Chad Racing –Rockingham British GT Rounds 6 & 7

 

Six weeks after the 150-minute race at Spa-Francorchamps, Chad Racing arrived at the rather more compact circuit of Rockingham in Northamptonshire for the two one-hour rounds of the British GT Championship; and once again the team would be fielding four cars. But whereas in Belgium the fourth car had been a Belcar Ferrari, on this occasion it would be an entirely different beast; a G4 class KTM X-Bow, and one with a very distinctive livery.

Chad’s regular trio of Ferraris was present and correct and raring to go after the lengthy gap since the previous meeting. Joining them here would be two drivers from the GT4 European Cup, Athanasios Ladas and Michael Mallock; the Greek driver (and owner of the X-Bow) was making his BGT debut, while Mallock was returning to the series after several years.

The meeting reverted back to its normal format of free practice and qualifying on the Saturday, followed by two races on the Sunday. It had not proven possible to undertake any testing since Spa and with the absence of a Friday test day in 2010, not everything went smoothly in free practice on the Saturday morning.

The first session saw Tom Ferrier and Paul Warren running well in the #10 Scuderia and ending the session in fifth place, just ahead of the returning Rollcentre Mosler; and they would follow this up with a third place in the second session, which saw torrential rain lash across the circuit and resulting in a laptime 16 seconds slower than earlier.

Chris Hyman spent the first session running the usual checks on the #21 car and so a ninth-fastest time that was two and a half seconds slower than the #10’s did not carry any significance.

However, the rain meant that Dan Brown’s intention of using the second session to find an optimum set-up was stymied.
But the STP-backed car fared better than the #11 430 of Juan Garriz and Jose Balbiani, which encountered brake servo failure in the first session and severely restricted its running during the two morning sessions.

No such trouble for the X-Bow, however, as its two drivers joined forces for the first time. Athanasios knows the car well (it being his weapon of choice in the European series) but hadn’t visited the banked British circuit before – and hadn’t raced on Avons before – while Michael was familiar with the circuit but didn’t know the car. So how did the open-topped KTM compare to his more familiar Aston Martin? “It’s a lot colder and windier than I’m used to, but it’s surprisingly comfortable and going well,” he smiled. “We’re trying to build a set-up still and get it running right on the Avons; and Athanasios is going well – about three and a half seconds off my pace.

“We’ll be doing a rain dance for the rest of the weekend – we were three seconds quicker than the other G4 runners in the wet!”

The timetable allowed three hours before qualifying began in the late afternoon, with the biggest area of focus being the troubled blue and yellow Argentine car. Once again, the Chad mechanics did their stuff and Juanchi was suited and booted and ready to go when the pitlane opened for the start of the first session; and over the next quarter of an hour, Juanchi would demonstrate his talent in powerful fashion.

Bearing in mind the fact that he had not visited the circuit before and had lost most of the morning’s running to mechanical issues, and that he was driving an older-spec car, to qualify third – just 0.157s from pole – was little short of stunning.

Two places further back was Chris in the not-fully-setup #21, and on the row behind him came Paul; having been unlucky with traffic on his fast laps. Athanasios qualified third in G4 ahead of his debut race the next day.

The second qualifying session proved to be ridiculously close at the front of the field, with the top six cars being covered by just four-tenths of a second. Tom’s best time in the #10 was just 0.280s off pole, but that meant only fifth place.

Dan managed to find an extra three-quarters of a second in the #21 to claim a fourth-row start, but things didn’t go Jose’s way and he had to settle for ninth.

Michael very nearly snatched pole in G4, but fell less than two-tenths shy of the Piranha Lotus 2-Elevento finish second in class. A fine effort.

The weather at Rockingham on Sunday morning was dry and reasonably warm, but with heavily-overcast skies and a very blustery wind; and the forecast was for it to remain pretty much unchanged for the rest of the day. Warm-up was the first thing on the agenda at the civilised time of 10:00 and all four Chad cars used the opportunity to test out various things and practice driver-changes.

The first of the two races began just after midday and the first two miles of the race went remarkably well for the Chad quartet, as the three GT3s crossed the line at the end of the first lap in third, fourth and fifth positions and the G4 X-Bow had moved up to second in class.

The first of the Ferraris, however, was that of Chris Hyman; the South African having anticipated the lights and then powered his way round to the Deene hairpin where he asserted himself to great effect. And he was followed down to Yentwood by Paul Warren, whose start had been similarly impressive. Juan Garriz, meanwhile, had become bogged down at the start and lost several places. He quickly recovered though and before the lap was complete had caught up on to the tail once more of Paul’s car; retaking fourth at Tarzan.

But Chris’ racing fortunes were about to go into a tailspin as two major fists of misfortune planted themselves firmly in his midriff. The first came when he went too deep into Chapman Curve on lap two and spun the Scuderia. He somehow managed to cross the track and rejoin without contact with any of the following cars, but he was now stone-last and a long way adrift. This was followed a couple of minutes later by the news that he had been adjudged to have been out of position at the start and was ordered to undergo a drive-through penalty, which he took on lap four; “I think it was a bit harsh,” said Piers Masarati later. “Chris was focussed on the start and was ready when the light changed, but the cars at the front did not maintain a steady pace – they kept slowing down and then speeding up – and it was this that caught him out. And if Chris was out of position, why wasn’t Phil Burton also punished? His start was no different to Chris’s. The officials have got to be consistent in these matters.”

As Chris began the process of trying to catch back up, Juan and Paul were doing their best to maintain third and fourth places. The young Argentine could not hope to close the gap on the Mosler and Porsche, given the relative specification of his car, but he was managing to pull away from Paul; but the red #10 was coming under pressure from the Viper of Craig Wilkins – the silver car taking the place on lap six when Paul went slightly wide at the exit of Gracelands.

Athanasios Ladas, meanwhile, was still in second place in G4, but found himself unable to keep pace with the Lotus. He could, however, stay ahead of the Speedworks Ginetta of Jamie Stanley – the class leader in the championship – and these two were locked together for lap after lap as the G50 sought to find a way past. Try as he might, the chasing car’s driver couldn’t find a big enough gap as Athanasios kept “the Shark” on a superbly controlled racing line.

Juan was driving magnificently in third and managed to keep in touch with the leaders, maintaining the gap at below a dozen seconds. And he was untroubled from behind as the Viper found itself unable to match the pace of the Ferrari. When the pit window opened on lap 17, the two leaders were quickly in, leaving Juan to lead the race. He stayed there for a full five laps before reluctantly handing the car over to Jose for the run to the flag.

By this point the other three cars had also changed drivers. However, while the X-Bow, now in the hands of Michael Mallock, immediately began to make up ground on the Lotus ahead, the drivers of the three Ferraris found that the best of the grip on this abrasive track was long gone and it would now be a case of hanging on. The KTM was working its rubber much more sympathetically and this, together with its driver’s natural speed, proved to be a crucial factor.

On lap 26, Jose was in fourth and Tom fifth; both having lost places to the MTECH Ferrari during the pitstop window. However, the #2 was one of three cars adjudged to have had too-short a pitstop and all three were awarded stop/go penalties. This had the effect of dropping the #2 back down to seventh; but while it was taking its penalty Jose had lost two places as he slithered about on gripless tyres – first to Tom and then to the Ford GT.

Unfortunately for Tom, the Ford was much kinder to its tyres than the Ferrari and the black machine got ever closer; and despite some sterling defending the inevitable change for third happened on lap 36, with about ten minutes of the race remaining.

The Mosler was the second of the cars to be awarded a stop/go, but managed to maintain second place despite the penalty. The third car, alas, was the luckless #21 and Dan Brown had resignedly taken his penalty on lap 28. He kept trying right up to the end of the race, however, and recorded some impressive laptimes on his way to ninth.

Tom hung on to finish a fine fourth, while Jose brought the #11 car home in sixth having been unable to keep the MTECH car behind him.

In G4, however, Michael was having an absolute ball in the X-Bow – first catching the Lotus at the rate of a couple of seconds per lap, and then taking the lead on lap 27. After this he never looked back and was the first of the G4 runners to see the flag at the end of the race, some 14 seconds before the second placed car did.

What a fantastic debut and what a fantastic result.

The second race took place three hours after the first finished and this time Jose made a bid for glory; up to fifth from ninth by the end of the first lap.

Unfortunately, the Ferrari then clashed with the Rollcentre Mosler at Deene on the next lap and Jose found himself back in his original position.

This was all academic, sadly, as the 430 entered the pitlane on lap five to retire with a blown engine; thus denying Juan the opportunity to repeat his heroics of the previous day.

Tom’s start in the #10 had been the opposite of Jose’s, as the red car fell back three places and found itself just ahead of Dan’s. Both cars benefited from Jose’s misfortune on the next lap, but the Mosler recovered quickly and had passed both cars by lap seven.

But this hadn’t been a net loss for Tom, as he had passed the Viper by this point of the race and was still in sixth.
He now began to close on the #12 CCTV Ferrari of Adam Wilcox, which had also been taken by the Mosler. The gap was about a second, but the Chad car began to chip away by a tenth or two each lap. On lap 15, however, Tom broke off the attack and headed for the pits with an obviously unscheduled stop.

The car was examined for a few minutes before being pushed away, as it was discovered that a brake disc had failed – such a rare occurrence that the manufacturer began an investigation in the days following the race.

Again, however, things were going much better in G4. Michael had taken the lead on the first lap after a poor start by the Lotus and stayed there. But this time building a lead on the 2-Eleven would not be so straightforward, as the #55 still had plenty of grip.

Nevertheless, over the course of his stint, the FIA driver stretched his advantage to more than ten seconds before handing over the car to its owner.

Dan’s fortunes took a turn for the better (at last) when the Mosler and the Ford clashed on lap 19, which took both cars out of the equation. And he was also closing on the Viper for fourth. The gap – which had earlier drifted out to seven seconds – was relentlessly reduced until, by the time Dan pitted on lap 23, it was little more than a second.

But while the pitstop ran to its regulation length this time, Chris’ stint would prove to be a frustrating one. He emerged to find the Viper still just ahead, but despite initially closing he felt his tyres’ remaining grip ebbing away and he began to fall away again; eventually finishing fourth.

But what was frustrating for Chris was proving to be very helpful for Athanasios, as he found himself able – with another excellent stint of poise and consistency – to stay comfortably ahead of the Lotus, which found itself with the same issue as the Ferraris; and on his debut meeting in the British GT Championship, the Greek driver went on to celebrate two wins out of two.

“Athanasios did a great job all weekend,” said Michael. “His times were fast and consistent and made my job a lot easier! I’m really looking forward to doing some more races with him.”

To take both wins was impressive enough, but to have such huge margins at the end – 22 seconds in the case of the second race – is testament to the preparation by the Chad mechanics of a car that none had worked with before.

After a very busy schedule in Britain and on the continent, Chad Racing now found itself with the luxury of a much-needed month-long break. It will use the opportunity to recoup and will then return to racing when the British series goes to Silverstone in the middle of August.