Dom Malone and Adam Smalley triumphed in Britcar’s return to the fast and unyielding Wiltshire venue, taking the Race 1 overall victory in the Amspeed Porsche 991 amid some timing confusion.
Race 1 Was Red Flagged and Restarted after Gambrell’s off
With a number of Thruxton virgins in the entry, a welcome 60-minute practice session preceded the official qualifying session, the time-setting 10 minutes of which was on a drying track, with slicks the preferred choice of rubber. Bon Grimes annexed pole in the Ferrari 488, with lone driver Steve Gambrell’s Porsche 991.2 alongside, and Malone’s Porsche on the next row, flanked by Mark Cunningham’s similar machine. Returnee Nathan Wells, driving the Woodrow BMW GTR on his favourite circuit, laid down a marker, bagging fifth overall and the GT Class pole, while there were some surprises at the back of the grid; Chris Murphy’s normally front-running BMW E36, the Dave May/Mark Skeats Ginetta Supercup, which lacked the team personnel to switch to slicks during the short qualifying session, and Datum’s Maurizio Sciglio and Marco Anastasi, in a replacement and underpowered Ginetta GTA in lieu of their regular Supercup machine, which had suffered prop shaft failure and chassis damage in practice.
A Rare Retirement for the Cunninghams’ Porsche 991 Cup
With Asha Silva’s BMW M240i going into limp mode on the formation lap and going straight to the pits for attention, the pack growled round the chicane towards the light gantry, and once let go, Grimes was hotly pursued by Gambrell, and a fast-starting (as usual) Mark Cunningham, who wasted no time in claiming second place half way round the opening lap. Gambrell went off next time around, and with damage to the tyre wall, the race was red-flagged. The race would be totally re-started for a 40-minute encounter, and once again it was Grimes that led away, gradually pulling out a gap on Mark Cunningham, who was keeping ahead of Malone, while Chris Bingham had taken the GT lead in the Raceworks Ginetta ahead of Wells, and David Fielder was trying to get his SGM BMW E36 past a fired-up Caleb McDuff’s Team BRIT McLaren. Five laps in, and simultaneously the lap times for Cunningham’s Porsche and Bingham’s Ginetta went up by two seconds, and they began losing places. Mark Cunningham brought the Porsche in for it’s mandatory stop a little earlier than usual, new rear tyres were fitted, and Peter Cunningham jumped in for a closing stint, but all was not well, new tyres weren’t the answer and he returned to retire the car with a suspected drivetrain issue. A midfield battle saw the TCR Cupras of Rob Ellick and Darren Ball trading places with Callum Bates’ BMW and Johnny MacGregor’s Mazda, squabbling for Trophy honours. Dominic Malone pitted the second-placed Porsche as soon as the window opened, handing over to pro-driver Adam Smalley, likewise Amspeed stablemate Ash Muldoon, being relieved by pro-driver James Kellett, while leader Grimes left it one lap later, the FF Corse team bolting on new rubber for Johnny Mowlem’s closing stint. Lone driver Chris Bingham left it late to make his stop, and once the stops had cycled-out Bingham’s Ginetta was shown as the overall leader, some 45 seconds ahead of Mowlem’s Ferrari, which had just overtaken Smalley’s Porsche for what was assumed to be the race lead.
BMW Were Strongly Represented
There were pit-stop penalties awarded – Malone was just few seconds too early breaking the window beam and the Porsche, now with Smalley at the wheel, got a five-second stop/go, and lone-driver Wells had to be stationary for 24 seconds in the Woodrow GTR. Mowlem pitted the Ferrari too, though this was for another rear tyre, and with seven minutes to go, any chance of victory was dashed. So, according to the timekeepers, Bingham was the winner, and initially took the plaudits, though once the systems and stopwatches had been examined, the official results declared Malone and Smalley the overall winners (and also the Challenge class), with David Fielder the runner-up, and Chris Bingham now third. Johnny Mowlem brought the FF Corse Ferrari home second in the Challenge class, but was merely cruising for a safe finish in the closing laps, followed by James Kellett in the #18 Amspeed Porsche, in much the same mode as Mowlem, after a similarly conservative opening stint by Ash Muldoon. Surprise GT Class winner – at least he was surprised – was David Fielder, though he shouldn’t have been, the lanky forklift supremo had driven his usual assertive race in the SGM-run BMW E36, and was less than a second ahead of Bingham’s Ginetta GT4 on the amended timing- though, despite the timing glitches outside of his control, had driven an exemplary race. Nathan Wells recovered well from his penalty to finish third in the GT category in the glorious Woodrow BMW GTR, now back under the technical management of Woodrow’s Ed Platt, who built the car for Torquespeed way back when.
The TSR Performance Cupra took the TCR Class Win
The Team BRIT McLaren was the fourth GT home, the first time at Thruxton for hearing-impaired Caleb McDuff and wheelchair-user Noah Cosby, with lone driver Martin Addison fifth in the Aston Martin Vantage. Callum Bates took the Trophy victory in the Woodrow BMW E46 – stablemate Chris Murphy was shown as the class leader after the pit-stop period, but it seems that was another piece of mis-information, and he was relegated to third, sandwiching the runner-up Brookspeed/UBIQ BMW M2CSR of Andrew Dawber and pro-driver Nathan Wright, while fourth in class were the ever-improving father-and son duo Steve and James Harrison, in the Max Coates-run High Row Ginetta G56 GTA, and wastegate issues thwarted any chance of a good result for Josh Tomlinson in the MacG Mazda that originally fought for the class lead in Johnny McGregor’s hands, finishing eight laps down. The standalone Ginetta class win went to the 118 Rescue Supercup machine of Dave May and Mark Skeats. Skeats had to stave off an ambitious challenge from Nick Casey towards the end of the race, but finished nearly three seconds ahead at the flag, while spare a thought for third-placed Maurizio Sciglio and Marco Anastasi – 60hp down in a replacement Ginetta GTA, this was points-bagging exercise for the usually class-winning duo. Darren Ball put in his usual spirited performance to claim the TCR Class victory on the road, but a post-race penalty dropped him behind the TSR Cupra of Rob Ellick and Fynn Jones, who had enjoyed a race-long tussle with Ball’s Capture Motorsport Cupra anyway, while an off-circuit excursion for Ash Woodman’s EDF-run Gen 2 machine just minutes from the end prevented him from taking the flag. An assertive push in the in the second half of the race gave Craig Fleming the Cup Class win in the TSR Audi TT started by Mark Jones, finishing ahead of brothers Jamie and Chris Hayes’ Seat Supercopa, and the Team BRIT BMW240i of Asha Silva and Bobby Trundley.
Challenge Class and Overall Win for Malone and Smalley
Full results are available from TSL Timing (PDF file).
Words: Steve Wood; Photos: Chris Valentine, Steve Jackman and Paul Cherry.