Hard time at Rockingham for Beechdean
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Beechdean Motorsport’s Andrew Howard and Jonny Adam were hopeful of a good result at the third round of the British GT Championship at Rockingham after securing the GT3 V12 Vantage’s first win last time out at the Nurburgring.
Andrew Howard started the #007 Vantage from 5th on the grid. Making an aggressive start he quickly moved up to 4th on the opening lap, passing the Ferrari of Hector Lester into turn 2. Andrew then set about finding a way past the 3rd placed Ferrari, the Beechdean car being much faster through the infield section but the Ferrari edging away on Rockingham’s long front straight.
On lap 4 Andrew had a good run coming out of the final turn, getting under the rear wing of the Ferrari and going side by side on the banking to pass Duncan Cameron into the hairpin at the start of lap 4. Having now perfected the move, Andrew passed the Porsche of Steve Parish on the subsequent lap to take 2nd.
As the race drew close to the pit stop phase Andrew continued to keep the Beechdean Vantage in contention for a podium finish. However on lap 28, Beechdean’s race ended prematurely when a slow puncture ‘let go’ pitching the #007 Aston Martin into the wall at the exit of turn heavily damaging the front of the car. Andrew himself escaped from the incident unharmed but their race was over.
After assessing the damage the team have taken the tough decision to withdraw from the Aston Martin Le Mans Festival, where Andrew Howard was due to driver with Aston Martin MD John Gaw.
The British GT Championship resumes June 23rd at Brands Hatch.
Image British GT
