And that frustration continues in Race 2
Wednesday, June 01, 2016
With the second race of the Oulton Park meeting taking place just after lunch, the relatively short interlude left little time for those who needed to effect repairs so that they could even get out for the second and final race of the the British GT meeting.
A sorry looking #47 JWB AMR GT4 was returned to the paddock after its Race 1 crash and it wasn't looking good for the team to be able to turn the car around in time for Jake Giddings to have a run out. Indeed Saturday's similar accident had left the team stripped bare of suitable spares from their workshop and the Prodrive customer support lorry in the paddock apparently also had little to offer. Happily the team worked tirelessly and turned the car around so that Giddings did make the grid.
The #1 Beechdean GT3 of Ross Gunn was the highest positioned AMR car on the grid for the second race in P4 closely followed by the #17 of Jonny Adam. Jody Fannin in the #5 PFL Motorsport AMR GT3 had also had a good qualifying to start P7 with the second TF Sport GT3 of a very fired up Jon Barnes just behind him.
Chasing the leading Bentley and McLaren, Gunn held what appeared to be a very secure third for most of his twenty lap stint and would end up handing the car over to Andrew Howard for what looked like a good recovery podium position but a last minute drive through penalty would be awarded against the car for the second time at the days meeting for a further pit lane infringement. That would have the effect of dropping the #1 car down to P6 overall and would cement for them what was a pretty awful round.
Jonny Adam and Derek Johnston would fair the best out of the AMR bunch again in the #17 car with a great stint from Johnston who moved the car up from a lonely sixth at the time of the pitstop to finish another accredited fourth come the chequered flag. That result also allowed them to leave the north west still eighteen points ahead in the championship despite their relatively mediocre performance.
In the GT4 class the first casualty was the #47 JWB car that would soon succumb to its post accident faults and would retire from the race on just lap eleven. Matty George in the #44 Generation AMR would however have a good start from his 4th on the grid to be soon leading the class until he had to come in and pit on lap 20.
The #407 Beechdean car would also start well from their uncharacteristic ninth on the grid and steadily move up thorough the field but a drive through penalty awarded to the team (at the same time as the sister #1 GT3 was awarded one for the same offence) left round 2 winners languishing back in sixth in class just ahead of the remaining Generation AMR and MacMillan Racing AMR's.
All in all Oulton Park proved to be a very difficult race for the Vantage GT3 and GT4 teams. There will I'm sure be plenty of head scratching going on within the teams to help identify issues that hindered them last weekend in an attempt to address things before they now move onto to Silverstone in just two weeks time for Round 5 on the 12th June.
We don't know if Stratton Motorsports will be appearing at the three hour event having skipped Oulton Park but we do expect Academy Motorsport to make a reappearance in the championship with Dennis Strandberg sharing their GT4 entry with an, as yet unidentified second driver.
