British GT: Trackspeed Win To Deny Attard In Snetterton Race One

John Minshaw and Phil Keen took their first win of the year in the in race one at Snetterton to deny championship leader Marco Attard and new team-mate Jonny Cocker. Paired with the 2004 series champion in the absence of regular co-driver Alexander Sims, called up by BMW for the Nurburgring 24 Hours, Attard led comfortably in the early stages from pole ahead of the fast-starting Jody Firth and his Trackspeed team-mate Minshaw, but their five-second success penalty carried over from Silverstone meant they resumed just behind Keen. Cocker gave it his level best and shadowed Keen throughout his stint, but just wasn’t able to pass as the Porsche’s traction off the corners kept him just out of reach.

Minshaw and Keen are congratulated by fellow podium finishers
Attard and Hines, although the latter's position was not to stand. (Own photo)

“It was all looking good, we just needed two more seconds and we probably would have been okay,” rued Attard. “If we hadn’t had our five second success penalty from the last race, we would have been laughing, but all the same we’re really happy with second. We just don’t want to get too many!”

After taking over from Firth, Warren Hughes struggled to keep pace with the leaders but was still set for third, ahead of the chasing Triple 8 BMWs, before a wishbone failure condemned the Geordie to retirement. 

“The rear-wheel was flapping around and suddenly it wanted to turn left,” Hughes reported. “They would have caught me, because we’re carrying 75 kilos of extra ballast, but I would have defended it hard and I don’t think they would have got past. We’ve got decent traction and great torque out of the corners, so there’s always that extra bit of breathing space ahead of the cars behind that have that extra aero. But it’s not a write-off; anything can happen in the next one with incidents and a good first lap. The starting position will make it a lot more difficult for us and I’ll be surprised if we can get in the top 6, but who knows, we’ll just have to see what kind of result we can get.”

Lee Mowle congratulates Joe Osborne on fastest lap. (Own photo)

Hughes’ disappointment initially played into the hands of Luke Hines and Derek Johnston, before a post-race disqualification for Johnston's earlier contact with the Pasin Lathouras Ferrari promoted the sister car of Lee Mowle and Joe Osborne, who also took the race's fastest lap.

“Fastest lap is always a vanity project, there’s no point attached to it, but it’s a cool thing to have," said Osborne, when interviewed before news of the penalty had been announced. "Lee started 11^th and did a mega job, he pitted to me in 7^th so it was up to me to see how high we could get it. Third was definitely achievable, but we just ran out of laps in the end. I had one opportunity with using a GT4 car, but it just all got a bit messy and I got a bit sideways so I had to back off. It’s got to be a calculated risk as there aren’t many obvious overtaking spots around here and you’ve got to be really careful with a team-mate, but it’s a really positive result."

Rick Parfitt Jr. sprays the champagne as Yusuf and Kershaw celebrate victory. (Own photo)

In GT4, local man Gavan Kershaw and Oz Yusuf were victorious in their Lotus Evora, capitalizing on clutch problems for early leaders Century Motorsport during their pitstop which dropped Rick Parfitt Jr. and Tom Oliphant behind the Beechdean Aston of Ross Wylie and Jake Giddings, who inherit the championship lead.

“It was fairly smooth running all the way through to be honest,” said Kershaw, who lives 15 miles away in Norwich. “Ozzie’s initial pace in the first 20 minutes was good and the pitstop went smoothly; we gained about three seconds and then the traffic worked in our favour so we had around a six second buffer I could play with. With the GT3s in front of you pulling away quite quickly, it means we’ve effectively got our own race and we’re not being backed up in the pack. We’re on pole for the next one with Dan Cammish in the Porsche alongside, so that should be a bit of a battle into the first few corners!”