Chad Racing – Snetterton British GT Rounds 9 & 10

Having taken four cars and as many as 50 personnel along to the previous three British GT meetings, it was a much more slimline Chad Racing that made the journey east to Norfolk for the two one-hour races at Snetterton on August Bank Holiday Monday; just two Ferraris being loaded on the team transporter, and only one of them racing.

A number of factors has coincided to bring about such a turn of events, the main one being that Chris Hyman had known for some time that he would not be able to take part in this meeting due to prior business commitments. Paul Warren, on the other hand, was available for the full British season, but had also previously expressed a desire to Piers Masarati to race in the FIA GT3 European Championship again; so when the opportunity to enter a third Chad Ferrari in the final FIA race at Zolder came about, Paul spoke to Chris and the two agreed to join forces once again. As a result, Paul decided to also sit out the Snetterton meeting.

At this point, a plan began to form in Piers’ mind – and that was to put Dan Brown and Tom Ferrier together in the same car for this meeting. Both drivers were officially rated as ‘Silver’, meaning that they could race together without a time penalty being incurred at the pitstop. This is not without precedent, and, indeed, the defending champions – David and Godfrey Jones – are also both Silver rated drivers. The deal was done and the #21 STP sponsored Scuderia was chosen as the race car; the #10 making the trip as a spare/donor vehicle, should the need arise.

Athanasios Ladas and Kevin Veltman, meanwhile, were contesting the GT4 European Cup at the Nürburgring; as was Michael Mallock. The good news was that the team would be back to full strength for the next meeting at Brands Hatch in late September.

With this being a Bank Holiday meeting, we had the unusual situation of practice and qualifying taking place on the Sunday, followed by warm-up and both races on the Monday. Unfortunately, it also meant that we got Bank Holiday weather, and on the Sunday in particular it was little short of horrendous – howling winds and lashing rain sweeping across the circuit for much of the day.

Fortunately, the worst of the conditions were to take place in the afternoon and so the first of the two 60-minute free-practice sessions was dry when it began at 9:00 that morning.

Normally for a free-practice session, the news revolves around who has had mechanical-problems or stuffed their car in some unsavoury manner. Here, though, the main talking point was the laptimes achieved by the field, as nine of the ten GT3s present set times that were lower than the pole time achieved at the corresponding race – in similar conditions – in 2009.

The Chad Ferrari was one of the nine – a sixth-fastest 1:07.994 being its fastest lap – despite the session being plagued by a brake problem; “We’ve a problem with the ABS,” said Dan. “We’re arriving at one corner with brakes, and then get to the next and find we’ve got none! We’re having to touch the pedal a couple of times to prime the brakes before we get to the corners. It’s fixable, but not until after qualifying – it needs an hour and a half to fully drain down the system.”

But the first session was a breeze compared to second free practice, three hours later, when the #21 found itself back in the pits at the end of its outlap with a brake servo problem. The team got to work to sort it, only to find that the clutch was steadfastly refusing to engage. Eventually, the realisation dawned that the car would be unable to get back on track and the Ferrari was taken back to the awning for proper repairs; “Unbelievable!” groaned Piers.

As it happened, the second session was largely unproductive for most teams owing to the fact that the widely predicted rain arrived after just a few minutes. Later on that afternoon, a huge and very sudden downpour slammed into the paddock and the team found themselves working on the car while wondering if the awning would blow away at any moment.

Happily, the shelter stayed in situ for the duration and the necessary repairs were completed in time for qualifying.

In normal circumstances, both Dan and Tom would be the second drivers, but in Norfolk one of them would obviously have to go first; and that honour fell to the younger of the two. Despite the torrents of rain that had fallen not long previously, the track surface was dry enough for slicks by the time the first session started; helped in no small part by the 40mph winds. Dan was straight out when the pitlane opened and got to work.

It turned out to be a close and competitive session, with numerous changes to the order on the timing screens taking place mid-session. Dan opened with a couple of laps in the 1:15s before setting his first ‘flier’ – 1:09.476, on his fifth lap. This put him fourth behind the Porsche, #12 Ferrari and Mosler, but a fast lap from the Ascari pushed the Chad car down to fifth. One lap later, a 1:08.500 put Dan up to third and he cemented the place by chipping almost a quarter of a second off this time on his next circulation.

So tight was it at the top that Dan was just 0.073 off pole – held by David Jones in the Ascari – and just 0.023 behind Martin Short’s Mosler.

After a short break – which was extended by a few minutes as a G4 Aston was recovered – Tom took the blue and red Scuderia out to play once more.

Like Dan, Tom took a couple of laps to settle in before going for a time on this fast, flat circuit. On his fourth lap he set a 1:07.809, but this was already more than half a second off pole. Unhappy with the set-up – having been denied the opportunity to find one in the earlier practice sessions – he pitted on his fifth lap for adjustments.

The Chad car exited the pitlane with just over six minutes remaining, and two laps later marginally improved his time to 1:07.777. With time running out, Tom backed off to give himself space and crossed the line with just a few seconds on the clock to begin his final lap. 67.025 seconds later he ended his session, demoting the Ascari in the process, with a fifth-place start.

Given the earlier problems, both drivers had done well to qualify where they did – as had the mechanics, who had managed to supply a car that was up to the task.

The next morning, the Chad team arrived at the circuit in expectation of better weather. The weatherman had lied, it turned out, and instead it was more of the same – cold, blustery and wet – during the ten-minute warm-up session. Fortunately, as midday –and hence the first race – approached, the weather was on an upswing finally.

In fact, the temperature had climbed quite noticeably as the grid assembled for the first encounter and the sun was beginning to break through the clouds. The wind was still brisk, but conditions were much improved.

Dan and the team ran through all the pre-race checks and – this being an MSVR circuit – the Ferrari and the rest of the BGT field moved off to begin the pace lap bang on time. When the lights turned green, Dan went to the outside and floored it in an attempt to get to Riches in a good position.

He arrived at the first right-hander still in third, but was right on the tail of the Mosler as Sear approached and dived out to snatch second place as the Revett Straight arrived; taking full advantage of his car’s speed and lightness (both the Mosler and Ascari carrying success ballast). He then latched on to the silver KZ1R ahead and was just 0.072s behind as the leaders started the second lap, putting him in the prefect position to repeat the manoeuvre of the previous lap; and as he passed under the bridge for the second time, the Chad Ferrari was already beginning to build a lead – ending the lap 0.709s to the good.

It was now essential to build on this excellent start by extending his lead before the Mosler could get by into second and give chase. Short put Jones behind him on lap five, by which time Dan’s advantage was just over three seconds.

Over the course of the next two laps, the Mosler closed to within two seconds, but at this point Dan kept a cool head and responded to stabilise the gap at around 2.5s before again starting to pull away. He settled into a quick, consistent pace in the low 1:08s and by lap 13 had doubled his lead to five seconds. Six laps later it had doubled again.

The pit window opened on lap 21 and immediately several cars stopped to hand over to the faster drivers, as expected. Perhaps less expectedly, the leader was also in just a lap later to turn the #21 over to Tom. Dan’s lead by now was 12 seconds and he had driven perfectly; the car being in excellent condition as his teammate climbed aboard.

Having fallen to third at the stop, Tom was soon up to second as the pitstops continued and now only the Mosler was ahead. When it stopped on lap 30, the Chad Ferrari was back in the lead and things were looking very good. Tom had continued to lap at a pace very similar to Dan and his lead was 14 seconds as Gregor Fisken took over the Mosler; and the cushion to third was even greater – 34 seconds.

By lap 35, the #21 was pulling away from the Mosler and was seemingly secure in its lead. Unfortunately, at this point in the proceedings the third placed MTECH Ferrari suffered a spectacular blow-out along the Revett Straight and shard of rubber and carbon fibre were left strewn along the fastest part of the track. Clearly this posed a safety hazard and the safety car was scrambled.

The fear was that the closing up of the field would put Tom in danger of attack from behind at the restart, but fortunately the safety car quickly picked up the leader and crucially several lapped cars were between the Ferrari and the Mosler. This meant Tom actually had a five-second lead as the green flags flew and racing resumed on lap 40. When it did, Tom immediately re-established his pace and started to pull away as the fight for position began behind him.

Immediately behind the #21 car was the delayed #2 Ferrari, now with new rubber, and it spent the remainder of the race glued to Tom’s tail. This car had earlier given the leader quite a start as it returned to the race under caution to find Tom travelling slower than expected as he approached the safety car; the red Ferrari hitting the leader square on from behind. Fortunately, no damage was suffered and the Chad car was not in any way hindered by this.

After a spirited defence by the Mosler, second place changed hands on lap 44; but by this point only a few minutes remained and the lead had grown to eight seconds. Tom stuck to his guns and on lap 50 was rewarded with the hugely welcome sight of the chequered flag – Chad racing’s first in the GT3 era.

“It feels so good to be back on the top step,” said Dan Brown after the champagne had been sprayed. “The team did a great job to prepare the car and it drove brilliantly.”

“Dan did all the hard work – I just had to bring it home,” added a more than modest Tom Ferrier.

But the celebrations had to be short, as the car now had to be prepped for race two later that afternoon. Piers Masarati was of course happy that his car as won, but emotions were in check and the beer was left in the fridge until the day was over.

The second race was the penultimate encounter of the meeting and the weather was really very good by the time it started; warm, sunny and much less windy.

With Tom starting from the third row, a good opening stint was, if anything, even more important than it had been in the first race; and the Chad Ferrari managed to stay in fifth as the first lap was completed. This meant that he was in a perfect position to take advantage of a rare error at Coram from Allan Simonsen on lap two and he and the Dane crossed the line side-by-side; Tom slightly ahead.

As Riches approached for the third time, Tom saw a chance to take a place from the RPM Ford GT and took an outside line around the fast right-hander. Alex Mortimer saw the threat and defended his line, pushing Tom onto the dirty part of the track. This cost the Chad Ferrari momentum and time and three places had been lost by the end of the lap.

This hadn’t been part of the plan and Tom now had a major task ahead of him; and his first priority was to take back sixth place from the Aston of Michael Bentwood.

This was easier said than done and the Aston driver was not going to make things easy for him, but the gap came down and down over the next few laps until Tom was ready to make his move at Riches on lap 11.

The result was a happier one than it had been eight laps earlier; but any feelings of satisfaction were short-lived, as an error at Coram a lap later saw the #21 run wide and the Aston was now back in front. Tom also almost lost a place to the Porsche of Glynn Geddie, but held his nerve to close the door at Riches and stay in seventh.

After such a torrid opening few laps, it was now time for caution and it would be lap 21 before the Chad car again led the Aston across the line. Tom began to close the gap to the fifth placed Ascari ahead, but dived for the pit for the scheduled stop before a move could be made.

It would be lap 33 before the true picture was once more clear, and with all the stops complete Dan found himself in sixth place and 33 seconds off the lead. There was no option but to just go for it.

The Chad Ferrari’s progress over the next few laps was just spectacular. In a series of ever quicker laps – the fastest lap of the race, and a new lap record, coming on lap 47 – Dan carved his way through the field. Fifth place came on lap 35 and fourth on lap 36. he then closed down on the third placed Predator Ferrari and managed to take two places on lap 44 to go second.

The chase for the lead was now on and Dan was soon reducing the gap by two seconds or more a lap. Time was running out, however, and Duncan Cameron was not panicking as he saw the headlights of the Chad car appear in his mirror. With just a couple of minutes – and hence two laps – remaining on the clock, the gap from first to second had come down to just over six seconds.

But on the penultimate lap the gap increased by a tenth in a most unexpected turn of events; “I was almost out of fuel,” said Dan afterwards, “and the car was starting to cough. Without that, I would have had him, I’m sure!”

As it was he managed to find a further two seconds on the final lap before falling just 3.999 seconds shy of the leader at the flag.

A win and a second, as well as a new lap record, was a fantastic reward for Chad’s efforts – not only this weekend, but all year long – and Dan in particular had driven like a star. The team now had a four week break before three cars went for glory at Brands Hatch.

What price more silverware?