JONNY & PAUL ROBBED OF DOUBLE VICTORY AT BRANDS HATCH |
Barwell maintains 100% podium finishing record for season - Alexander/Bentwood & Harrington/de Zille Butler continue podium run There were mixed fortunes for all three Barwell Motorsport British GT entries at the fantastic Brands Grand Prix circuit last weekend. All six drivers in each car put in some of their best individual driving performances of the year, and all fully deserved to come away with some top results and a strong haul of championship points. In the end it was the Tom Alexander/Michael Bentwood pairing that had the most successful weekend, with Tom putting in some gritty drives despite inflaming an old rib injury and being in a lot of pain. Michael again put in his customary polished performance and these two have now moved themselves up to be our top representative in the series standings, just one point off the championship lead in second place. Just a single point behind them now are Guy Harrington/Ben de Zille Butler, who bounced back superbly from missing the first race due to a blown engine in qualifying. Having only been able to start from 11 th on the grid in race 2, Ben and Guy put in a sterling effort to climb up to third place at the finish. Sadly for Paul Drayson/Jonny Cocker, they suffered the most at the hands of fate during a weekend that had promised so much. Due to some appalling driving from two different rivals, they were knocked out of both races whilst running in second and first places respectively. In Sunday's race Paul held a strong lead with less than 15 minutes remaining, ahead of the RPM Viper of Ellis/Mortimer, only to be blocked unfairly and then have a collision with the backmarking sister RPM Viper of Fletcher/Saggers whilst he was trying to lap it . At best this was crass driving by the Fletcher/Saggers car, and the incident has left a very bad taste in the mouth…. DriversCar #1: Paul Drayson / Jonny Cocker (Chassis DBRS9 / 003) – Bio-Ethanol fuel Race 1 – 1 Hour / 29 laps Sadly we were down to two cars for this race, as Ben had stopped with an (extremely rare) engine failure during qualifying for the second race. Although we managed to source a spare engine from Aston Martin Racing (many thanks for your help guys!), it was completely impossible to fit it in time for the Saturday afternoon race. This was especially galling for this crew, as Guy had qualified a superb second on the grid for the Saturday race, and they were in with a great shout of scoring a second victory of the season. So it was left to Paul and Tom to lead the Barwell charge at the start of race one, and these two were starting from second and fifth on the grid respectively after both putting in their personal best qualifying performances of the season. Tom was in a lot of pain from his rib injury, and at one stage it was touch and go as to whether he would be fit enough to start the race, but he made the decision to give it his best shot. Paul made a good start from the outside of the front row, and held onto second place as he tried to put some daylight in between him and the rest of the pack being led by the Jones' twins Ascari. This job came to a halt on lap seven when the safety car came out for two laps to clear a stricken car, and on the restart the leading Viper of Mortimer made a mistake coming out of Graham Hill Bend and in an instant Paul was all over him like a rash. The Viper defended into and out of Surtees corner as they blasted onto the back straight, and then used its superior power to stop Paul from outdragging it on the run down to Hawthorns. Drayson was still glued to the back of it as they went through this high-speed turn and headed towards Westfield corner. It was here, however, that the Jones' Ascari came from way back to try and make a wild lunge down the inside of Paul. Paul turned in as normal to Westfield and then at the apex felt an almighty bang as the Ascari whacked his Aston in the rear of the door. Inevitably, the impact sent both cars into a spin but Paul came off worse as he got stuck in the gravel for two laps and his and Jonny's race was effectively over. This left the Tom Alexander car as our sole chance of glory, and Tom was doing a very effective job of keeping it in the hunt. He had lost just one place on the road to the Tech 9 Porsche of Matt Harris, and then during the melee following Paul's incident the Ferrari of Hector Lester had sneaked through as Tom avoided the spinning Ascari. This meant that he was running in a solid fifth place as the pit stop window approached, and Tom would then hand over to Michael to complete the race. The excitement then hotted up on lap 14 as Lester brought the Ferrari into the pits just ahead of Tom, and then Phil Burton in the VRS Ferrari, all three then handing over to their respective ‘pros' to duel it out in the second half of the race. The two Ferraris promptly stopped and then headed down the pit road, as Michael sat waiting out the final few moments of the mandatory 45-second stop just ahead of them in the pits. We were just that bit sharper then our rivals and Michael dropped the clutch quickly to blast in front of both Ferraris and head the train out of the pits. A Battle Royal then ensued, as Michael knew it was critical that he kept the Ferraris behind him over the course of their first flying lap. He had his mirrors full of red Prancing Horse as the talented Simonsen hounded him at every corner. The Dane tried an ambitious around-the-outside move at Clearways but couldn't make it stick, and when this dropped him back behind the Wilcox-driven VRS Ferrari, Michael had some breathing space that he could use to get the hammer down. Such was the pace of these pro drivers that this fight was for second position as the race entered its final third period. So with seven laps to go, Michael had a 3.5 second deficit to the leading Ellis/Mortimer Viper, but then started to close in. The excitement mounted on the pit wall as the Barwell team watched Bentwood take nearly two seconds out of the Viper in two laps, and a possible victory was on the cards. The Viper just upped its pace enough over the final few tours, however, to keep Michael at bay. This was a great result for the Barwell crew after two tigering drives from Alexander and Bentwood under great pressure. Top 10 Results – Avon Tyres British GT Championship Round Six – Brands Hatch GP 1. Ellis/Mortimer Team RPM Dodge Viper Coupe Race 2 – 1 Hour (38 laps) The front five rows of the grid for race two featured a mouthwatering line-up of some seriously quick international ‘pro' drivers and GT machinery. Simonsen's Ferrari was on pole, followed by Antonio Garcia (Lambo), Jonny Cocker (Aston), Adam Wilcox (Ferrari), Michael Bentwood (Aston), Bradley Ellis (Viper) and so on. The race was ON ! Garcia squeezed Simonsen out at the start, and Jonny was very nearly able to follow him through but had to slot into third. Michael was on the ball straight away and nipped past Wilcox to shadow Jonny's Bio-Ethanol DBRS9 in fourth spot. These four cars then started to pull clear of the rest of the pack, with some extremely high quality driving, until the four became three on lap 12 as Garcia's Lamborghini suffered a puncture which put it out of contention. Ben de Zille Butler, meanwhile, was working hard to stay in contention with the leading bunch, but was being held up in 10 th place whilst battling with the Team4Car Porsche of Mark Cole and the Jones Ascari. The sun really started to burn down on Brands Hatch during Sunday's encounter, and tyre wear over the course of the 1-hour race was certainly an issue on everyone's minds. Simonsen was setting a scorching pace up front in the Ferrari, but we were confident in the knowledge that his co-driver, Lester, was slower than Paul and so the plan for Jonny was to just keep the Ferrari in sight and look after the tyres for Paul's stint. In a similar fashion, Michael was looking after his car whilst keeping Jonny honest and also a watchful eye on the Ellis/Mortimer Viper that was behind him. The C.I.M. Ferrari team then made a slightly strange decision to bring Simonsen into the pits earlier than necessary, to change over to Lester, and this really handed us the advantage as Jonny stayed out and lapped considerably quicker than Hector. When all the driver change stops had been completed, we thus had Paul in the lead from the Lester Ferrari, followed by the Mortimer Viper and then Tom in fourth spot. Ben and Guy had also shown that they have very strong pace as a combination, and by lap 25 Guy had the fresh-engined Aston up to fifth place. This was a great showing by this crew, considering they had missed the Saturday race completely and had to go straight into this race ‘cold'. It was also just rewards for a stonking team effort in getting another engine from 150 miles away, putting it in the car, running correctly, ready for the Sunday morning warm-up (with many mechanics only being able to grab a couple of hours sleep!). With 10 laps to go the Viper past the Ferrari for second, but Paul was by this stage nine seconds up the road. Although Mortimer could lap faster than Paul and was still a threat, if Paul maintained his pace then the win was seemingly in the bag. That was, of course, until he came up to lap Mortimer's team-mate, Saggers on lap 29. Paul was lapping up to three seconds a lap quicker than this car and caught it at Paddock Bend, where the marshals showed it the blue flags so he knew the leader was behind. Saggers then promptly defended the inside line of the next corner, and the next one, as if fighting for a place, and then weaved from side to side on the small straight between Graham Hill and Surtees corners. All of this was naturally costing Paul huge amounts of time as the other Viper closed in, and so he attempted a passing move on the backmarker going into Surtees, only for the two cars to collide and break the steering on Paul's Aston. His race was over and the lead had been gifted to the Ellis/Mortimer car. Saggers received a fine and race licence endorsement for his part in the whole sorry affair, but the damage to Paul and Jonny's race victory, and Championship leading aspirations, was done. Just to recap and summarise this incident, the race leader had been eliminated in an unnecessary incident with a backmarker, handing the win to the backmarker's team-mate…. This left Tom in third place, but he soon succumbed to the outstanding pace of Guy who was the fastest man on the track in the second half of the race, and the two Astons swapped places. Tom then unfortunately ran off the racing line and onto the edge of the track at one corner and picked up a load of dirt and grease on his tyres. This gave him the impression of having a puncture and he was forced to slow his pace dramatically and the Jones Ascari took fourth spot six laps from the end. Guy suffered no such woes thankfully, and brought his and Ben's car home in an excellent third place to continue Barwell's 100% podium finish team record. Both him and Ben are continuing to up their game at each event, and they have now scored four podium finishes out of their last four race starts, a result which they would very likely have also achieved if they had been able to take part in Saturday's race. Top 10 Results – Avon Tyres British GT Championship Round Seven – Brands Hatch 1. Ellis/Mortimer Team RPM Dodge Viper Coupe Avon Tyres British GT Championship – Drivers Top 15 Points (after 7/14 races) 1. Bradley Ellis Team RPM 39 Avon Tyres British GT Championship – Team Trophy Top 8 Points (after 7/14 races) 1. Barwell Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9 60
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