Reigning champion David Ashburn and his co-driver Richard Westbrook claimed their second win of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship this morning at Spa-Francorchamps, their Trackspeed Porsche beating the Duncan Cameron/Matt Griffin MTech Ferrari to the checkered flag by 2.5s after an hour of fraught action. In GT4, Dan Denis and David McDonald claimed their first class victory for the Scuderia Vittoria team.
Westbrook sealed his victory thanks to some deft pitwork by the Trackspeed team and masterly handling of the traffic by the driver. A mid-race safety car period – brought into play when cars from some of the other championships involved in the race fell by the wayside – gave all the frontrunners the opportunity to pit together for their driver changes; Westbrook took over in front after the stops and handled the restart perfectly to pull a five-second gap over Griffin.
Though Matt whittled that advantage down to less than a second in the closing laps, and even managed briefly to nose ahead, his effort came too late to prevent Westbrook’s victory. “It was the safety car which killed us because Westie somehow managed to put a lapped car between him and me,” said Griffin. “We lost five seconds at the restart as a result and I pushed very hard to catch him, maybe hurting my tires a little in the process. I made a good passing maneuver on him at Les Combes, but it was too slippery to hold it and he got me back.”
Cameron had put in a solid first stint in the MTech Ferrari, pitting from third behind the Ashburn/Westbrook Porsche and the new McLaren MP4-12C, which was making its international track debut as an non-points scoring invitation class runner. Chris Goodwin held the lead in the CRS Racing-run McLaren all the way to the 10th lap, before surrendering top spot to Ashburn and following him into the pits.
After the stops the McLaren held fifth for a lap before contact with another car resulted in a spin and a considerable loss of time. The MP4-12C was classified 12th overall.
Westbrook put the team’s victory down to good traffic management: “The Porsche isn’t really a match for a well-driven Ferrari 458, so you have to do as much as can; use your head, make a break with the traffic and that’s the only way we can compete. It was a good race, and in the end I just had enough. Matt was eating into my lead at the end… It was tough. It’s always nice to win, and all credit to David for bringing the car into the pits in the lead.”
The CRS Racing Ferrari 458 of father-and-son pairing Jim and Glynn Geddie claimed third, Jim driving well in the early laps to haul the car up from eighth on the grid to fifth before the stops; Glynn soon moved into third and closed down on the leaders to cross the line only 5s behind.
Andrew Tate and Alex Mortimer were another pairing to make good progress from a lowly grid slot, converting 12th on the grid to fourth at the line, ahead of the Andrew Howard/Jonathan Adam Beechdean Aston Martin, which picked off the faltering Trackspeed Porsche of Gregor Fisken/Tim Bridgman on the penultimate lap. Bridgman’s sixth became seventh on the final lap when he was passed by the United Autosports Audi of Mike Guasch/Matt Bell.
Phil Burton/Adam Wilcox claimed eighth in the Predator CCTV Ferrari, just ahead of the Ron Johnson/Piers Johnson Speedworks Corvette, which enjoyed a strong and reliable run to ninth and the team’s first points of the year. Godfrey and David Jones, the only front-runners not to pit at the start of the safety car period, completed the top 10 in the Preci-Spark Mercedes.
For once everything went right for the Scuderia Vittoria GT4 pairing of Dan Denis and David McDonald; Denis started from the pole in the Ginetta G50 and led comfortably all the way to the stops, and McDonald maintain the gap over the pursuing Ginetta of Josh Wakefield and Jake Rattenbury to score a handsome class victory, the duo’s first of the season.
“My qualifying yesterday was fantastic,” said Denis. “I got a good start and built a comfortable lead, and my pace was good. I was a bit worried when the safety car came out that I would lose my big lead but the team did a great job in the pits and David drove quickly and sensibly. It’s great finally to get a win.”
The British GT Championship is sponsored by UK tyre manufacturer Avon Tyres and is further supported by Sunoco Racing Fuels, Anglo American Oil Company and OAMPS.
Avon Tyres British GT Championship
Provisional results, Round 5
Spa-Francorchamps 9/7/2011
22 laps/95.75 miles
GT3 & overall
1 Trackspeed Porsche David Ashburn/Richard Westbrook 1h 0m 13.778s / 95.38mph
2 MTECH Ferrari Duncan Cameron/Matt Griffin (IRL) +2.520s
3 CRS Racing Ferrari Jim Geddie/Glynn Geddie +5.189s
4 CRS Racing Ferrari Andrew Tate/Alex Mortimer +17.102s
5 Beechdean Aston Martin Andrew Howard/Jonny Adam +17.876s
6 United Autosports Audi Mike Guasch (USA)/Matt Bell +19.687s
7 Trackspeed Porsche Gregor Fisken/Tim Bridgman +22.913s
8 Predator CCTV Ferrari Phil Burton/Adam Wilcox +38.971s
9 Speedworks Motorsport Corvette Ron Johnson/Piers Johnson +39.553s
10 Preci-Spark Mercedes David Jones/Godfrey Jones +40.036s etc
Looking for more? Have a look below.
- Trackspeed’s Ashburn & Westbrook top second practice at Spa-Francorchamps
- Trackspeed Porsche’s 3rd & 4th in first practice from Spa
- British GT: Scuderia Vittoria, Trackspeed share Oulton Park poles
- British GT: Westbrook leads second practice with Trackspeed Porsche
- British GT: Ferrari, Porsche, Audi in first practice from Oulton Park
