RACING EXPOSURE :: Club level motorsport e-magazine

The Trackspeed and MTech teams shared the Avon Tyres British GT Championship glory at Spa-Francorchamps today, claiming a win apiece to shake up the championship standings. Through it all, however, came the United Autosports pairing of Mike Guasch and Matt Bell to retain a slender points lead.

Round 5 report

Reigning champion David Ashburn and his co-driver Richard Westbrook claimed their second win of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship this morning at Spa-Francorchamps, their Trackspeed Porsche beating the Duncan Cameron/Matt Griffin MTech Ferrari to the chequered flag by 2.5s after an hour of fraught action. In GT4, Dan Denis and David McDonald claimed their first class victory for the Scuderia Vittoria team.

Westbrook sealed his victory thanks to some deft pitwork by the Trackspeed team and masterly handling of the traffic by the driver. A mid-race safety car period – brought into play when cars from some of the other championships involved in the race fell by the wayside – gave all the frontrunners the opportunity to pit together for their driver changes; Westbrook took over in front after the stops and handled the restart perfectly to pull a five-second gap over Griffin.

Though Matt whittled that advantage down to less than a second in the closing laps, and even managed briefly to nose ahead, his effort came too late to prevent Westbrook’s victory. “It was the safety car which killed us because Westie somehow managed to put a lapped car between him and me,” said Griffin. “We lost five seconds at the restart as a result and I pushed very hard to catch him, maybe hurting my tyres a little in the process. I made a good passing manoeuvre on him at Les Combes, but it was too slippery to hold it and he got me back.”

Cameron had put in a solid first stint in the MTech Ferrari, pitting from third behind the Ashburn/Westbrook Porsche and the new McLaren MP4-12C, which was making its international track debut as an non-points scoring invitation class runner. Chris Goodwin held the lead in the CRS Racing-run McLaren all the way to the 10th lap, before surrendering top spot to Ashburn and following him into the pits.

After the stops the McLaren held fifth for a lap before contact with another car resulted in a spin and a considerable loss of time. The MP4-12C was classified 12th overall.

Westbrook put the team’s victory down to good traffic management: “The Porsche isn’t really a match for a well-driven Ferrari 458, so you have to do as much as can; use your head, make a break with the traffic and that’s the only way we can compete. It was a good race, and in the end I just had enough. Matt was eating into my lead at the end. It was tough. It’s always nice to win, and all credit to David for bringing the car into the pits in the lead.”

The CRS Racing Ferrari 458 of father-and-son pairing Jim and Glynn Geddie claimed third, Jim driving well in the early laps to haul the car up from eighth on the grid to fifth before the stops; Glynn soon moved into third and closed down on the leaders to cross the line only 5s behind.

Andrew Tate and Alex Mortimer were another pairing to make good progress from a lowly grid slot, converting 12th on the grid to fourth at the line, ahead of the Andrew Howard/Jonathan Adam Beechdean Aston Martin, which picked off the faltering Trackspeed Porsche of Gregor Fisken/Tim Bridgman on the penultimate lap. Bridgman’s sixth became seventh on the final lap when he was passed by the United Autosports Audi of Mike Guasch/Matt Bell.

Phil Burton/Adam Wilcox claimed eighth in the Predator CCTV Ferrari, just ahead of the Ron Johnson/Piers Johnson Speedworks Corvette, which enjoyed a strong and reliable run to ninth and the team’s first points of the year. Godfrey and David Jones, the only front-runners not to pit at the start of the safety car period, completed the top 10 in the Preci-Spark Mercedes.

For once everything went right for the Scuderia Vittoria GT4 pairing of Dan Denis and David McDonald; Denis started from the pole in the Ginetta G50 and led comfortably all the way to the stops, and McDonald maintain the gap over the pursuing Ginetta of Josh Wakefield and Jake Rattenbury to score a handsome class victory, the duo’s first of the season.

“My qualifying yesterday was fantastic,” said Denis. “I got a good start and built a comfortable lead, and my pace was good. I was a bit worried when the safety car came out that I would lose my big lead but the team did a great job in the pits and David drove quickly and sensibly. It’s great finally to get a win.”

Round 6 report
Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin and the MTech team ran out the winners of the second Spa-Francorchamps race this afternoon, taking their first victory of the season at the wheel of their new Ferrari 458 Italia. They beat the Gregor Fisken/Tim Bridgman Trackspeed Porsche to the chequered flag by 0.9s, with Aston Martin drivers Andrew Howard and Jonathan Adam third for the Beechdean Motorsport team. In GT4, Ollie Jackson and Phil Glew claimed their first class win of the season, and a maiden win for the Lotus Evora GT4.

First-race victor Richard Westbrook led the way from pole position for Trackspeed, building an eight-second lead by the eighth lap, but his team-mate, reigning champion David Ashburn, failed to get his turn at the wheel – the Porsche collected some tyre damage on lap nine and was forced to retire to the pits.

That put Griffin, who had made a cautious start in the slippery early laps, into top spot for six laps until he pitted to hand the Ferrari over to Cameron. The rest of the top five, headed by the Geddie family CRS Ferrari and the Fisken/Bridgman Porsche, all pitted at the same time. Pit work and driver changes complete, Cameron maintained the lead by 3.8s from the Howard/Adam Aston and the Geddie Ferrari.

But fourth-placed Fisken was in determined mood, dislodging Jim Geddie for third on lap 16 and Howard for second three laps later. By this stage Cameron was 7s to the good, but Gregor whittled away at the gap and brought it down to a second by the start of the final lap. It was not quite enough. “It was very close,” said Gregor. “I certainly wasn’t going to settle for second if I could have taken the win. The team kept telling me I was taking time out of him, but it would have needed a mistake from Duncan really to get past him cleanly. Duncan was driving very well; it was a real good scrap.”

Griffin was delighted by his team-mate’s performance to hold on to the lead: “I didn’t get a great start and was fourth. It took a little time for our car to get to where I wanted it to be grip-wise, but once it did I was able to get past Alex Mortimer and Glynn Geddie and started to catch Richard; he then must have had some sort of problem and I got the lead and was able to get my head down and build a lead. Duncan jumped in and did an incredible job under a lot of pressure. We got the win and we’re over the moon.”

Added Cameron: “Fantastic. First win of the season; let’s hope it’s the first of many.”

Howard brought the Aston home third just 6.7s behind the winner, with the new Invitation class McLaren passing both the Geddie Ferrari and the Guasch/Bell Audi on the final lap to claim fourth at the line. The championship-leading Audi also passed the Ferrari on the final tour to gain a crucial points advantage over the CRS pairing.

Another superb drive by Piers Johnson and Ron Johnson brought the Speedworks Motorsport Corvette pairing seventh, and earned the Sunoco Driver of the Weekend Award for Ron. The Allan Simonsen/Hector Lester Rosso Verde Ferrari never recovered from a poor start and finished eighth, ahead of the Michael Lyons/Charles Bateman Scuderia Vittoria Ferrari and the John Bintcliffe/Jay Palmer United Autosports Audi.

After missing the first race through technical problems, the GT3B MTech Ferrari 430 of John Dhillon and Aaron Scott fought through from the back of the grid to finish 12th overall and claim class honours.

In GT4, the first-race class victors, Dan Denis and David McDonald fought a pitched battle with the Phil Glew/Ollie Jackson Lotus for much of the race. The Lotus gained the upper hand after three laps and maintained its advantage after the pit stops to win by 23s. It was not Denis and McDonald in second spot, however – their afternoon went wrong on the penultimate lap when their Ginetta’s gearbox developed a problem.

That allowed class points leaders Marcus Clutton and Peter Belshaw in their ABG KTM through for second, ahead of Aston Martin men Chris Holmes and Peter Erceg, who claimed a maiden class podium placing for the Secure Racing/Barwell Motorsport squad.

“Phil handed the car over to me in the lead,” said Jackson, “and though it was tough out there with all the cars on track we made it through in the end for a great result for Lotus Sport UK.”

The British GT Championship is sponsored by UK tyre manufacturer Avon Tyres and is further supported by Sunoco Racing Fuels, Anglo American Oil Company and OAMPS.

Avon Tyres British GT Championship
Provisional results, Round 5
Spa-Francorchamps 9/7/2011
22 laps/95.75 miles

GT3 & overall
1  Trackspeed Porsche  David Ashburn/Richard Westbrook  1h 0m 13.778s / 95.38mph
2  MTECH Ferrari  Duncan Cameron/Matt Griffin (IRL) +2.520s
3  CRS Racing Ferrari  Jim Geddie/Glynn Geddie  +5.189s
4  CRS Racing Ferrari  Andrew Tate/Alex Mortimer  +17.102s
5  Beechdean Aston Martin  Andrew Howard/Jonny Adam  +17.876s
6  United Autosports Audi  Mike Guasch (USA)/Matt Bell  +19.687s
7  Trackspeed Porsche  Gregor Fisken/Tim Bridgman  +22.913s
8  Predator CCTV Ferrari  Phil Burton/Adam Wilcox  +38.971s
9  Speedworks Motorsport Corvette  Ron Johnson/Piers Johnson  +39.553s
10  Preci-Spark Mercedes  David Jones/Godfrey Jones  +40.036s etc

Fastest lap Griffin 2m 24.845s / 108.20mph Record

GT4
1  Scuderia Vittoria Ginetta  Dan Denis/David McDonald  +2m 14.732s
2  Century Motorsport Ginetta  Josh Wakefield/Jake Rattenbury  21 laps
3  Lotus Sport UK Lotus  Leyton Clarke/Freddy Nordstrom  21 laps etc

Provisional results, Round 6
24 laps/104.45 miles

GT3 & overall
1  MTECH Ferrari  Duncan Cameron/Matt Griffin (IRL)  1h 0m 25.159s / 103.72mph
2  Trackspeed Porsche  Gregor Fisken/Tim Bridgman  +0.888s
3  Beechdean Aston Martin  Andrew Howard/Jonny Adam  +6.697s
4  McLaren GT McLaren MP4-12C (Inv Class) Chris Goodwin/Andrew Kirkaldy  +24.020s
5  United Autosports Audi  Mike Guasch (USA)/Matt Bell  +26.247s
6  CRS Racing Ferrari  Jim Geddie/Glynn Geddie  +27.726s
7  Speedworks Motorsport Corvette  Ron Johnson/Piers Johnson  +1m 22.574s
8  Rosso Verde Ferrari  Hector Lester/Allan Simonsen (DEN)  +2m 47.512s
9  Scuderia Vittoria Ferrari  Michael Lyons/Charles Bateman  23 laps
10  United Autosports Audi  John Bintcliffe/Jay Palmer  23 laps
11 & GTB winner  MTECH Ferrari  John Dhillon/Aaaron Scott  23 laps etc

Fastest lap Westbrook 2m 24.615s / 108.34mph Record

GT4
1  Lotus Sport UK Lotus  Ollie Jackson/Phil Glew  23 laps
2  ABG Motorsport KTM  Peter Belshaw/Marcus Clutton  23 laps
3  Barwell/Secure Aston Martin  Peter Erceg/Chris Holmes  23 laps

Provisional championship standings
GT3 & Overall
=1 Guasch & Bell 90.5 points; =3 Geddie & Geddie 88.5; =5 Cameron & Griffin 76; =7 Lester & Simonsen 64.5; =9 Fisken & Bridgman 62.5 etc
GT4
=1 Belshaw & Clutton 128; =3 Nordstrom & Clarke 107; 5 Jackson 86.5; =6 Jake Rattenbury & Josh Wakefield 85 etc
GT3B
=1 Dhillon & Scott 93.75; =3 Tom Alexander & Adrian Willmott 27.

TV schedule 16 July, 0700 Channel 4 & 2029 Motors TV + repeats

Next rounds 3/4 September, Rockingham

Pic: Jakob Ebrey

The new McLaren MP4-12C GT3 car enjoyed a superbly competitive international motorsport debut in qualifying for the Avon Tyres British GT Championship today at Spa-Francorchamps, Chris Goodwin claiming pole position for the first of tomorrow’s Belgian races.

But Goodwin’s first-session time of 2m 23.479s was eclipsed in the second session by the Trackspeed Porsche of Richard Westbrook, which posted a phenomenal 2m 22.648s to bag the pole for race two. Westbrook was nearly a full second clear of his closest rival in the session and was the only driver all day to break the 2m 23s barrier.

Andrew Kirkaldy, CRS Racing team principal and Goodwin’s driving partner in the McLaren, was pleased with the McLaren’s performance: “Although we have covered around 4500km in testing this is the first time we have had any opportunity to go up against any other cars, so before today it was something of an unknown quantity. We are very pleased with the way things have gone: the McLaren is reasonably on the pace straight out of the box, it feels great to drive and technically everything has gone as planned.” The McLaren is competing in the Invitation class and will not score championship points.

Goodwin’s first-session time was a clear second better than that of his closest challenger for the pole, Michael Lyons in the Scuderia Vittoria Ferrari 458 Italia. Reigning champion David Ashburn was third fastest in his Trackspeed Porsche, ahead of 2009 champion David Jones in the Preci-Spark Mercedes.

There was a fine effort from Ron Johnson to post the best qualifying performance yet for the Speedworks Motorsport Corvette; Ron will line up ninth on the grid for race one tomorrow, two places behind the United Autosports Audi of current championship leader Mike Guasch.

Westbrook’s session two time was truly a jaw-dropper; the Porsche man posted it in the early stages of the session. Though it probably would have remained unbeaten, none of his rivals got the chance to try to better it in the closing stages after a crash brought out the red flags with five minutes left on the clock. The collision involved cars from other championships – British GT is sharing the Spa grid with European GT4 cars and the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge.

Great Dane Allan Simonsen was second fastest for the Rosso Verde Ferrari team, ahead of the CRS Ferrari of Glynn Geddie, and fourth-placed Matt Griffin, who was the free practice pacesetter earlier today, in the MTech Ferrari.

There was a clean sweep in the GT4 category for Scuderia Vittoria, with Dan Denis claiming the class pole in session one and his team-mate David McDonald repeating the feat in session two. Lotus men Ollie Jackson and Phil Glew will line up behind them for respective races tomorrow.
The British GT Championship is sponsored by UK tyre manufacturer Avon Tyres and is further supported by Sunoco Racing Fuels, Anglo American Oil Company and OAMPS.

Avon Tyres British GT Championship
Provisional results, official qualifying
Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium 8/7/2011

Race 1 times
GT3
1  McLaren GT McLaren MP4-12C (Invitation Class)  Chris Goodwin  2m 23.479s
2  Scuderia Vittoria Ferrari  Michael Lyons  2m 24.481s
3  Trackspeed Porsche  David Ashburn  2m 25.820s
4  Preci-Spark Mercedes  David Jones  2m 26.022s
5  MTECH Ferrari  Duncan Cameron  2m 26.612s
6  Trackspeed Porsche  Gregor Fisken  2m 26.896s
7  United Autosports Audi  Mike Guasch (USA)  2m 27.270s
8  CRS Racing Ferrari  Jim Geddie  2m 28.577s
9  Speedworks Motorsport Corvette  Ron Johnson  2m 28.889s
10  Beechdean Aston Martin  Andrew Howard  2m 29.163s etc

GT3B
1  MTECH Ferrari  John Dhillon  2m 35.276s

GT4
1  Scuderia Vittoria Ginetta  Dan Denis  2m 34.651s
2  Lotus Sport UK Lotus  Ollie Jackson  2m 36.716s
3  Lotus Sport UK Lotus  Freddy Nordstrom  2m 38.297s etc

Race 2 times
GT3
1  Trackspeed Porsche  Richard Westbrook  2m 22.648s
2  Rosso Verde Ferrari  Allan Simonsen (DEN)  2m 23.561s
3  CRS Racing Ferrari  Glynn Geddie  2m 23.571s
4  MTECH Ferrari  Matt Griffin (IRL)  2m 24.003s
5  CRS Racing Ferrari  Alex Mortimer  2m 24.198s
6  Chad Racing Ferrari  Tom Ferrier  2m 24.272s
7  United Autosports Audi  Matt Bell  2m 24.673s
8  McLaren GT McLaren MP4-12C (Invitation Class)  Andrew Kirkaldy  2m 24.898s
9  Beechdean Aston Martin  Jonny Adam  2m 25.006s
10  Scuderia Vittoria Ferrari  Charles Bateman  2m 25.026s etc

GT3B
MTECH Ferrari  Aaaron Scott  no time

GT4
1  Scuderia Vittoria Ginetta  David McDonald  2m 35.114s
2  Lotus Sport UK Lotus  Phil Glew  2m 36.538s
3  Lotus Sport UK Lotus  Leyton Clarke  2m 36.621s etc

Full times: http://ris-timing.be/

Pic: Jakob Ebrey

Spa Francorchamps, the formidable 4.2 mile alpine track set in the beautiful Ardennes region of Belgium played host to the 5th round of the Britcar Championship at the weekend. Where Jensen Lunn and Sarah Bennett-Baggs contested their BMW E46, with limited testing time and just 30 minutes to qualify both drivers on a damp track. Conditions were tricky, but Jensen put in a stunning flyer of 2.41.509 qualifying the duo 13th out of 26 runners and 2nd in class.

Discovery of a cracked block after qualifying looked like the BMW might not even make the race start, but the Strata21 team rose to the challenge to strip down the engine through the night and resin fill weld the crack. With Sarah taking the start of the 100 minute race, everyone was aware that the car may or may not make it to the end.

Sarah got ahead of the pole sitting Seat of Cunningham off the line but lost places into La Source and Eau Rouge to fall back to 5th position, in the first couple of laps she was in the thick of the leading production pack, quickly pulling back places to get up into third place behind the Ginetta of Mercer & Smith.

High track temperatures, and the car losing oil, contributed to a slightly oversteering car, and a long pit stop to refill the oil and make engine checks allowed the Ginetta of Smith and Mercer to pull half a lap on the BMW.

With Jensen now in the seat, still chasing the Ginetta. It wasn’t long before he reported a problems with the diff and rising engine temperatures forcing him to slow track speed and go for the finish. It was a nail biting final 30 minutes as the oil pressure continued to drop, and oil smoke starting to come from the stricken BMW. The class leaders Car 88 Clarke/ Gibson retired moving the Ginetta into P1 and the BMW into P2 but at one point the chasing Seat no. 11 of Cuningham started catching up forcing Jensen to press on to keep position. On the last lap a garbled radio message looked like all might have been lost, as Jensen reported smoke pouring from the car, but the E46 just made it to the chequered flag to take P2 resulting in a huge cheer from the pit team.

Jensens comment

“It was a great result following a tough time by the team, testing showed we had front running pace then qualifying produced a cracked block on the car, the crew worked hard to get the car fixed for the race in which we started in P2. Sarah had a fantastic drive whilst fighting a sick car, after the driver change I set about catching the lead car which our pace showed was possible within 5 laps, then the car problems returned and it was agreed with the engineers to hold for P2 and nurse the car home rather than push our luck. It was hard having to back off and I repeatedly had my engineer on the radio telling me to slow down! With one lap to go the 3rd place Seat car appeared behind me and I had no choice but to push the car to the flag, which I managed to do, the car however was dead, with 1.9psi of oil pressure remaining as I entered the last corner it doesn’t get any closer than that! We are now looking forward to Castle Combe as now we are GTN Class 1 leaders.”

Sarah’s comment “Spa is a punishing circuit for both car and driver, we were lucky testing time was so short in the end, otherwise we never would have even made the start of the race. Once again Strata21 team did us proud and pulled it out the bag, who would have thought we could still come 2nd with a crack in the block! Once again my co-driver Jensen was a superstar did a mega job nursing it home.”

This is the 3rd podium the duo have taken in successions, the next round is 23-4th July at Castle Combe.

RACE ONE

The weather at Spa was, as usual, unpredictable. The race was declared ‘wet’ but there was a drying line, even so if you went ‘off line’ it was very slippery.. As the lights went green the action started when Alex Martin #87 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup and Gary Eastwood #18 Ferrari 430 GTC touched. This lost Martin his pole advantage and he slipped back down the field. This let Andy Ruhan through into the lead. The next casualty was Leon Price #88 Ferrari 430GTC who spun and hit the pit wall hard and as a result he went no further. Fortunately he was unharmed but the car would not be out again for Race Two. Danny Winstanley in the #78 Porsche 964 Turbo was in amongst the leading bunch with Michael Saunders #99 who eventually retired on lap eleven with a lack of fuel due to a leaking fuel filler cap. Jim Geddie had crashed his Porsche 997 GT3 Cup in free practice and had acquired a Ferrari 430 GTC but his race was cut short after damage in a previous race proved to be worse than expected and he retired the car after just three laps.

In Group Two there was all sorts of drama. Sam Mowle had got the #77 KTM XBow right up with the leading group, the conditions suiting him and car, until he got sidelined with a rare puncture after a brilliant drive. This left Keith Webster in the #10 BMW M3 E36 having a great race with the two KTM XBows of Peter Belshaw #39 and Benjamin Harvey #45. They were hauling him in right until the last lap when Webster’s BMW expired with fuel problems in sight of the finish line. This gave Peter Belshaw a well deserved Group Two win but this didn’t help Webster’s overall Championship winning plans. Initially things had been looking good for Webster because Marco Pullen in his #13 Ferrari 360 GTC had also misjudged his fuel load and stopped on lap 13 of 16! Michael Symons was forced to retire when his gear box failed on lap13, not before he managed an entire lap with only 5th gear working!

Alex Martin in his #87 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup car was way back in 10th place and 7th in Group One. So this series of events meant that each of the GT Cup Championship contenders for the over all title had a bad race which closed the Championship chase still further!

In Group Three the ever consistent Tom Andrew in his #7 KTM XBow beat David Botterill and his faithful Porsche 944 Turbo into 2nd place.

It had been an exciting race which left the GT Cup Championship still wide open.

Group One

1st Andy Ruhan #6 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup

2nd Gary Eastwood #18 Ferrari 430 GTC

3rd Danny Winstanley #78 Porsche 964 Turbo

Group Two

1st Peter Belshaw #39 KTM XBow

2nd Benjamin Harvey #45 KTM XBow

3rd Francis Galashan #57 Porsche 996 GT3 Cup

Group Three

1st Tom Andrew #7 KTM XBow

2nd David Botterill #8 Porsche 944 Turbo

3rd – -

(Full results on http://www.race-rally.be/2010/rf2010/liveresults.aspx)

RACE TWO

The weather improved dramatically for the second race of the weekend on Sunday. The sun was out, the track was dry.

This time Alex Martin was not going to get caught out at the start and he led the race from the start right through to the chequered flag. It was very impressive drive and he won the class by an astonishing 43 secs. Behind him Jim Geddie was having an impressive race given he was new to his #79 Ferrari 430 GTC. He had seen off a challenge from Danny Winstanley’s #78 Porsche 964 Turbo and he eventually came home 2nd in Group One and very pleased with the new Ferrari 430 GTC.

Gary Eastwood had been running 3rd in Group One but he had the bad luck to tangle with Keith Webster ’s #10 Group Two BMW M3 E36 in what was deemed to be a ‘racing incident’ and this dropped him down the field and off the Group One podium. Much of the Group One action had surrounded Michael Saunders in his #99 TVR Cerbera and Danny Winstanley in his #78 Porsche 964 Turbo. These two had a great race but Winstanley had a half spin and survived but it dropped them both off the pace of the leading two cars and they eventually came home 4th and 6th overall.

Keith Webster in his #10 BMW M3 E46 found that Spa really suited this car and he had an amazing race causing some of the faster Group One cars a fair bit of trouble. He brought the car home 3rd overall behind Martin and Geddie.

In Group two nobody got anywhere near the flying Webster and the next Group Two car to see the flag was the #77 KTM XBow driven by Colin Mowle.

Marco Pullen in the #13 Ferrari 360 GTC needed to keep out of trouble and bring the car home in the points to keep his overall Championship winning bid alive and he did just that and had a straight forward run to the flag and came home 3rd in Group Two. Regular Group Two front runner Colin Broster retired with a broken differential on lap three after a difficult weekend playing with set up.

In Group Three Tom Andrew brought the #7 KTM XBow home to another win. But during the open laps it had been David Botterill in his #8 Porsche 944 Turbo who had held the lead of the class, just as he had at Brands Hatch but gradually he lost a couple places and came home 3rd behind the #73 Lotus Exige driven by Dan Norris-Jones.

A great weekends racing that has left everything wide open for the Championship title which will be decided at the closing round at Silverstone in two weeks time.

Group One

1st Alex Martin #87 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup

2nd Jim Geddie #79 Ferrari 430 GTC

3rd Michael Saunders #99 TVR Cerbera

Group Two

1st Keith Webster #10 BMW M3 E46

2nd Colin Mowle #77 KTM XBow

3rd Marco Pullen #13 Ferrari 360 GTC

Group Three

1st Tom Andrew #7 KTM XBow

2nd Dan Norris-Jones #73 Lotus Exige

3rd David Botterill #8 Porsche 944 Turbo

( Full results can be found on http://www.race-rally.be/2010/rf2010/liveresults.aspx)

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS OVERALL AFTER SEVEN ROUNDS

(With two lowest scoring race results deleted)

1ST Marco Pullen #13 Ferrari 360 GTC 345points

2nd Keith Webster #10 BMW M3 E36 338 points

3rd Alex Martin #87 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup 329 points

GROUP POINTS

GROUP ONE

1st Alex Martin #87 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup 329 points

2nd Danny Winstanley #78 Porsche 964 Turbo 300 points

3rd Gary Eastwood #18 Ferrari 430 GTC 257 points

GROUP TWO

1st Marco Pullen #13 Ferrari 360 GTC 354 points

2nd Keith Webster #10 BMW M3 E36 338 points

3rd Colin & Sam Mowle #77 KTM XBow 302 points

GROUP THREE

1st Tom Andrew #7 KTM XBow 278 points

2nd Dan Norris-Jones #73 Lotus Exige 250 points

3rd David Botterill #8 Porsche 944 Turbo 246 points

Full results can be found at http://www.race-rally.be/2010/rf2010/liveresults.aspx

The final round of 2010 GT Cup is at Silverstone on Oct 16th/17th

Due to unique circumstances Jon Walker was able to win all of the three Superlight R300 races that took place due to the add-on of a replacement race for the red-flagged race at Silverstone that provided an additional race over the normal two.

Over the same weekend, Tony Bennett driving a dpr-motorsport upgraded R300 won 1st in class in a wet CSCC Magnificent Seven race at Spa coming seventh overall. Tony Bennett’s R300 has the Caterham Stage One upgrade producing 200 bhp instead of the standard 175bhp. Due to an inspired switch to new Avon CR500 tyres Bennett was able to capitalise on the wet conditions beating more powerful cars in his own class and the high performance CSR’s with his 7th overall result.

Rockingham: dpr drivers get podiums in all of the team-supported championships

dpr motorsport team drivers gained impressive podium results across all of the team supported championships. Jon Walker driving his dpr motorsport supported Superlight R300 took advantage of the unique three-race opportunity to dominate the opposition by winning all three races, finishing the last race eight seconds ahead of second placed man Trevor Fowell. James Maclachlan took first and second place in Supersport maintaining his lead in the 2010 championship. In Roadsport A Magd Mohaffel gained 4th and 3rd.

Walker dominates the three race Superlight R300 Rockingham weekend

A carry over of the abandoned first race at Silverstone provided a unique three-race format for the Rockingham round of the Superlight R300 championship. Race one at Rockingham was the replacement required after the red-flagged race at Silverstone. Walker’s pole for the Rockingham re-run was determined by the finishing positions in the single completed race at Silverstone. Despite strong pressure in the closing laps from Andy McMillan, Walker held his nerve and crossed the line just 0.159 seconds ahead. Paul Wilson celebrated his return to Superlight racing by setting the fastest lap and gaining an eighth place just behind dpr motorsport driver Mark Shaw in a solid seventh.

The two races within the Rockingham championship round both took place on Sunday with the day starting with a 9 am warm-up session. Whilst the actual Saturday qualifier put Walker third on the grid, Walker made clear his intent by being the only man in the warm-up to get below 1:30 with his time of 1:29.658 almost 0.4 seconds ahead of second placed man Simon Young. Ignoring his third place on the grid Walker made a ballistic start that saw him get to the front by turn one. However Walker’s initial lead became narrowed by the intervention of the safety car resulting in a similar end-game to race one with Walker’s lead over McMillan slightly increased to 0.2 seconds. Mark Shaw improved his race position to 5th place

However as events were to prove the first two Superlight R300 races were a mere prelude to Walkers’ domination of the race weekend in the last race of the day. Walker’s first lap of 1.35.709 was a mighty 1.5 seconds ahead of the next best time set by Ellwood. Until lap five Walker was the only man under 1:31 and his slowest time over all 20 laps was 1:31.367. This consistent pace allowed Walker to run ahead in a race on his own finishing eight seconds ahead of second placed Trevor Fowell. Third placed man Paul Wilson trailed Walker by nineteen seconds. Mark Shaw finished in seventh place with his best lap of 1:30.625 being ahead of Walker and third fastest in the race.

Maclachlan continues his Supersport championship assault with 1st & 2nd

Rockingham saw a repeat of the tussle between James Maclachlan and Robert Smith. Smith demonstrated his pace by gaining pole in qualifying almost 0.5 seconds ahead of Maclachlan. In Race one the two swapped places but it was Maclachlan who crossed the line first with a lead of just under 0.3 seconds, although Smith gained fastest lap. Race two saw a fired-up Smith determined to bring and end to Maclachan’s run of race wins. Smith survived early pressure to keep Maclachlan at bay and finished first to take the first non-Maclachlan win of the year but this time it was Maclachlan who gained the fastest lap. dpr motorsport customer Iain Forsythe gained a creditable 4th and 3rd being his best results of the year.

Mohaffel gets a podium with his 4th & 3rd. Jeremy Webb gets two 1sts in Roadsport B

One again JJ O’Malley took two firsts in the Roadsport A category. dpr team driver Magd Mohaffel gained 4th and a 3rd place podium result in race two. Our congratulations also go to dpr motorsport customer Jeremy Webb who won both of the Roadsport B races.

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS

We are now in a position to reserve entries from members of the Monoposto Club for a non-championship meeting at Spa on 2/3/4 July 2010.
Monoposto Racing Club has been invited to take part in this meeting, with cars eligible for all Monoposto classes sharing the track with FF Zetec cars from the French TOP organisation. There will be two 25 minute sessions for qualifying, and two 25 minute races. The first qualifying session will be on Friday 2 July and last race on Sunday 4 July; this race will be scheduled in the morning to enable competitors to return to the UK on Sunday. Races will have a rolling start.

Entry, Sign-On, Qualifying and Racing will be arranged so that two drivers can share the same car if they wish (one

driver in each Qualifying/Race), or a driver/car can participate in only one qualifying session and one race. The entry fee for two quals/two races will be £475. For two drivers sharing one car the total entry fee will be £480. For one driver entering a single qual & race the entry fee will be £240 – note these single entries will have a low reservation priority – see below. As there is a very high level of inter

est in taking part and we only have access to part of the grid capacity, competitors who wish to be sure of a place should reserve this by sending a cheque for their entry fee made out to “Monoposto Racing Club” as soon as possible to Tony Cotton.

Reserving an entry place does not mean that your entry has been formally accepted, as official entry fees are not yet available, but when this is the case paid up entries will be accepted in order of reservation priority. You should not incur any costs such as ferry bookings until your entry is formally accepted. Official entry forms will be issued as soon as possible. Entry fees are not refundable if you do not compete in the event. However you can transfer your entry to another eligible competitor & car if you wish, provided you inform us before the final closing date for entries (which will be 21 days before the event).

Please note that you will need at least a UK National A licence to compete in this meeting. Your car and race clothing will need to comply with FIA regulations, which in some cases differ from UK MSA requirements.

This is a great opportunity to race on one of the world’s truly classic Grand Prix circuits. It is also fantastic value for money – the cost per minute is less than Mallory!