British GT: Beechdean Dominant In Snetterton Race Two

Following a red flag delay, Beechdean Aston Martin pairing Jonny Adam and Andrew Howard converted pole to victory in the second race at Snetterton to keep their title hopes on track, as chief rival Marco Attard hit trouble.  Having stamped his authority on the field by qualifying five tenths quicker than anybody, Adam immediately set about building a gap over the second-placed FF Corse Ferrari of category debutant Adam Carroll to over eight seconds before his pitstop, leaving Howard to stroke it home unchallenged for his first win of the season.

Adam and Howard celebrate their first win of the year
in race two at Snetterton. (Own photo)

“We’ve been strong all weekend, but the cooler temperatures there really made the car perfect,” said Adam. “I felt good before the red flag came out and I knew the car was there, it was a good clean stint. We really needed those 25 points so I’m really happy. Andrew drove really well all weekend and it’s definitely put us in a strong position for the championship now.”

Behind the defending champions, Carroll and Gary Eastwood finished a strong second ahead of the Strata 21 Aston Martin of Paul White and touring car convert Tom Onslow-Cole, who benefitted from the success penalties handed out to the top three finishers in the previous race to score their first podium of the season. With Marco Attard plummeting to tenth in the closing stages, race one winners John Minshaw and Phil Keen completed a remarkable weekend with a fourth place despite their 15-second success penalty, the Trackspeed Porsche passing Mark Poole, Lee Mowle and Ian Dockerill having resumed only eighth from its pitstop.

Adam Carroll impressed en-route to second in the FF Corse Ferrari. (Own photo)

After disqualification from a third place finish in race one, Triple 8’s Luke Hines was pushing to get among that group but was involved in a heavy accident at Riches on lap two that turned his day from bad to worse. Hines, along with Aston Martin drivers John Gaw and Andy Schulz were all eliminated in the incident, which brought out the red flags and necessitated a half hour delay while repairs were carried out to the tyre wall, although all three drivers were thankfully okay.

“I was on the inside of Andy coming into Riches. They’ve changed the profile slightly so it’s tighter on exit and you tend to brake a little bit earlier to rotate the car. As we both braked to make the corner, the Aston of John Gaw went pretty much flat chat into my front right corner and went over the top of me, collecting Andy and putting him in the wall. The impact was so severe, you’ve got two cars with a lot of damage that have gone in the wall at over 100 mph. You just can’t go into a corner that hard and that fast and use other cars as a brake,” Hines said.

“I’ve had all the highs and lows in one day; from one minute a nice third place that closed us up in the championship to now coming away with minus 12 points.” 

John Gaw's Aston was rather the worse for wear after its
 meeting with the Riches tyre wall. (Own photo)

Meanwhile, Bradley Ellis and Adrian Barwick took GT4 honours for the second time this season after the early leaders Team Parker Racing faded following the handover from Mobil 1 Driver of the Weekend Dan Cammish to Barrie Baxter. Barwick's Twisted Team Parker Ginetta had looked to be under threat from Andrew Jarman’s TF Sport Aston before mechanical gremlins struck in the closing laps, opening the way for Century Motorsport to claim second and third for Tom Oliphant/ Rick Parfitt Jr. and Morten Dons/ Aleksander Schjerpen. A stop-go penalty for a too-short pitstop cost Beechdean any chance of a podium, but Jarman’s woes meant Ross Wylie and Jake Giddings would still recover to fourth and retain their hold on the championship lead heading to the next round at Spa.

“The pitstop time from pit in to pit out was too short by 0.7 seconds, but I guess rules are rules and they’re there to be enforced,” reflected Giddings. “It’s obviously disappointing, but the car’s come back in one piece and we still come away with the championship lead because of the problems for the other Aston [of Jarman], so it’s not all bad at the end of the day.

“From the start of the weekend, the Ginettas have really kept us on our toes; we haven’t got the front end aero that they have, so it’s been a question of backing them up and firing it out the corner to try and keep them behind. But I think the car will be really good at Spa; it’s got lots of nice straights for it to stretch its legs and we won’t have the penalty going for the pitstops, so I’m really looking forward to it.”