British GT finale- Ecurie Ecosse win but it’s TF sport for the GT3 title

The field gets away (Photo by Marc Waller)

The field gets away (Photo by Marc Waller)Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse’s Alasdair McCaig and Rob Bell ended their British GT season on a high last weekend by winning the two-hour season finale at Donington Park.

But, it was TF Sport’s Derek Johnston and Jonny Adam who had the biggest celebrations after claiming both the GT3 drivers’ and teams’ crowns.

The duo overcame their 11.5-point deficit in the drivers’ standings by finishing second after former leaders Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen crashed out with just 35 minutes gone, while Jon Minshaw was at the wheel. Team Parker Racing’s Rick Parfitt Jnr and Seb Morris completed the podium to seal third in the final standings, only a win would have given them a chance at the title.

While Johnston claimed the championship at the same location that he took his maiden GT3 victory 12 months earlier, Adam made British GT history by becoming the first driver to successfully defend his crown in the championship’s entire 24 year history.

Elsewhere, this was Bell’s first British GT victory in any class since he and brother Matt won in GT4 at Silverstone in 2010, while McCaig took only his second ever GT3 class win, the first being alongside Oliver Bryant at Oulton Park in 2012. It was also only the McLaren 650S’s second ever British GT victory – its first win coming at Silverstone last season – and Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse won for the first time since Brands Hatch in 2015. (When they were run by Barwell.)

Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse and McLaren’s finale weekend was doubly good after their GT4 entry driven by Sandy Mitchell and Ciaran Haggerty also won in GT4, also the cars second ever British GT victory.

The race started with a crash on the first lap when the other TF Sport Aston Martin of Mark Farmer collided with Liam Griffin’s Barwell run Lamborghini. While the Lamborghini was able to continue, after a pitstop for a punctured right rear tyre, Farmer’s afternoon was over almost before it had begun. Fortunately the other TF sport car stayed out of trouble in front.

The Safety Car stayed out for just two laps before the battle resumed. Leader Johnston initially came under pressure from McCaig, who’d lined up alongside him on the front row, while Minshaw and Parfitt Jnr made it a four-way battle for the lead. But with a 15-second pit-stop success penalty to serve Johnston had to push on and soon started to pull out a gap from his pursuers.

Minshaw, in the championship leading Demon Tweeks Lamborghini was soon clear of Parfitt Jnr’s Bentley and now had McCaig in his sights. But as the pair approached a slower GT4 car through the Craner Curves, the championship leader misjudged his move to lap the car and ran wide onto the grass. This speared him back across the track, narrowly missing other cars and into the Old Hairpin gravel. Minshaw and Keen’s race was over and their chance at a championship win was now slim at best with the TF Sport Aston needing to finish seventh or worse for the Demon Tweeks duo to hang onto the crown.

But things were going well for Johnston, he completed his opening stint 17 seconds ahead of McCaig. But with the Aston’s success penalty meaning a longer stop the McLaren emerged from the pits – now in the hands of Bell – several seconds ahead. Not that Jonny Adam was bothered as he took over in the TF Sport car. After setting a new GT3 lap record, he took it relatively easy as he drove the car to the flag, 8.1 seconds behind the race winning Mclaren.

The Mclaren duo were delighted to take their first 2016 win at the last event;

McCaig;

“I was right up with Derek at the start but my rear tyre grip dropped off quite quickly so he got away. Then it was a case of managing the gap because we knew they’d have a time penalty to serve. I brought it home for Rob who did an excellent job getting it to the end. This is a great way to finish the season. We were hoping to have a few more podiums this year but it hasn’t worked out that way. I hadn’t raced here since 2012 and we didn’t do any testing either, so this just proves what we can do when things go our way and also sets us up for next year.”
Bell enjoyed his stint;

The TF sport duo cruised to the championship. (Photo by Marc Waller) Johnston welcomes Adam back as the 2016 champions (Photo by Marc Waller) Ginetta found themselves visiting the pits too often (Photo by Marc Waller) The Bentley boys had too much to do but they werent disapointed (Photo by Marc Waller)

 

 

 

“It’s a great way to finish the year, but also a relief that we’ve put it all together here. The car was good and Alasdair did a great job, too. We like the circuit but felt a little bit anxious before the weekend for various reasons. But it panned out in the end. I was able to build a decent gap after the stops, but then I didn’t have a championship to worry about and could get my head down. I really enjoyed it.”

Morris had now taken over from Parfitt Jr in the Bentley and nothing less than a win would give them any chance of the championship. Sadly they could do no better than third, 2.5 seconds off the TF Sport Aston Martin.

Parfitt Jr was reflective on their season;

“When all is said and done we’ve had a good season. I think there were a few factors that cost us dear, but that’s racing. We were a new pairing with a new car at the start of the year, so we can still be proud to have been in the championship fight at the final round. I think I said at the start I’d have been happy with a top-five, so third is amazing. I’m happy with that.”
The Beechdean Aston duo of Rory Butcher and Andrew Howard had one of the drives of the day coming from eleventh and last of the GT3 runners to fourth. The drive earned Howard the Blancpain Gentleman Driver of the Weekend Award.

The battle between Tolman and Motorbase didnt end well (Photo by Marc Waller) The Demon tweeks car tracks second place soon they be out (Photo by Marc Waller) Champion under attack (Photo by Marc Waller)

 

 

 

Barwell’s day had gone from bad to worse with Griffin’s accident and then Minshaw spinning out meaning their chances of retaining the GT3 teams’ title went from likely to impossible over the space of half an hour. Alexander Sims eventually brought some cheer when he took the Number 6 Lamborghini to fifth after passing top Am class driver Martin Short late on.

Team ABBA had a good day though still taking sixth even though they received a penalty for a pitstop infringement. The result secured the duo of Martin Short and Richard Neary the Am class title. A title for Rollcentre racing (The people behind Team ABBA) was a great return to British GT after many years away.

Ian Stinton and Mike Simpson’s Tolman Ginetta had been fastest in Saturday’s wet practie sessions but a dry Sunday took away any chance of a win with the car being off the pace in the dry.

Despite this they ran fifth in the early stages before suffering a puncture when Phil Dryburgh drove the Motorbase Aston into the rear of the Ginetta. The resulting damage to the Aston put it out of the race as the engine failed. The Tolman car still took seventh just ahead of the sister car driven by Luke Davenport and David Pattison who also had problems with punctures!

The 2016 British GT3 champions:

GT3 drivers’ champions: Derek Johnston and Jonny Adam
GT3 teams’ champions: TF Sport
GT3 Pro-Am champions: Derek Johnston and Jonny Adam
GT3 Silver Cup champions: Will Moore and Ryan Ratcliffe
GT3 Am champions: Richard Neary and Martin Short
Blancpain Gentleman Driver Trophy winner: Derek Johnston
We’ll leave the last words in the GT3 report to the new champions;

First Derek Johnston;

“I had Jonny in my ear every single lap saying ‘gap, gap, gap’! It wasn’t about position because I knew I was out front. Even when I saw Jon [Minshaw] had gone off I was still pushing hard. I do love Donington; it’s always been good to me, whether I’ve been racing bikes or cars. But we did it again, and it feels fantastic!”

Jonny Adam was happy to make up for the disapointments of Snetterton;

“I had never been so disappointed to finish fourth and second as we did at Snetterton, but we knew what we had to do this weekend and have attacked from the word go. People can crumble in these situations, and we saw that today. Derek did the hard work to be fair, but it still felt like the longest stint of my life: 63 minutes of listening to every noise the car was making and just hoping for the best! It’s tough on brakes here so I concentrated on monitoring the gaps and generally looking after the car.”  By Marc Waller

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