the complex broadside and three marshals jumped off their post, convinced I was about to lose it big time. I’m delighted that we hung on for the win, it makes a huge difference to the championship now.”

The result means that fourth placed Piers Johnson and Shane Lynch now lead the points standings (for the first time this season) - by two points from the Balfe Motorsport Mosler crew. One bad race and Rollcentre’s Tom Herridge has slipped away in a flash.

Piers Johnson was “not unhappy with that but we got hurt badly with the hold-ups as both Safety Cars were withdrawn. We know what we’ve got to do in the last two races.”

Roll on Spa. Can 1000 kms match the drama of this one? We won't just have the varied shapes and sounds of the British GTs, we'll have the FIA SCC prototypes too. Just like the ALMS (almost).
GG