The 2014 British GT season opener at Oulton Park was packed full of action and it left me driving back up the M6 on Monday night reliving the excitement of my first experiences in the series!
by Rory Butcher
The 2014 British GT season opener at Oulton Park was packed full of action and it left me driving back up the M6 on Monday night reliving the excitement of my first experiences in the series!
It was great to feel the butterflies before free practice on Saturday morning before officially getting the new season underway. Free practice 1 & 2 went really well, as I posted the 2nd quickest time while with my co-driver, John Hartshorne, showed good signs of progress.
We set a really strong time on tyres which were past their best in the first session so we felt really confident that our car set-up and race pace was going to be very strong for the Monday.
Qualifying for British GT is structured such that the quickest lap set by the amateur driver will determine your grid position for Race 1 and the best time set by the pro determines the starting order for Race 2. John, who is still building confidence in the new car and the unfamiliar British circuits, qualified the car in 20th for race 1 and I could only manage 8th for the second race. It was a tricky session with 34 cars on track at once and it was tough to put together a clear lap without meeting traffic, but it’s something I will learn from and put to good use in future events.
We also feel that we can fine tune the car to perform better on the new tyre when it’s at its peak grip so there are a number of set-up changes planned for our next outing at Rockingham on 4th May.
John started race 1 and held 20th position, maintaining a smooth, consistent pace. It was a real buzz standing in the pit lane ready for our driver change pit stop. I’m not sure which is more scary - driving the Aston at over 160mph or the thought of making a mistake during our change over! The team radioed John to come in after 25 minutes and he headed for the pits.
John had taken great care of the tyres so I was able to push hard for the remaining 35 minutes, overtaking seven cars and posting the fastest lap of the race. The car felt like it was on rails and gave me the confidence to attack the corners.
Finishing 13th wasn’t the result we were looking for but I know our raw pace didn't go unnoticed which is important when looking at the bigger picture
It was really good to see Ahmed Al Harthy and Michael Caine, who race in the sister car within the Oman Racing Team, take the glory with a lights to flag victory. What a way to start the season! It was my turn to start the 2nd race which was even more nerve-racking than the pit stop! British GT uses a rolling start format to begin each race as it is deemed to be safer for such powerful cars.
We headed towards the start line at 40mph all in sync, then the red lights went out and we were off. I held the car out wide at turn 1 and went around the outside of Richard Abra, then followed my team mate Michael Caine, passing fellow Aston Martin driver John Gaw going down through Cascades. I was up to sixth and caught a tow from Michael for the first three laps. I felt like I had more pace so made a move into the Knickerbrook chicane to take fifth. I worked with Michael for the initial laps to build a gap on the car behind before I made the move to overtake for fifth.
The battle for third was up ahead and so I pushed to close the gap from over 2 seconds to 0.3 seconds. I challenged Aaron Scott in the Ferrari 458 for 4th and he pressured Steven Kane in the Bentley for third. Steven made a small mistake out of Cascades allowing me to take advantage and make up another spot!
It was particularly enjoyable mixing it with guys like Aaron who you know you can trust when driving wheel to wheel.
I pitted the car from 4th position with 27 minutes to go and John took over. This pit stop wasn’t as slick as we might have hoped, so we lost some time, dropping John down the order to 15th, but he managed to hold on until the end of the race to secure our second finish.
Overall it has been a tremendous experience and one that I look forward to having again. The buzz and atmosphere within the British GT paddock is incredible and it’s a real spectacle to see and hear 34 of these highly tuned sportscars head in to turn 1 together. I’m competing against professional drivers who I have looked up to for years and I’m building on my GT experience with every event.
TV Times
I hope you can all catch my races next weekend on Channel 4 and Motors TV. Please click the link below for British GT tv listings page:
http://www.britishgt.com/television.php
From here we head to Rockingham Motor Speedway for a test this Friday in preparation for the event there on the 4th/5th of May.
This opportunity has been made possible because of the loyal support I receive from all my sponsors, so I’d like to say a big thank you to the following companies;
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