GT Cup Round Two - Brands Hatch
It was a weekend of highs and lows for the GT Cup Teams. The ‘high' was Race One which was one of the best races we have ever seen in GT Cup. The ‘low' was a Race Two which, due to a couple of big accidents, saw the drivers complete only a handful of racing laps, spending the rest of the time behind the safety car.
Race One saw 41 cars coming to the grid in brilliant sunshine. It was such a large grid that as the lights went green after the rolling start and the front runners crossed the line some of the Group Four cars were still coming into Clearways. It was a fantastic spectacle. Up front Glynn Geddie who had surprised everybody by putting his Group Two Porsche 997 GT3 Cup car onto pole ahead of the Mike Gardiner Viper and Paul Hogarth Lamborghini Gallardo. In Group Two Jeff Leadley and Ian Hartley in their Ferrari 430 Challenge GT cars were just ahead of the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup car of Simon Leith. In Group Three Marco Pullen in his Ferrari 360 GTC was ahead of Fiona James in her Ginetta G50 and Colin Broster, making a welcome return to the series, in a Ferrari 360 GTC. The only driver with a bit of fresh air between himself and the rest of his Group Four competition was Will Goff in his Aston Martin GT4. Chris Scragg had visited the gravel traps in qualifying and was 33rd on the grid with a busy race ahead of him. Second in Group Four was Sara Bennett-Baggs in her Aston Martin N24.
Race One was a very hectic affair! Initially it looked as if Glynn Geddie was going to upset the form book by winning overall in a Group Two car but having opened up a healthy lead he got a puncture at Paddock bend and was out of the running. This allowed Mike Gardiner into the lead in the Viper. But Paul Hogarth eventually made a brave, if slightly nerve wracking, challenge and squeezed past the big Viper into the lead. Hogarth made the most of this and as Gardiner seemed to be holding up the other Group One cars there was a wonderful battle shaping up between newcomer Michael Saunders in his TVR Cerbera, Paul Whight in the Aston Martin DBRS9 and Peter Seldon in his BMW M3 GTR. This battle went on until Seldon ran wide and put the BMW into the gravel. As the race was nearly over this eventually brought out the red flags and the race was over. This gave the delighted Hogarth a hard earned victory, Saunders came second and what proved to be an ailing Gardiner Viper third. The Viper expired with a broken drive shaft just after the start finish line but had just squeezed past the line before the red flags came out!
If Group One had been hectic, things were also brewing up nicely in Group two. The Ferrari 430 Challenge GT is well suited to the Brands GP circuit and Jeff Leadley won Group Two and was running 5th overall at the finish with Ian Hartley just behind him after another a race long battle. In Group Three Colin Broster was driving Marc Haynes' (Series organizer!) Ferrari 360 GTC and proving that changing from a Porsche to a Ferrari wasn't a problem but Marco Pullen in a similar car drove a stunning race and just had the edge and took the Group win. Michael Symons was third in his BMW GTR E6.
In Group Four Sarah Bennett Baggs made a superb start and closed in on group leader Will Goff. Chris Scragg in his Aston Martin GT4 had started way back on the grid in 33rd place but he set about catching Will and Sarah in their Aston Martin's and after a busy race Will got back to within one place of Goff. Sarah was less fortunate having been tapped into no less than two spins. It had been a race with action all the way down the field in every Group and it had given the crowd and drivers one of the best races of the day.
Race Two was a different matter entirely. It started well, with Glynn Geddie leading. The racing didn't last long, Lajos Varga in his stunning black Dodge Viper, hit the barriers extremely hard just after the exit to Surtees. This immediately brought out the safety car and the medical team were on the spot within seconds. To everybody's relief Lajos was fine but there was a lot of debris and damage to clear up.
The safety car stayed out for several laps. When the racing eventually got underway again it had become an all out sprint to the end. But we never really saw the end... after a few more laps Hogarth and Geddie went into Surtees in a dramatic side by side passing maneuver with Hogarth on the outside. It was a brave move as Hogarth took to the grass and the back end of the Lamborghini snapped away and the car piled head on into the barriers, coming to rest inches away from the stricken Viper. Once again the medical team were on the spot and Paul Hogarth emerged from a very badly damaged Lamborghini shaken but OK and proving how amazingly strong these cars are built and how vital HANS has become.
By now several yards of barrier had been destroyed and the red flags came out. When the results were sorted out Mike Gardiner had won overall and Group One, Geddie was 2nd and had won Group Two and Mike Donovan was 2nd in Group One and 3rd overall. Jeff Leadley had come 2nd in Group Two just ahead of Andy Ruhan in 3rd. In Group Three Colin Broster won with Fiona James 2nd and Michael Symons 3rd. Will Goff carried on his winning streak in Group Four and despite a rather bruising weekend Sara Bennett-Baggs came home in a very pleasing 2nd place in her Aston Martin N24. There had not really been time for Chris Scragg to catch up from his rather lowly grid position and he came home 3rd. It was something of an anti-climax after such a great weekend.
So after the incredible ‘highs' of race one, the superb paddock atmosphere and the wonderful Saturday night entertainment in the GT Cup Race Center with live music a BBQ and drinks the teams headed home a bit deflated. The next round is at Snetterton on June 13th/ 14th.
The opening round of the 2009 GT Cup took place at Silverstone and was widely praised a resounding success. Organisers, Bute Motorsport and MSVR, were faced with a huge challenge in only two weeks to rearrange the venue and grids after Donington Park failed to obtain the appropriate ‘track licences' to allow racing to take place. Pirelli also rose to the challenge. As sole tyre suppliers to the 2009 GT Cup they were presented with a major technical challenge supplying a wide range of tyres and sizes to suit a grid that ranged from a Lotus Exige to a full blown GT3 Dodge Viper, not to mention Porsches, Ferraris, BMWs, a Morgan Aero 8 and three Aston Martins. There were two 25 minute races preceded by free practice and qualifying. None of the teams reported any tyre problems at all, one team even suggested that the tyres were far too good and he was going so much quicker than before he was overheating the brakes!
The GT Cup comprises four ‘Groups' based on lap time performance with power and minimum weight fixed for each model. Group One looks after the most powerful cars and Group Four the less powerful ones. Group One was quite a spectacle with a Lamborghini Gallardo, Dodge Viper, Porsche 997 GT3S, Ferrari 430 GTS, Aston Martin DBRS9 and a Corvette C5 lined up at the front of the grid. Behind them were a mass of Porsche 996 and 997 GT3 Cup cars, several Ferrari 430 Challenge GT and 360 GT, two more Aston Martins, a Marcos Mantis, two BMW M3s and a Lotus Exige, a Lotus Elise and a Morgan Aero 8...
In Race One thirty two cars headed for a spectacular rolling start in brilliant sunshine. It was the Dodge Viper that took the lead and immediately opened up a very handy gap as the rest of Group One got strung out until they arrived in amongst the back markers. In Group Two a tremendous scrap was shaping up between the experienced Pete Morris and newcomer Glen McMenamin, both in Porsche 997 GT3 Cup cars. In Group Three two newcomers to the series were showing some of the old hands how it should be done and David Mayes and Peter Heinzelman, again in Porsches saw off Marco Pullen in his Ferrari 360 GTC. Probably the biggest smile of the day belonged to Will Goff, driving his Aston Martin GT4, he had a great battle with his team mate Matt Cummings in his small, but rapid, Lotus Exige. As always there was all sorts of action all the way through the field, now one of the great features of GT Cup.
So it was Mike Gardiner and his Viper who won Group One, Glen McMenamin in his Porsche who won Group Two, David Mayes won Group Three in his Porsche 996 GT3 Cup car and finally a beaming Will Goff won Group Four in his Aston Martin.
Race Two began to look like a forgone conclusion when Mike Gardiner opened up another big lead. Paul Hogarth and his Lamborghini ran out of time repairing hub damage incurred in Race One so he was out of the equation. But as the race progressed Mike Gardiner went slower and slower and both Mitch Millett in his Corvette C5 and Michael Donovan in his Porsche caught and passed the ailing Viper. Gardiner's screen had got covered in oil from his ailing engine and he simply couldn't see where he was going! In Group Two Pete Morris was now far better organised and saw off both Leon Price in his Ferrari 430 and McMenamin's Porsche. Group Three became a Porsche ‘lock out' with Peter Heinzelman winning his first race in GT Cup followed by Richard Denny, another newcomer and one of last year's stalwarts Gary Eastwood came third. In Group Four Will Goff rounded of a great weekend when he brought his immaculate Aston home first again followed by David Tomlin in his Ferrari 355 GTB and Michelangelo Segatori in his Lotus Elise.
It had been a fantastic weekend; the weather had been excellent, the tyres behaved superbly, there were scraps going on all the way through the huge field. The 2009 GT Cup is now up and running and heading off to Brands Hatch and the Grand Prix Circuit on May 1st/2nd supporting the closing round of the A1GP.
