Date 12/08/2006: Celebrations for Scuderia Ecosse 6th win with Rockingham Victory
Tim Mullen took the chequered flag to score the 6th victory of the 2006 British GT season for Scuderia Ecosse and regain the championship lead as the Team LNT Panoz failed to finish. Chris Niarchos took his first pole position in the Avon Tyres British GT Championship earlier in the day and capitilised on his early pace to give his teammate the opportunity to take the win.
Team LNT’s day ended in the gravel trap at Tarzan when Tom Kimber-Smith slid off the track on the fluids dropped by the Team Tiger Marcos, which retired in a cloud of smoke. Kimber-Smith was unable to recover the Panoz Esperante and walked away from the beached car, his body language evident for all to see.
Leo Machitski and Jonathan Cocker took GT3 honours and second overall, with Jonny Lang and Matt Allison securing the GTC win and 3rd overall in their Trackspeed Porsche
Twenty-one cars took to the grid for Round 10 of the 2006 Avon Tyres British GT Championship with one grid slot left empty with the withdrawal of the #70 David Dove Racing Ferrari 360 Modena.
As the cars came round to take the rolling start it was Chris Niarchos alongside Luke Hines and as the green flag was waved it was the two mighty GT2 cars side-by-side into the first banked corner at Turn 1. However Phil Keen in the #3 Trackspeed Porsche 996 GTC class car dived to the outside from 3rd on the grid and it was three abreast as on the banking at Turn 1 and upto the lefthander onto the infield at Deene. It was like Keen had forgotten that he wasn’t driving his GT2 Class Mosler and briefly moved into second place on the run down to Yentwood before Hines retook the place at the next corner.
Gavan Kershaw in the Lotus Exige, running in 4th place, attacked Keen at Brook getting past the Porsche but overcooking it and running wide onto the grass but he’d done enough to make the move stick to move into 3rd overall.
At the end of lap 1 it was Niarchos 1.1 seconds ahead of Hines, with Kershaw and Keen running in 3rd and 4th and 1st in GT3 and GTC respectively. Keen briefly regained the 3rd when Kershaw ran wide at Deene on lap 2 but the Lotus driver pounced again at Brook in a copycat move on Keen and once again the Lotus was in 3rd as they crossed the line at the end of lap 2.
At the front Hines was maintaining the gap to around 1.1 seconds to Niarchos and for lap after lap the two GT2 cars maintained their pace while moving further ahead the rest of the field.
Phil Keen started to come under pressure from Jonny Lang in the #5 Trackspeed Porsche 996 after Lang had closed the gap to less than a second to the GTC class leader. For lap after lap these two cars tracked each other and when the pit window opened on lap 16 Phil Keen briefly found himself leading a British GT race when Niarchos and Hines came in to change drivers.
On lap 17 the two leading GT2 cars rejoined, 8 seconds behind the leading two GTC cars of Keen and Lang. Two laps later Lang dived into the pits for his stop while Keen continued to circulate with the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari right behind. Matt Allison, now at the wheel of the #5 GTC Porsche rejoined and Keen went in for his stop and to hand over the Ryan Hooker. As the pitstops shook out the order, Allison appeared ahead of the #3 Porsche of Hooker, with Alex Mortimer joining in on a three way battle for the lead of the GTC class.
Meanwhile Leo Machitski had handed over to 2004 British GT Champion Jonathan Cocker, who was slicing through the field and catching the battling trio of GTC Porsches, who all decided to let the faster GT3 car past without incident. On lap 35 Mortimer made his move on Hooker and went up into second place, but a long way back from the flying Matt Allison. However the 97 RPM Porsche of Mortimer came to an abrupt end when he clashed with George MacKintosh on the #20 Lotus Exige, bursting a radiator and forcing Mortimer to retire the car. MacKintosh’s Exige suffered superficial damage and the current GT3 class leader was able to continue to the chequered flag.
The #81 Team Tiger Marcos Mantis, which had been struggling for pace for the entire race suddenly did an impression of a Red Arrow, coming down the School Straight with a plume of smoke trailing behind the car. Jon Finnemore managed to get the Marcos back to the pits but had deposited fluids on the circuit which had a profound effect on the race as Tom Kimber-Smith in the Panoz found he had no traction as he entered the Tarzan Hairpin and slid straight into the gravel and out of the race. This left Tim Mullen, who was already 20 seconds up the road, with an unasailable lead.
As the race entered its final few laps it was Mullen from Cocker and then Allison, the top three cars all class leaders. There was one final act of drama when Barrie Whight brought his Lotus Exige to a halt just before the finish line because he had suffered a blowout on the rear right wheel, which had been rubbing on the rear defuser which had been damaged in an earlier incident. As Tim Mullen crossed the line to take the chequered flag Whight hopped over the line to be classified as a winner and score 2.5 valuable championship points for 4th in class.
Mullen and Niarchos took their 6th win of the season and closed the gap in the championship to a single point after Hines and Kimber-Smith were classified 3rd in class, 6 laps adrift of the winners.
[color:“red”] Machitski and Cocker to a resounding victory in GT3 a lap ahead of Paul Whight and Russell Treasure in the #18 Lotus Sport Exige. Treasure was overjoyed with 2nd place in his first ever GT race. Blogg and Mackintosh were 3rd in GT3 to maintain their class lead.[/color]
Matt Allison and Jonny Lang took another class win and extended their championship lead. Ryan Hooker moves into 3rd place in the championship, moving ahead of Jon Finnemore and Chris Beighton. The Team Tiger team will not be scoring any points in Round 11 after the problem with the car was terminal and they packed up and went home. Phil Keen also scored his maiden GTC podium, ahead of the 3rd placed JMH Ferrari of Adam Wilcox and Phil Burton.
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