STRONG WEEKEND PUTS BARWELL DRIVERS IN CLEAR CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD |
Further podium finishes at Croft from Paul Drayson & Jonny Cocker Further podium finishes at Croft from the Paul Drayson/Jonny Cocker and Guy Harrington/Ben de Zille Butler crews have put them both clear at the head of the Avon Tyres British GT Drivers' Championship table. Two second place finishes from Guy and Ben have just edged them past their Barwell Aston Martin team-mates into a one-point lead, with just two races to go at Rockingham. All Barwell drivers put in strong showings last weekend, but the star of the show at Croft was undoubtedly Guy Harrington who made a great debut at the challenging Yorkshire track. His determined climb from 13 th up to second in race two was the highlight of the race. Tom Alexander and Michael Bentwood had also looked set to keep themselves in the hunt for the championship top three spots, but were cruelly denied a fourth place finish in race two after a three-way collision at the hairpin. After race one at Croft, it was confirmed that Barwell Motorsport was uncatchable in the British GT Teams' Championship, and we have now added this title to our BTCC Production Teams' Championship win of 2003. DriversCar #1: Paul Drayson / Jonny Cocker (Chassis DBRS9 / 003 – Bio-Ethanol fuel) Race 1 – 1 Hour (41 laps) It was an all-Ascari front row for Saturday's encounter, but Guy was in a strong position to challenge in third spot on the grid, with Paul and Tom lining up sixth and 14 th respectively. Guy certainly made the most of the start as he immediately squeezed down the inside of the second placed Greenhalgh Ascari into the first corner. He then latched onto the tail of the leading Jones Ascari as the field blasted around the opening lap. The Jones car immediately felt the pressure as its driver made a mistake on cold tyres, and in an instant Guy was through into the lead at the end of lap one. Paul and Tom had also coped well with the intense nature of getting 25 tightly-bunched big GT cars through Croft's extremely tight first few corners, and were running in sixth and 12 th spots respectively. The race settled down into a pattern during the first driver stints, as Guy pressed on mightily at the front to fight off the advances of the Greenhalgh Ascari and these two cars pulled well clear of the rest of the pack. Paul and Tom were also enjoying their own battles, and during the opening 12 laps Paul managed to get himself some breathing space from a tight group of three cars behind him, and also started to reel in the Viper of Championship rivals Ellis/Mortimer. Unfortunately a small error on lap 14 cost him dearly as it exposed him to an attack from the group behind and in a flash three cars got through and demoted the Bio-Ethanol Aston down to ninth. As the race approached the pit stop window (opening after 23 minutes), many of the ‘pro' drivers waited in the pits to take over from their ‘amateur' team-mates. All eyes would then be on the Ferrari of Hector Lester/Allan Simonsen, as Simonsen had comfortably qualified this car on pole for race two and he was clearly going to be in a position to fight his way up the order. The other men on the move would definitely be Jonny and Michael in the DBRS9s, but it was much harder for an Aston to overtake at Croft than it was for a Ferrari, so they certainly had their work cut out. After the driver changes had all taken place, we then had a 19-lap race to the flag, with Ben now at the wheel of the leading Aston, followed by the Jones Ascari, Ellis Viper, Redwood/Foster Viper, Simonsen Ferrari, Greenhalgh/Zwart Ascari, Ferrier/Harris Porsche and then Jonny in eighth place. Michael had started to make progress from 12 th position, and was able to climb up to ninth by the finish. Jonny made reasonably swift work of the Porsche and Ascari, but had been passed by the Ferrari of Wilcox and so by the time he caught the Redwood/Foster Viper on lap 29 he was still lying in seventh. It was here that his progress, and ultimate result, was severely compromised, however. Although he was quicker than the Viper, it was very difficult for Jonny to try and thread a big Aston V12 past an even bigger American machine on a very narrow track. For six laps he lost huge chunks of time to the sister Viper and Jones Ascari ahead, and by the time he got past the Redwood/Foster car there was no time left to make any further progress. Fortunately, the Wilcox Ferrari then suffered a mechanical failure which promoted Jonny and Paul up to fifth in the end. At the front Ben was doing a solid job of looking after the lead that Guy had given to him, and had got everyone covered apart from the flying Simonsen. The Ferrari 430 clearly had an advantage over everything else at Croft, and with an experienced professional driver at the wheel it was able to chomp past most cars with ease. On lap 33 he was with Ben, and despite a valiant effort to hold him off by the Barwell driver, Simonsen took the lead two laps later. This had still been a great effort by Guy and Ben, however, and the Caterham graduates kept up their incredible podium finishing run. Top 10 Results – Avon Tyres British GT Championship Round 10 1. Hector Lester/Allan Simonsen Team CIM Ferrari 430 GT3 Race 2 – 1 Hour (39 laps) Jonny had qualified second for the Sunday race, but this meant the outside front row spot which is hard to protect from attack during the first corner and chicane section at Croft. Although he made a good start, when the pack arrived at the first right-hander he had a solid wall of GT cars on his right side, and simply couldn't get his car back into the pack to reclaim his second place on the road before the single-file chicane. He salvaged fourth place, however, slotting in just in front of Michael in the sister Barwell Aston. Ben, meanwhile, had endured a bigger nightmare as cars went off in front of him at the first turn and he got significantly delayed as he slipped all the way back to 16 th place. A status quo emerged at the head of the field, as the Simonsen Ferrari, Ellis Viper and Wilcox Ferrari held sway in front of Jonny and Michael. Simonsen was once again setting a scorching pace, and was rapidly disappearing into the distance, but Jonny and Michael were very closely shadowing Ellis and Wilcox. With Ben still back in 12 th place, however, it looked like we were going to struggle to achieve the same level of success of the previous day. On lap 15 Ben was still stuck in heavy traffic, and we made the decision to bring him in straight away to hand over to Guy. This gave Guy the chance to come out in some clean air and try and make up lost ground, and it was to be the start of an absolutely epic drive from the youngster. As other cars came in for their driver changes, Jonny and Michael stayed out as long as possible, and as they were both circulating very quickly this gave them the opportunity to gain some ground during the pit stops. They kept the pace up well, and allowed Paul and Tom to rejoin the race in third and fourth places respectively on lap 23, having both jumped past the Ellis/Mortimer Viper. Paul was immediately all over the back of the Burton/Wilcox Ferrari, and passed the white 430 at the hairpin on his first lap out to take over second place. Three lap later and Tom had also surged his way past Burton, to put his car into the final podium placing. By this stage, however, Guy had disposed of five cars with some superbly decisive and clean moves, and was up to eighth place. Tellingly, he was also the fastest driver on the track as he had reeled off a series of super-quick laps that ate up the gap between him and the bunch of cars running in second to seventh positions ahead. As Paul and Tom consolidated their second and third places, the cars between them and Guy were embroiled in a hectic scrap which Guy then joined the back of. He immediately put pressure on the Jones Ascari, which succumbed to him after a hair-raising spin at the first fast chicane (narrowly missing Guy's car!) on lap 32. On the next lap all hell broke loose between the Mortimer Viper and the Burton Ferrari, which clashed heavily at the first corner, putting the Viper out and dropping the Ferrari back down the order. This promoted Guy up to fifth behind the Harris/Ferrier Porsche, but he wasn't prepared to sit behind this car for long and scythed his way past on lap 34 to make it three Barwell cars in a row from second to fourth places. The battle for the final two podium positions was then an all Aston Martin affair, and Guy closed in on Tom and demoted him to fourth on lap 36. Unfortunately for Tom, he then lost a bit of momentum and fell into the clutches of the Harris Porsche and Jones Ascari. These three cars all tried to go round the hairpin as one on lap 37, and discovered that there definitely isn't room as contact was made and all of them were sent flying off in different directions. Unfortunately for Tom, the impact damaged his car sufficiently to lead to him having to pull off the circuit and retire with a puncture. This was a sad end to their race after great performances from both Michael and Tom. With four laps to go, Paul looked reasonably secure in second place, but on this day Guy was an irresistible force to everyone he came up behind, and somehow Guy pulled out an incredible lap to get onto the rear bumper of his team-mate as they started the next lap. As the Barwell crew stood on the pit wall barely able to watch, the two Astons duelled it out at virtually every one of Croft's corners. Both drivers gave their team-mates respect, however, and with Paul giving Guy room as they approached the final hairpin, it allowed Guy to take the inside line and move up to second place. This was a great result for these two Barwell crews, and gives them both a fighting chance of taking the championship title at Rockingham in three weeks. Top 5 Results – Avon tyres British GT Championship Round 11 1. Allan Simonsen/Hector Lester Team CIM Ferrari 430 GT3 Drivers Championship Top 15 (after 12/14 races) 1. Guy Harrington/Ben de Zille Butler Barwell Motorsport 69 Avon Tyres British GT Championship* – Team Trophy Top 8 Points (after 12/14 races) 1. BARWELL MOTORSPORT ASTON MARTIN DBRS9 102 *** CHAMPION *** 2. Team RPM Dodge Viper/Porsche 997 66 * best scoring car in each race
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