Lone driver Dean Burden, in a Toro Verde Porsche Cayman, took the win in the season-opener, which was blighted somewhat by attrition and four Safety Car interventions, which compromised strategies and led to non-indicative performances. The overall win couldn’t have been forecast from the qualifying results; the KTM X Bow GTX of Tom Walpole and the similar GT4 EVO machine of Robert Taylor sandwiched Mark Cunningham’s Porsche 991.2 on the timesheets for the front of the grid, while Bobby Trundley’s Team BRIT McLaren 570S topped the GT category ahead of Burden, a somewhat surprised Chris Boardman (the ace Amspeed engineer drafted into driving duty in the BMW M3 after a three-year hiatus), and the second Toro Verde Cayman of Matthew Briers. “We just haven’t got the pace of the KTMs” rued Cunningham before the start – as it turned out, it wasn’t those he needed to worry about.
Dad-and-Son team the Cunninghams in their Porsche 991 Cup
Despite his reputation for fast starts, Cunningham was unable to get a jump on Walpole as the field barrelled into Redgate from the rolling start, and the pair were equi-spaced with Taylor in third as they progressed around the opening lap, pulling a gap on the rest of the field. But it wouldn’t last for long – coming out of Goddards, no doubt caught out by cold tyres, the leading KTM span and speared backwards into the pit entrance wall; game over, with the pit entrance blocked and the deployment of the Safety Car. With the caution in place for the next six laps, we’ll break here to mention the stunning unique-in-the-UK Dallara Stradale Evo, an open-cockpit two seater driven by Dallara UK director Jamie Falvey, who also coaches the Team BRIT drivers; an impressive showing in testing and practice was followed by an undisclosed issue in qualifying, and now, starting from the back of the grid, Falvey was already midfield when the SC boards came out.
The pit window opened as the field went green again, and some early-stoppers came in – Rob Ellick’s Cupra (sadly into retirement), Matthew Briers handing over the green Toro Verde Porsche to pro-driver Charlie Hollings, and Martin Addison, who would be double-stinting in his Aston Martin. But the green flag running would only last for two laps before further drama; first, the second-placed KTM of Rob Taylor slowed and dropped down the order (more on this later), then Colin White’s CWS Ginetta suffered drive shaft failure coming out of Goddards, causing Michael Knibbs’ similar machine to take to the grass along the pit straight, then clashing with Noah Cosby’s Team BRIT BMW GT4, both ending up in the Redgate gravel. A seven-lap caution this time, and with the race just under one-third distance many elected to make their first mandatory stop, though those that needed to refuel would have to wait until the caution was lifted, a rule that eluded Rob Taylor’s team, or maybe it was a needs-must after the KTM slowed dramatically a lap earlier – a 60-second stop/go penalty added to their woes. Dean Burden had managed an in-out pit stop during a single Safety Car lap, and taken the lead in the process, while staying on track, and keeping to a strategy were, Will Ashmore in the Army Sportscart Ginetta, Falvey’s Dallara showing it’s true pace, and young Michael Wheeler’s McLaren. Just one two laps of green flag running were possible before the next Safety Car deployment – Rob Taylor had spun the KTM into the gravel at Coppice, and whilst it was recovered by live snatch, their race was over. And then we had nine clear laps of racing; Burden retained his lead into the next stop, and still came out in front of Mark Cunningham, who had taken the SG Racing Porsche over from dad Peter’s middle stint, and it was here, again, that the Cunningham Porsche got caught in the wrong part of the next Safety Car crocodile. Chris Hayes had got the JLC Group SuperCopa up to fifth overall, and the Trophy class lead, but had spun into the gravel at Melbourne – four laps under the Safety Car this time. The field went green again with just over 12 minutes to go, and Mark Cunningham, in the middle of the pack and the best p[art of a lap adrift of leader Burden, was off like a robber’s dog, taking four seconds a lap out of the lead, but time was running out, and Burden, with no radio and little idea of his lead gap, took the neatly lined-out black GT-Invitation class Toro Verde Porsche across the line with just over a minute to spare over the Challenge class points scoring Cunninghams, who had one of their best performances in the SG Racing Porsche 991.2, though blighted by being wrongly-placed in track position during the Safety Car interventions. Third overall, and bagging the top GT class points, was the rejuvenated Team BRIT partnership of Bobby Trundley and Aaron Morgan, their McLaren always being in the hunt, and they were 17 seconds ahead of the 118 Ginetta of Dave May and Mark Skeats, who had a trouble-free run and saw May particularly racy with stablemate Marco Anastasi in the opening laps. Anastasi, partnered as usual by Maurizio Sciglio, had a less happy race in their Ginetta, taking four stops and dropping down to 13th in class. Fourth in GT was lone driver Julian McBride, who races with a disability, in an adapted Geoff Steel BMW E46,and had performed well in his Britcar debut, and just kept ahead of the Briers/Hollings Cayman, which made a last-gasp dash and was just 0.318 adrift at the flag. The Army Sportscar Racing Ginetta had led the class at one point, but the line-up of Will Ashmore, Jonathan Candler and Joshua Gilding were hit with a massive 41-second stop/go for a short pit stop (yes, the old chestnut of interpreting 129 seconds as 1m29s), and finished sixth in class.
Previously Porsche race Simon Clarke’s splendid new McLaren
The Aston Martin of Martin and Bill Addison was the next GT finisher, dad Bill doing well in his single-stint return to racing, ahead of the Amspeed BMW of ace spannerman Chris Boardman and Matthew Sanders, while Simon Clark got stymied by the caution periods compromising his refuelling strategy in the Form Evo McLaren, the same issue befalling stablemates Richard and Michael Wheeler in the similar Brisky Racing machine, which finished a couple of places lower. The JWA Ginetta of David Ward and Andy Cummings finished 10th in class, while two further Ginettas returned to the track to complete the race, the Knibbs/Hills car following recovery from the gravel, and the CWS team got Colin White back out after fixing the drive shaft.
The demise of the KTMs reduced the Challenge finishers to three, the Cunninghams being four laps ahead of Nick Hull and Richard Avery, not in their planned Porsche, but in a replacement Trophy-class Cupra, though running as a Challenge car to garner some points, while Jamie Falvey’s Dallara expired before the end but was classified, the fastest lap of the race indicating what might have been.
Birthday boy Freddie Ingram was set for a Trophy class victory, but a mechanical failure after his second pit stop in the Vortice Ginetta saw him severely disgruntled, while team mate Archie Buttle made the bottom step of the class podium. Victory in the Trophy class then went to the Ginetta of Carl Garnett and Finn Leslie, a great result for the Project 29.7 team run by Alex Miller and Paul O’Neil, with the similar car of Ian and Elliot Wilson the class runner-up. Lone driver Greg Saunders finished just off the class podium in the Capture Motorsport Cupra, ahead of championship newcomers Henry Swanson and Bruno Costa in the Racecar Experience Peugeot 308.
Chris Murphy’s BMW
Former Britcar Production champion Ian Lawson had no ambition in his 25-year old title-winning BMW 320i other than to “give the old girl a run and have a bit of fun”, which is exactly what he did, a displaced transmission plug in qualifying not affecting his finishing six laps down, while Ash Woodman was visibly annoyed at the last lap spin in his new Ligier. The TSR Audi TT of Mark Jones and Craig Fleming sadly retired in the last 15 minutes of the race, and Chris Murphy, after the usual ace pit-stop strategy from the Woodrow team, retired his BMW just before the hour ticked over.
Words: Steve Wood, photos: Chris Valentin, Steve Jackman and Paul Cherry
Overall podium