Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen completed a perfect start to their 2017 British GT campaign when they took their Demon Tweeks Lamborghini Hurracan to another win.
While in GT4 Lanan Racing took the win after the race when the Black Bull Mclaren lost the win through a post race penalty.
The race ended under the safety car after a huge accident between Ian Loggie’s Bentley and Richard Neary’s Mercedes.
The start of the race was very much like the first of the day as the Demon Tweeks Lamborghini swept off into the lead once more. This time the track was much dryer but Keen made a great start in the Lamborghini to streak past the Team Parker Bentley on pole. Morris’ team mate Callum Macloed also got past Seb Morris before he got his Bentley going.
Morris then tried to repass Macleod at Hislops on lap two, only to misjudge the move and spin his team mate off instead! He was later given a drive-through penalty for the unfortunate move. TF Sport took advantage to move up to second with Jon Barnes at the wheel. The other TF Sport car was fourth with Jonny Adam at the wheel. This became third when the second Barwell Lamborghini with Sam Tordoff at the wheel was forced to retire. Team-mates Adam and Barnes then battles for second. But up ahead Phill Keen had a 14 second lead, more than enough to counteract the team’s “success penalty” of ten seconds during the pit stop. Minshaw then pulled out the gap once more aided by Mark Farmer taking a trip across the grass in the front running TF Sport Aston. This lost him second place to the sister car now with Derek Johnston at the wheel.
Phil Keen was happy with how his race had gone in the Demon Tweeks car;
“I guess Seb [Morris] had a problem at the start because the Bentley seemed to be coughing and spluttering. It didn’t look like he was going anywhere so I just waited for the lights to go out and nipped through before getting my head down. After that it was a simple case of avoiding the wet patches. I pushed hard to make up the 10s we knew we’d lose at the stop, and Jon brought it home from there. He’s driven brilliantly this weekend.”
Then came the huge accident between Loggie and Neary, with Loggie mis-judging a pass causing the Bentley to slide on the grass and into the Bentley before both cars slammed into the tyre wall before bouncing out and blocking the track.
This handed fourth to Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin in their Ferrari. The other Team Parker Bentley of Parfitt Jr and Morris salvaged something with fifth. They also won the fastest lap of the weekend award from championship sponsor and supplier Sunoco.
Jack Mitchell and James Littlejohn too sixth in their Macmillian Aston ahead of AMD Tuning’s AMG Mercedes with Lee Mowle taking over from Ryan Ratcliffe in the second part of the race.
AMD Tuning won the team of the weekend award for their rapid repair of the team Mercedes after it’s troubles in race one.
In GT4, it was the Black Bull Garage 59 Mclaren that took the win on the track but it was Lanan Racing’s duo of Alex Reed and David Pittard that was awarded the win after the Black Bull team failed to stop for long enough in their pitstop and so they had thirty seconds added to their race time.
They weren’t the only ones as Macmillan’s William Philips and Jan Jonck were also penalised in the same way giving In2Racing’s Marcus Hoggarth and Mathew Graham second place from the PMW Expo Racing Ginetta of Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson. It meant that Johnson and Robinson keep up their Oulton Podium record.
The championship’s only female race this season, Anna Walewska, had a difficult race two after fifth in class in the first race. But it was her team mate Mike Simpson who experienced the trouble while he was in their car. He collided with Ciaran Haggerty’s Mclaren at the start. The Mclaren was then also hit by Martin Plowman’s Nissan and then also Joe Osbounres Mclaren. Osbournes car was forced off the track when it’s bonnet smashed open. Haggerty’s car cut out in the collisions and he had to restart the engine before continuing.
Simpsons torubles in the Bolton University car weren’t over though as he was then hit by the Team Parker racing Porsche Cayman driven by Scott Malvern with both cars spinning off the track at Cascades.
This had left the Ultratek Nissan of Plowman in the lead ahead of race one GT4 winner track-club. The Black Bull Mclaren however had pitted early for tyres which would have given them the win if it wasn’t for their penalty. They were unable to serve it on track when the race was cut short and so they found themselves with the post race thirty second penalty.
So second placed Reed and Pittard found themselves with the win. Reed was happy to win after his off earlier in the race;
“I thought I’d thrown away the win by spinning when Sandy came past but then hoped the Safety Car might give us a second chance. Then my engineer said the McLaren had been penalised and I couldn’t believe it! I hope the TV caught my spin because it’s probably the highlight of my year – a proper 360 at Druids that I somehow gathered up. I got very, very lucky with that. Crazy day for everyone.”
Hoggarth was happy to take the In2Racing Mclaren to fourth on the road which became second after the penalties;
“That was a mega GT4 race with a little bit of a mega GT3 race thrown in! I came out of the pits just ahead of Graham [Johnson] so I had to get on with it! The McLaren’s a great car but, importantly, it’s very easy to drive. It looks after you. Matty also did a great job in his stint by going from 12th to fourth. Mega effort.”
The second Black Bull Mclaren of Dean Mcdonald and Akhil Rabindra took fifth ahead of Balon and Mackay who had won race one.
Anna Walewska managed to drag the very battered Ginetta home after she took over from Simpson but the heavy damage to the car left it uncompetitive and they finished well down the order. By Marc Waller
