BRITISH GT ROUNDS 13 & 14 – ROCKINGHAM
Barwell drivers secure 2nd & 3rd in Championship Points
Paul Drayson/Jonny Cocker lead into the final race but are pipped at the post
Guy Harrington/Ben de Zille Butler take third in their debut GT season
It was a case of “Close, but no cigar” for Barwell Motorsport's British GT drivers at the weekend, when an extremely tight battle for the Drivers' title came down to a straight fight in the very last race of the season. Paul Drayson and Jonny Cocker initially had the upper hand over the Dodge Viper pairing of Ellis/Mortimer in the first half of Sunday's race, but with just under 20 minutes of the racing season left to run the Viper crew got themselves ahead and into the crucial championship-winning position.
Drivers
Car #1: Paul Drayson / Jonny Cocker (Chassis DBRS9 / 003 – Bio-Ethanol fuel)
Car #2: Tom Alexander / Michael Bentwood (Chassis DBRS9 / 001)
Car #3: Guy Harrington / Ben de Zille Butler (Chassis DBRS9 / 010)
Race 1 – 1 Hour (41 laps)
The Rockingham ‘GT' track is comprised of part oval section and part tight, twisty infield section, and unfortunately for us this soul-less venue for the British GT finale was not one which suited our Aston Martin DBRS9s very well. Compounding this problem was the fact that the Friday test day was held in wet conditions, and thus the first dry running on slick tyres that everyone got was in the 15-minute official qualifying sessions. We therefore didn't have any time to fine-tune the handling of our Astons in the dry, and our less experienced drivers also missed out on those usual vital dry testing sessions where they have the chance to get themselves up to speed.
Ben de Zille Butler, Paul Drayson and Tom Alexander thus qualified 10th , 11th and 12th respectively in the ‘amateur' session, which was on average around five places lower than they have expected to be at most of this season's races. Paul made the best start of the trio to move into 10 th , with Ben and Tom slotting in right behind during the opening laps. Paul and Ben were fighting their own private fight for both position and the championship title, but were still managing to maintain a reasonable pace, and had moved up to eighth and ninth by lap seven after the demise of the Bryant/Hall Mosler and the passing of the Ferrari of title rival Hector Lester.
The Drayson and de Zille Butler battle carried on until lap 14, when Ben was just a bit too eager to try and get a run on Paul as they exited the final chicane and spun his DBRS9 round on the banking of the start/finish straight. There were then some hair-raising moments as Ben sat stationary on the track with cars whizzing past on both sides, fortunately without making any contact, but the damage to Ben and Guy's race result was very serious as he rejoined near the tail end of the order. This promoted Tom Alexander up to 10th and Tom was enjoying a great run as he hassled the Lester Ferrari consistently for lap after lap. This pressure paid off on lap 15 as Hector made a mistake and Tom moved up to ninth position behind Paul.
This situation remained static until both of these cars then came into the pits to hand over to their respective ‘pro' drivers, Jonny Cocker and Michael Bentwood, early on in the pit stop window. Jonny had a few extra laps start over Michael, and managed to leap-frog past both the Cadena Motorsport Aston of Barry Whight/Gavan Kershaw and the Viper of Fletcher/Clark to assume sixth spot after 24 laps. Jonny then set about hunting down his next target, the Ascari of Greenhalgh/Zwart, as he strived to get as many places and points in the bag as he could. Michael looked set to shadow Jonny's charge up the order, but sadly he was the victim of the very first mechanical failure for any Barwell car in the entire 2007 racing season, as the gearbox crown wheel let him down on lap 31 and his race was over.
Cocker meanwhile was getting on superbly with the job in hand, and with six laps to go he had picked off both the Greenhalgh/Zwart Ascari and the Foster/Redwood Viper to move up to fourth. He then closed right up on the Lamborghini of Jones/Templeman, but the Italian car then strangely put on a spurt of speed and managed to hold Jonny at bay for the final three laps. Fourth was a solid result for Paul and Jonny after both drivers had put in good performances, but the worst news for us was that Ellis/Mortimer had managed to win in their Viper and thus shrink down our points advantage. Indeed, our rivals had managed to move ahead of erstwhile Championship leaders, Guy and Ben, who were unable to rescue any points from the race. On the flip side, two of our other championship rivals were now out of the equation after Lester's Ferrari was also out of the points and the Jones twins' Ascari failed to start.
Race 2 – 1 Hour (41 laps)
The whole season's battle for the Drivers' Championship had now come down to this; after 13 races at eight different circuits just four points separated the top three driver crews – Paul/Jonny were on 73 points, Ellis/Mortimer 71 and Ben/Guy 69. To have kept two Barwell Motorsport pairings in the hunt right up until this stage demonstrates what as fantastic job the team has done this year, and also clearly shows the equality of preparation across the whole organisation. Paul/Jonny and Ben/Guy have raced each other wheel-to-wheel on many occasions this year, and considering this is the first full season of GT racing for all of these drivers bar Jonny, it has been a major achievement by all parties to have been so successful.
Jonny had given him and Paul the best chance possible of getting the result they needed, after putting the big Barwell Bio Aston on the front row of the grid alongside Ferrari star, Allan Simonsen, with a stunning lap just 1/10 th of a second off pole position. The race started without drama and settled into an early pattern with Jonny in third, Ellis sixth and Guy eighth. Jonny and Guy were both pushing as hard as they could, but it was clear that there was no further pace to be unlocked from the car on fresh tyres at this stage of the race, and it was going to be a very tough encounter. Unfortunately the only man on the move during the first third of the race was Ellis, who slipped past the Ascari of Tommy Erdos and was then let through into fourth position by his Viper team-mates Redwood/Foster. Poor Michael was having a disastrous final race of the season, after being walloped by another car on the opening lap and spinning down to the back of the field. There was no possibility of getting back into the points from there, and it was a shame as both Michael and Tom were driving well and capable of ending the season on a high.
As the race approached the half-way mark, Guy was embroiled in a battle for eighth place with three other cars, but a nudge from behind spun his car round and cost him and Ben a chunk of time. Ben soon took over for his final stint of the year, which was a much stronger showing than in the previous race, but the highest he could move the car back up to was ninth place. In order to lose their third place in the Drivers' Championship, however, Hector Lester had to win the race. With the Ferrari driver finishing the race in third, this confirmed a fine third place in the points standings for the two Caterham graduates
The tension involved in the title battle then rose to an extreme high, as Jonny came into the pits to hand over to Paul on lap 26, with the Viper of Ellis following just a second behind Cocker's wheel tracks. The two pit stops were timed to perfection, and the Aston left the pits with just that single second separating Paul and Mortimer's Viper. This was it – Paul had to stay ahead of Mortimer to claim the title, it was as ‘simple' as that. Of course that particular task was anything but simple to carry out in reality…!
Mortimer is a much more experienced racing driver than Paul, and the odds were stacked against our man. He immediately rose to the challenge, however, and actually pulled away from Mortimer during their opening lap. Paul certainly looked like a man on a mission, and as they blasted around the banking on lap 27 he took the first corner absolutely flat out to get a good run on the second-placed Burton/Wilcox Ferrari. He had lined up the pass perfectly into the first hairpin, but Burton braked surprisingly early for the corner and caught Paul out. Paul had to concentrate hard in order to avoid hitting the Ferrari, and unfortunately missed his braking point and had no option but to overshoot the corner and drive round the rest of the oval banking. The rules allow this without penalty (in the interests if safety), but you must rejoin the race at the last corner and drop behind the same car that you were behind originally.
This meant Paul could have effectively rejoined back in third place in front of the Mortimer Viper and continued the battle for the title, but crucially Mortimer had overtaken the Ferrari by the time Paul was able to try and slot back into place. Thus he now had to wave both the Viper and then Ferrari back through, and thus dropped down to fourth place and out of the critical Championship-leading position. His loss of momentum cost Paul further places, and he was then powerless to get back on terms with the Viper.
In summary, however, this has been an absolutely incredible year for Barwell Motorsport and our three Aston Martin DBRS9 British GT cars. Out of 41 total race starts, we have taken 19 podium finishes including five wins (more than any other team), and one of our driver pairings has been on the podium in every race apart from at Rockingham. We have also only had one retirement from a race due to a mechanical failure (again at Rockingham!) – a superb record across three 550bhp GT3 cars.
Final Overall Drivers Championship Top 10
1. Bradley Ellis/Alex Mortimer Team RPM Dodge Viper Coupe 81
2. Paul Drayson/Jonny Cocker Barwell Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9 75
3. Guy Harrington/Ben de Zille Butler Barwell Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9 69
4. Hector Lester Team CIM Ferrari 430 GT3 66
5. Godfrey Jones/David Jones Team Eurotech Ascari KZ1R 58
6. Allan Simonsen Team CIM Ferrari 430 GT3 44
7. Matt Harris Tech 9 Motorsport Porsche 997 GT3 42
8. Tom Alexander/Michael Bentwood Barwell Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9 41
9. Adam Wilcox/Phil Burton Team VRS Ferrari 430 GT3 28
10. Tom Ferrier Tech 9 Motorsport Porsche 997 GT3 23
Final Team Trophy Top 8 Points
1. BARWELL MOTORSPORT ASTON MARTIN DBRS9 109 *** CHAMPION ***
2. Team RPM Dodge Viper/Porsche 997 86
3. Team C.I.M. Ferrari 430 GT3 66
4. Team Eurotech Ascari KZ1R 58
5. Tech 9 Motorsport Porsche 997 GT3 42
6. Team VRS Ferrari 430 GT3 28
7. Rollcentre Racing Mosler MT900 10
7. Cadena Motorsport Aston Mar
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