Qualifying

The British GT Championship returns to the Rockingham Speedway circuit in Northamptonshire for the first time since 2003 this weekend.

Qualifying for the two one-hour races was this Saturday morning (12th August) in much cooler and windier conditions than yesterday. The story seems to be just the same as at Snetterton. Ferrari have the same tyre as issued to them four weeks ago and it’s working really well for them.

In testing the same tyre yesterday – which is based on 20-year old technology – it didn’t take too long to discover its unsuitability for the Panoz as Tom Kimber-Smith explains:

“The mid-engine Ferrari’s weight is balanced differently, its suspension geometry will be different and it seems suits these tyres more. Our front-engine car clearly needs a different development but one that performs to the same level, currently we do not have that available to us”.

Despite making progress in the car’s development and the Team coming of the back of a win in the toughest race of the year at Le Mans, Luke Hines and Tom Kimber-Smith were unable to match the Scuderia Ecosse pace in qualifying to lie 2nd on the grid in both races. Niarchos claimed his first pole position of the season with a 1:22.386 and Hines a 1:23.521.

“The car’s good. It feels well balanced but just don’t have the same grip [as Ecosse]” said Hines.

In the second session, Tim Mullen completed the 1.949 mile circuit in 1:20.379 and Kimber-Smith in 1:22.003. Tom relaying the same story of a Panoz in great shape but a different tyre and grip level to the competition.

Race 1

Luke Hines didn’t make the job easy for Niarchos at the start – keeping him honest right up to the hairpin but had to relent to the Ferrari. He was able to keep close with his championship GT2 rival in the opening laps with a one second gap that then began to close down to 0.6 seconds after 9 laps until the pair began encountering traffic.

Niarchos then began gradually extending his lead up to 3.274 seconds as the time approached for the opening of the pit window.

Niarchos and Hines were among the first into the pits for the compulsory driver changeover. After the minimum 45 second stop, Kimber-Smith and Mullen exit the pit lane together – Mullen just maintaining the lead by a proverbial cat’s whisker.

Kimber-Smith had to sit in second place – unable to match Mullen’s pace. Pushing hard and often matching the Ferrari’s pace and running in consistent 1:24 times, the Scuderia just seemed to have that extra pace and grip where and when it mattered and looked to be controlling the pace to just stay ahead.

“I wish we were on a level tyre as we were prior to Snetterton and the introduction of the latest tyre for Ferrari” said Hines, aware of the closer racing in the LMS races where the Panoz and Ferrari cars are more evenly matched.

Five minutes of the race remaining and the #81 GT GTC Marcos Mantis car came into the pit lane smoking heavily. On the following lap, the Team LNT get a radio call from Kimber-Smith.

The Mantis had dropped fluid on the circuit and the unfortunate Kimber-Smith encountered the hazard at Tarzan corner and ended up beached in the gravel.

Fortunately as the incident was near the end of the race, and the Panoz having covered the mandatory distance to be a classified finisher, third place honours were given to Team LNT – keeping the championship race alive and maintaining the lead by just one point.

Mullen took first place having lapped everybody on track and three laps ahead of the 2nd place Vauxhall Monaro GT2 runner. Quite a performance from the Scuderia Eccosse team

Warm-up

It’s raining! It’s wet, windy and a little on the cold side, but if the weather stays like this, the race this afternoon will be very different to yesterday’s if the morning’s warm-up times are anything to go by.

Out on wet cut tyres, the Panoz and Ferrari were on the same type of tyre. Both Team LNT and both Ferrari drivers took their cars out on track at 10am for the ten-minute session.

Kimber-Smith went out first for Team LNT doing a lap in 1:33.583 compared to Mullen’s best of 1:37.202. Hines and Niarchos took his car out to do a 1:36.665 and 1:39.257 respectively.

Race 2

The second British GT race of the weekend extended far beyond the one-hour track time before final results could be decided. Luke Hines took the chequered flag ahead of the pack, but ended up being demoted to second place in the stewards office.

Despite odd showers of rain, the track was dry enough for slick tyres for the start of the race. Tom Kimber-Smith lined up alongside Tim Mullen and got a great start which allowed the Le Mans winning driver to take the lead going on the very brave outside of turn one.

The distinctive orange Panoz held its lead for 5 laps – Mullen applying pressure all the time, and Kimber-Smith doing some excellent defending. On lap 6 coming out of the long left hander on the infield part of the circuit, Mullen was able to get his car’s nose on the inside and using the Panoz to assist his breaking, managed to scrape up alongside into the lead.

‘Scrape’ was the correct term as in the move to take the lead the Panoz suffered damage. Now with damaged steering, Kimber-Smith’s task was to just keep up and minimise the gap between him and the Scuderia car.

With a comparatively late pit stop, the two racers were among the last of the cars to pit with 25 minutes of the race remaining. Chris Niarchos stalled as he exited his pit box, which allowed Luke Hines to get right up behind him.

Niarchos slowly opened up a marginal gap, but it was a strange safety car period that was to play a significant part in the race.

A stricken GTC Porsche had been beside the track for some time. The full field hadn’t even had chance to catch up the safety car before it pulled in. Niarchos caught up though, followed by the GTC Ginetta and Hines in the Panoz.

Coming back onto the pit straight, the safety car pulled off, the Ginetta slowed and Hines passed it just before the start/finish line – his eyes on Niarchos ahead.

“I saw the Ginetta driver put his hand up and he had slowed after just accelerating hard so I thought he’d got a problem” said Hines. “Approaching the hairpin [at the end of turn one] Chris went wide and I just went for it. There’s a championship to win here!”

Hines nipped up the inside; contact was made as the two were side-by-side and Niarchos defended his position, but Hines just had the line and better drive out of the turn to exit in the lead.

Hines then defended for the remaining laps with more contact coming back onto the pit straight as Niarchos tried to come back in on the inside, but a determined Hines held his position to the flag by just 0.3 seconds. A great race and an exciting finish for the Rockingham crowd.

Hines missed the podium – he was already in the official’s office justifying an infringement. So, Kimber-Smith, Mullen and Niarchos all stood on the top step and no trophies were handed out while discussions still took place.

The penalty after much deliberation – a 1 second time penalty for Team LNT. Just enough to drop behind Ecosse in the standings for overtaking the Ginetta just before the start/finish line.

This win for Scuderia now leaves the two teams level on points at the top of the championship.