Brown back on top as Ginetta G50Z wins overall again
Seventeen-year-old Dan Brown propelled himself back to the top of the Avon
Tyres British GT Championship points standings this afternoon at Rockingham
thanks to a well-judged GT3 class victory in the sixth round of the
championship.
Sharing the Momo-backed Rollcentre Mosler with Gregor Fisken, Brown drove
superbly to snatch the class victory from the hands of David Jones in the
Preci-Spark Ascari on the final lap of the race. But the Brown/Fisken Mosler
wasn't the first car over the line -- that honour went once again to the
Invitation Class Ginetta of Olly Bryant and Joe Osborne, which Osborne
hustled past both the Mosler and the Ascari in the closing laps of the race.
Brown now leads the championship by three points from Saturday GT3 winners
Hector Lester and Allan Simonsen.
Simonsen it was who started from the pole in the Rosso Verde Ferrari, but
any plans he might have had to run away and hide were scuppered by Adam
Wilcox in the VRS Ferrari, who muscled his way past and into the lead at the
Deene hairpin on the opening lap. Shortly after, the pack was bunched up
behind the Safety Car for six laps as the smouldering remains of the Ferrari
of luckless MTECH pairing Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin were removed from
the track, the 430 having caught ablaze.
At the restart Simonsen wasted no time in dispatching Wilcox but, by the
time he pitted on lap 21 to hand over to Lester, his lead was only around 12
seconds, not enough for the Ulsterman to have much hope of maintaining the
lead.
The Rollcentre team played a cannier game, Fisken the first to pit, as soon
as the opportunity arose, to hand over to Brown, who was able to climb
steadily through the field as those ahead made their stops. Lester lost the
lead to the Ascari on lap 24, David Jones having taken over from brother
Godfrey, and on the same lap Hector was pushed back to fourth by Brown and
Phil Burton, who had taken over from Wilcox.
There was a mighty tussle for the lead thereafter between Jones and Brown,
the Mosler clearly having the edge in certain sections of the track. Ten
laps from the end Osborne and the Barwell Ginetta joined the party, the
three cars circulating as if on a short piece of elastic until, with five
laps to go, Osborne dived down the Mosler's inside at the hairpin to snatch
second place. Two laps later some deft out-braking saw Joe snatch the lead
from the Ascari into Brook.
"It was a lunge into the last corner from a couple of lengths back," said
Osborne, who went on to take the chequered flag by a 0.6s margin. "It was a
fairly easy move in the end in what had been a very hard race with a lot of
overtaking." Osborne collected the Sunoco Driver of the Weekend award for
his sterling efforts.
The drama was not yet over for, on the final lap, Brown also managed to find
his way past the Ascari to snatch GT3 class honours for the third time this
season. Brown's driving partner for the weekend, Gregor Fisken, paid this
tribute: "Dan made up a lot of time when he got out on track. I don't think
the podium was ever in much doubt, but we are very pleased to take the win.
He drove magnificently, picked his moment perfectly where the Ascari braked
a bit late, and managed to get through. Today's win was mostly Dan's, I was
just pleased to be along for the ride."
The ABG Motorsport Viper of Aaron Scott and Craig Wilkins collected the
final GT3 podium spot, some consolation for the erstwhile championship
leaders following their Saturday retirement with a failed driveshaft.
Wilcox/Burton took fourth ahead of the Jamie Smyth/Andrew Howard Beechdean
Aston.
GT4 class honours went this time to Hunter Abbott and Gary Simms, whose
Ginetta led almost from the outset.
"I got a good start," said Hunter, "but I left the door open in the hairpin
and Nigel Moore nipped past. Then, about four laps later, he made a slight
mistake into Turn 3, drifted wide and I went up the inside and past him and
never looked back. I handed over to Gary with about three seconds in hand
and he did a good job to bring home the win."
The Abbott/Simms G50 crossed the line five-and-a-half seconds clear of the
championship-leading Nigel Moore/Jody Firth Ginetta, with the car of Mike
Thomas and Ian Stinton collecting third in class.
-credit: bgtc
