Pro-Mil Cup Report

Conceived by Haynes Motor Museum chief and Ferrari one-make competitor Marc Haynes, and delivered by David Scott's team at MSVR, with the able assistance of co-ordinator Jock Simpson, the two-day event was the prelude for a planned 2008 series of sprint race weekends for Cup class GTs, a format designed to encourage amateur drivers to race, either as a step up from club motorsport or a stepping stone up the GT racing ladder.

"It's been very well received and the forum we held yesterday here was all in all an extremely positive experience." That was Jock Simpson's summary of progress so far, with a total of 23 cars present for the weekend's action. Certainly everyone seemed to appreciate the opportunity to voice their opinion on the series' format.

"We lost two yesterday I'm afraid, Pete Morris's Porsche (the ex-Tech 9 Cup class winning car from 2004 and 2005) with engine trouble, and one of the Apex Porsches which had an off and twisted the shell."

What Saturday had achieved though was a cordial exchange of views between competitors and organisers, to work out the shape of the 2008 series.

"There was pretty unanimous agreement that the bigger GT3 cars shouldn't be admitted, but the Ferrari 430, in basic challenge spec, will be eligible, together with the Porsche 997s. We now have to do some thinking about how to equalise the cars to some degree, and that could be quite interesting.

"There's some common sense in not introducing a control tyre, many of these cars are set up to run on a particular type of rubber for their one make series, and it would be expensive for them to be adapted. There may well be success ballast, but we probably won't, for instance, play with the ride height on the 997s, our advisors (including Aaron Scott) tell us that this would make the 997 unpleasant to drive, perhaps even dangerous.

"Instead we are considering employing driver specific ballast. It makes no sense in the market we are trying to appeal to, for instance, to penalise every Porsche 997 equally. If a relative novice goes out and buys a car then our thought is that he should start to ace relatively unhindered: if he's good enough then the success ballast will come into play soon enough."

"Another point that came up is that it's very important to give the series some focus in the paddock and that's why the GT Lounge is here."

The ‘GT Lounge' was a large and well equipped hospitality unit, serving drinks and snacks and a full lunch to competitors and team members, and it was busy throughout the day, certainly justifying the faith put into the concept.

One topic of conversation throughout the day was the issue of any new series grabbing interest, and potentially cars from the grids of, existing series, including Britcar and British GT.

"Not an issue at all," said Robin Mortimer, whose RPM Motorsport concern had a Porsche 997 entered for customer Lajos Varga. "British GT is a different level and with driver changes and longer races is far more competitive, and more expensive. We are interested in both, we have up to four cars, a pair of 997s and a pair of 996s, that are no longer competitive in British GT, but would be very well suited to this idea."

Amongst a smattering of interested parties cruising the paddock, British GT GTC champion Graeme Mundy echoed the sentiment. "It looks to have potential for teams to put together a programme for customers, to supplement an existing effort elsewhere. All of that will depend on the calendar and on costs, but if the Series here keeps it as tight as they intend then, yes we'd be interested in taking a very close look.

ISL Motorsports' Alun Edwards was also chatting to the Pro-Mil Cup organisers and "I like what I'm hearing. Our Mantis would probably be placed in Class Two for the less powerful cars, and if things go well we actually have a second chassis which could be built up."

Britcar regular Jeff Wyatt was also taking a look: "The beauty of this is that there are those drivers who would quite like to do some races without having to share the car. This allows them to do that without eating up a whole year's budget, so I think it supplements the other series rather than damaging them."

In the paddock itself, Peter Hignett's ABG Motorsport outfit was looking after no fewer than six cars, whilst next door the Fiorano Ferrari concern was tending to a solo Ferrari 360, but looking very seriously at multiple entries for the series proper.

Amongst the pretenders to the Porsche / Ferrari domination, John Wilson was present with his TVR Cerbera, an ex-road car, developed for the TVR Challenge by independent TVR specialist Andy McLoughlin: "She has a standard 4.5 litre AJP V8 remapped to give more torque, upgraded suspension and brakes and a front splitter and rear wing. If this takes off there's probably four or five TVRs that might come to have a go."

Alongside the silver Cerbera in the paddock was a handsome, metallic orange, T350, the only racing example of one of TVR's last new car lines. Owner Cliff Jobson had had a new engine fitted just in time for the Snetterton meeting, but a diff. failure in Race 1 would see his weekend finish early.

Onto the racing then, and even with the two Saturday casualties, that still left 21 cars. Pete Morris would take the start after a very generous offer from Marc Haynes allowed the PMC Midlands boss to borrow the #11 Ferrari 360.

Race 1
The 30 minute race turned into a two car scrap at the front, with Jim Geddie dominating proceedings, ahead of a hard charging Paul Mace in the ex-Stuart Scott Porsche 996 (the CBT boss watching his ex-British GT car from the spectator banks). Geddie though was lucky to take the win as his car ground to a halt on his slowing down lap, the 997 out of fuel!

Behind this pair there were a series of hard fought battles, with Colin Broster eventually grabbing the final podium slot in the familiar yellow ABG Porsche, after a spirited defence by 2008 British GT newcomer (in a Viper with Aaron Scott) Craig Wilkins (in the white Porsche, ahead of Simpson, below) was finally swept away by the more experienced hand.

The podium could have looked very different had Colin Simpson in the Marcos Mantis not suffered a late race spin, after a stunning charge: he would eventually storm back again to a fighting fifth, but it could just as easily have been third.

Simpson had managed to get by relative racing novice Andy Newton twice, but this was an encouraging display for Newton aboard the #8 Ferrari, a sixth place finish meant that his driving partner, Mike Wilds, would be well placed to attack from the off in race two.

Andy Ruhan was another man to have a storming run, punctuated in his case by a pair of spins, both on the exit of the chicane, and one involving some formation rotation with the Ferrari of Duncan Cameron.

Class Two was taken by the very quick Ginetta G20 Coupe of Chris Everill, a car more usually seen in the Dutch Supercar Challenge. Everill's 12th place overall was badly affected by a time consuming gearshift problem. John Wilson's Cerbera and David Botterill's Porsche 944 Turbo would complete the Class Two podium.

Race 2
The starting grid for Race 2 was determined by the finishing order of the first 30 minute race and again, right from the off, Geddie took control.

This time though he would have a race long fight on his hands, as Mike Wilds rapidly dispensed with the challenge from the cars separating him from the leader.

There were no heroics this time around for Colin Simpson, as the Mantis made a smokey exit as the Safety Car took to the track, to allow the recovery of a stranded Ferrari.

That took just a single lap and the race was on again, Wilds closing in on Geddie - but closing in and getting by are entirely different propositions.

Making great progress from the back of the grid was Andy Ruhan in the Team Nero 360: his race long charge would eventually net him an impressive fifth place finish, while ahead of him the Broster / Wilkins battle was joined once again: despite Broster suffering an early race delay, he once again made his way to the sharp end of the race and grabbed the final podium slot again.

Class Two would be a hard fought battle once the Ginetta finally called it a day, the fault from the first race re-appearing with a vengeance and spoiling a fine run, which had the little G20 in the top five overall for the opening part of the race.

That left a three way scrap between the Porsche 993 RSR Replica of Ian White and the battling TVR and Porsche 944 from the previous encounter.

White would eventually blow by both of the other contenders, pulling away to a comfortable win, but the pair behind would lap nose to tail for the whole race, Botterill's 944 Turbo finally taking second just half a second ahead of the TVR.

Up front the lead battle was fully engaged and it finally took a stumble in traffic from Wilds to settle the matter. Geddie would claim a double win in the prologue to what could be a very interesting addition to the UK's sportscar racing portfolio.