Stop-go penalties thwart Jarman’s rock challenge

Northamptonshire’s Rockingham Motorsport Speedway played host for Round 3 of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship last Sunday and saw Eurostar-backed driver Andrew Jarman come away with a  9th place points haul despite a late 10 second stop-go penalty.

Starting from 13th on the grid for the two-hour endurance race in front of a LIVE TV audience courtesy of MotorsTV, it was the Milton Keynes racer who took the start in his TF Sport | Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 before handing over to team mate Jody Fannin at the half way point.

The race started under tricky conditions as the sun finally appeared in the morning after heavy rain. With a dry line appearing minutes before the start, Andrew and his TF Sport team decided to start on slick tyres in order to avoid an unscheduled tyre change in the early stages of the race.

As the lights went green, the field cleanly made it through the opening lap but by lap two the safety car appeared following contact at the final chicane between the McLaren 650s team mates. At the restart, Jarman was soon lapping faster than his fellow competitors around the 2.05 mile circuit, climbing two places and eventually up to 9th just before the pit stop window opened to hand over to team mate  Fannin at the half way point.

With the mandatory pit stops complete including refueling and fresh tyres, Fannin was able to jump ahead one more position into 8th and pushing hard to catch the leaders ahead. But it wasn’t to be as the team were handed a one-second stop-go penalty for a pit infringement, quickly followed by a second penalty for a refueling infringement which saw the pairing of Jarman/Fannin drop down the order.

Despite the resulting deficit putting halt to any further challenges up the field in the final 20 minutes, Fannin brought home the #27 TF Sport | Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 in the points and 9th position as the flag appeared at the two hour mark.


Commenting after the race Jarman said:

“The start was really tricky being on cold slicks in damp conditions but once the tyre temperature was up, we could push on. The TF Sport guys did a superb job as always to give us a great race car and our pace was good.

“Of course it was disappointing to be hit with two penalties which took us out of contention and we have to work hard now to ensure this doesn’t happen again. Rockingham isn’t the ideal circuit for the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 but we should be strong at the next round [Silverstone].

“A big thank you as always to my sponsors, Eurostar, TXM Recruit, TXM Plant and Raildoor Solutions and everyone who’s supported me this weekend. It’s important we take the positives from this weekend and work on coming back even stronger for next time.”

The next round of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship is on 30-31 May at Silverstone circuit, Northamptonshire.

Source / Photo Credits - Andrew Jarman