Round 2 - Oulton Park - 14th May 2011

RACE 1:
Alex Martin, making his first 2011 season appearance in the GT Cup Championship, looked to have the day’s first race wrapped up within a couple of laps, but then it all went wrong in the final minute and Danny Winstanley found himself taking a win in the #78 TVR Sagaris.
 
Pole-man David Tomlin made an excellent start, and held the lead on the opening lap, but Alex Martin soon had the measure of the heavier Ferrari and pulled alongside as the two began lap two, taking the lead into Old Hall. With an open track ahead of him Martin soon pulled out a considerable lead. 
 
Behind him a thrilling battle developed between Tomlin, Tarrant-Willis and championship leader Ruhan. These three diced nose-to-tail for the next 15 laps, with little between them but a few layers of paint – and occasionally, even less than that. Tomlin defended his line with remarkable cunning, while Tarrant-Willis needed one eye permanently on his mirrors just to keep tabs on Ruhan. The Porsche driver tried every opening, but a full 60 kilos of success ballast denied him the grunt he needed to punch a way through.
 
Otherwise preoccupied, nobody quite grasped that the real threat was looming large in the shape of Danny Winstanley in the Sagaris. From 6th, the youngster was challenging for fourth by the beginning of lap 5, passing Ruhan down the pit straight, and instantly latching on to Tarrant-Willis. The TVR was through to third at Cascades later on the same lap, and then caught Tomlin out of Lodge. Winstanley powered over the crest and onto the straight to snatch second across the line. 
 
He then began shaving seconds off Martin’s advantage with every lap, and with the leader running two seconds shy of his earlier pace, the margin shrunk to less than nine seconds. Even so, there seemed little hope for a change before the flag, so it was some surprise when Alex Martin failed to turn up for the chequered flag, and Winstanley swept across the line to record his first win of the season. 
 
No change for second, third or fourth, with the same trio taking the flag in the order they’d started lap two: Tomlin from Tarrant-Willis and Ruhan. Martin, meanwhile, was embedded in the gravel at Island. “I just couldn’t hold the line. I drifted out onto the marbles and next moment I had a wheel onto the grass, and that was it,” he said later.
 
The race in Group 2 held similar parallels. Tom Andrew in the #7 Morgan Aero had established a double-figure lead by lap six and looked comfortable for the win, but in the final stages a fuel pressure issue set in, allowing Colin Broster, in a smoky Porsche 996, to close. He took the group lead on the penultimate lap and then won by nearly three seconds. Colin Simpson took third in the rumbling #16 Marcos Mantis.
 
Andy Yool had started the race from the back row in the Group 3 Chevron GR8, but with the set-up issues that had curtailed his qualifying run fully sorted, he was able to steer the svelte coupé through the tail-end and take the win from tenth overall, although his margin over Barclay Dougall (BMW E46) was a mere eight-tenths at the flag. Adam Hayes finished third.
 
RESULTS:
 
Group 1

 
Group 2

 
Group 3

RACE 2:
If the day’s first race had been a thriller, then Race Two offered even more entertainment, and a very different outcome.
 
With pole-setter Alex Martin scrubbed from the entry after his earlier accident, the front row was shared by David Tomlin and Andy Ruhan for the afternoon race, but it was Ruhan this time who got the flying start. He was into Old Hall and clear of Tomlin even before the pack reached Cascades. Toby Tarrant-Willis held third from Benjamin Harvey, heading Group 2 after a stunning run in wet qualifying.
 
Those opening seconds might have held the script for the rest of the race if an unfortunate Colin Simpson hadn’t run wide through the first corner, and gone grass-tracking. He regained the tarmac, but next time around went off again into Cascades, perhaps with a front wishbone failure, and thumped heavily into the Armco. The Mantis bounced back across the track, and the Safety Car was instantly deployed.
 
A couple of laps behind the Safety Car bunched the field up nicely, but on the restart Ruhan and Tomlin were swiftly back into their stride, easing out a comfortable cushion over Tarrant-Willis and Harvey. As before, the one to watch was the mercurial Danny Winstanley, starting from 10th but running 4th by lap seven, and closing fast on the leaders.
 
Another moving quickly through the ranks was Mike Saunders in the TVR Cerbera, through to 6th by lap 8 from 11th and gunning for Don Grice in the BMW M3. The yellow TVR looked strong, despite running on tyres that were two races old already. Saunders took 5th out of Cascades on lap 9, and then eased into fourth two laps later.
 
With Ruhan leading by more than 3 seconds, the pressure was mounting on David Tomlin in second. Winstanley and the vivid green TVR were closing fast, and the two started lap 12 almost nose-to-tail. The TVR was up the inside into Old Hall, and then side by side on the exit. Accounts differ, but the result was the same. Side on contact saw Tomlin loosing out and spinning off across the grass, and then spearing backwards across the track and relatively unscathed into the gravel at Cascades, narrowly missing the tail of Winstanley’s Sagaris.
 
This briefly elevated Saunders to third, but his tyres were well past their best, and next time through Druids the rubber finally let go and the Cerbera was backwards into the gravel. “I out-drove it really,” he shrugged,. “All my own fault”.
 
No such dramas for the leaders, with Andy Ruhan, blissfully devoid of success ballast this time around, delighted to take a third win in four races. Still pumping adrenalin from his earlier success, Danny Winstanley took an emphatic second, with Toby Tarrant-Willis a second consecutive third of the day.
 
Once again, Group 2 provided close racing throughout, with Tom Andrew’s Morgan closing to within 2 seconds of Harvey in the KTM Xbow by the flag, no recurrence of the earlier fuel problems. A somewhat distant third was Francis Galashan’s Porsche after Colin Broster’s a close-running but smoky 996 gave up on the last lap.
 
A switch of fortunes in Group 3, with Andy Yool missing Race 2 with a holed radiator and honours falling to Mark Radcliffe in the #19 BMW M3, well clear of Barclay Dougal second and Adam Hayes third.
 
RESULTS:
 
Group 1

 
Group 2

Group 3

 
The full race report and more pictures will be posted to the official Championship website in the ‘2011 Season Info’ section later in the week.  
Look out the GT Cup Championship half hour program on Motors TV at 7.25pm on Friday 27th May with repeats in the following days and on the website.

TVR Pover 4.5 speed six/ Elite sequential gear box from craig winstanley on Vimeo.

www.gtcup.co.uk
 
Next round - Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit - June 4th/5th.
 
For a race entry contact: Hannah Wilson Championship Coordinator – email: Hannah@butemotorsport.co.uk
 
Photographs courtesy of Roy Ng – For copies please email royng08@googlemail.com
Race report written by: Marcus Potts