Round 2 - Thruxton – 8th May 2010
Tue 18 May 2010
For the first time in its history The GT Cup visited the 2.4 mile Thruxton Circuit, which is one of the longest, fastest tracks in the UK.
The infamous English Summer was playing its usual tricks and the weather was windy and cold with the added bonus of rain being forecast. This made the conditions for qualifying particularly difficult since the circuit was damp enough to be slippery. But with a drying line beginning to appear it was Jeff Leadley in his Ferrari 430 GTC who took pole, less than half a second ahead of Alex Martin who in turn was half a second ahead of Jim Geddie...this was going to be close.
In Group Two Marco Pullen, normally a front runner, never found any space in the traffic and found himself well back down the grid. Pole man in Group Two was Michael Dwane in his Ferrari 360 Challenge followed by Keith Webster who was just 0.04 secs behind in his BMW M3 E36. This was all proof, if it was ever needed, that this year's equalisation formula is working well.
In Group Three David Hathaway and his Ferrari 360 Challenge had another excellent qualifying and was well ahead of Adrian Watt in his BMW M3 E36 who in turn was well clear of the Honda NSX of David Fenn.
Unlike at opening round at Silverstone the rolling start for race one was a much tidier affair and it was Alex Martin who ‘got the jump' on Jeff Leadley . It was a great start and Alex Martin was revelling in the wide open spaces of Thruxton and by lap two he had set the fastest lap of the race with an impressive 1:17.765 or 109.06mph average speed. Just as at Silverstone Danny Winstanley was hurling his TVR Tuscan around with tremendous verve.. it was sensational seeing him leaping through the Club chicane. The gaps between the first three in Group One remained fairly constant.
In Group Two it was Keith Webster who was on the pace opening out a good lead over David Back and the Colin Mowle KTM XBow. The XBow was remarkably quick on this ‘power' circuit. Further back in Group Two one of the best scraps of the day was going on between the Porsches of Rupert Martin and Francis Galashan. By the end of the race it was Galashan who just beat Martin by less than a second!
Anybody who thought Thruxton wouldn't suit the smaller lighter cars like the XBow forgot to tell Tom Andrew who had a great race, coming home first in Group Three ahead of David Botterill in his now famous Porsche 944 Turbo, but he was only half a second ahead of the Lotus Exige of Doug Setters.
On lap twelve everything changed when Jeff Leadley went off as he came up Woodham Hill into Club. It was a big accident that brought out the red flags and the race was stopped. The emergency services were on the spot almost immediately and Jeff was taken to hospital by ambulance. As a result the Clerk of The Course had no option but to shorten the programme and so race two of the GT Cup was cancelled.
Tragically Jeff later succumbed to his injuries and died in hospital on the following Tuesday. The thoughts of the staff at Bute Motorsport are with his wife and family and FF Corse and their drivers.
Championship Points overall after two Rounds and three Races:-
| Keith Webster | BMW E36 | 93pts |
| Marco Pullen | Ferrari 360 GTC | 92pts |
| Jim Geddie | Porsche 997 GT3 Cup | 91pts |
Group Points after two rounds and three races:-
Group One
| Jim Geddie | Porsche 997 GT3 Cup | 91pts |
| Alex Martin | Porsche 997 GT3 Cup | 87pts |
| Danny Winstanley | TVR Tuscan | 86pts |
Group Two
| Keith Webster | BMW E36 | 93pts |
| Marco Pullen | Ferrari 360 GTC | 92pts |
| Mick Dwane | Ferrari 360 Challenge | 80pts |
Group Three
| Tom Andrew | KTM XBow | 77pts |
| David Botterill | Porsche 944 Turbo | 76pts |
| David Hathaway | Ferrari 360 Challenge | 75pts |
Full results can be found at www.tsl-timing.com/msvr/2010/101851.pdf
