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Race Report Part 2 - GT Championship Team Race

We waved goodbye to Jean, Dexter, Marios, Oliver and Duncan at lunchtime, leaving nineteen racers in six teams for the third round of our 2022 Worthing GT Championship...

   

Terry was deputising for both Jean and Oli to captain Johnny's Workshop - a fully Bronze team with a change of car to a sidewinder Aston Martin Vantage. AST Better were also running a Vantage, with WHAM! Racing's Bentley a third sidewinder on the grid. Both Sports Carazing and Fundamentally Barley had the same line-ups as last month, with the Barley boys swapping back to an AMG GT3. AST One had Ed back, with Bobby the third driver in their Corvette C8R.

The action started with a two-minute Super-Pole session - the driver qualifying each car would start the race. On a wet track, Ryan closed out a third successive pole position for Sports Carazing...

   

The hall lights were dimmed and we were ready to race for 48-minutes - a number divisible by both three and four, to accommodate the quartet of Johnny's Workshop. And we were in for a wet race too - starting on a damp track, with rain forecast and the possibility of a drying track at the end...

   

The rain didn't take long to come and some of the teams pitted early to change their Intermediate tyres for full Wets. A tyre change takes nearly a minute in our GT Endurance format, so it is a big decision - most left it to the first driver change, although both Johnny's Workshop Fundamentally Barley stayed out on Inters, hoping to work with the conditions and gain an advantage...

   

At that first driver change stop, Ryan handed the Sports Carazing AMG to Matthew with a massive nine lap lead - showing what a magnificent racer he's become. In second, Simon handed the Fundamentally Barley AMG to Rob, just two laps ahead of the WHAM! Racing Bentley, which Ash had driven beautifully and was now piloted by Jeremy. The other three teams had all had problems during the first stint, some of them rear-wing related. The all-Bronze team of Johnny's Workshop were going well in fourth, with Isaac already into the fifth minute of his stint after a strong opening 12-minutes from Ollie. AST Better were running close behind, with Kevin taking over from Pete. At the back, the AST One Corvette had struggled in the opening stages - Bobby handing over to Alex with a three lap gap to the rest of the field and twenty-one adrift of the leaders...

   

Matthew initially stretched the lead, but then was pegged back as Rob got into his stride. The rain had stopped with about twenty minutes to go, but the track remained sodden. At the second driver change, all the teams remained on Wet tyres. The gap between first and second was still nine laps, Oliver taking over the Carazing car and Mike jumping into the blue Bilstein AMG. Jeremy had kept the Bentley in contact, just a lap back, and handed over to Andy for the final sixteen minutes. Alex enjoyed an impressive stint, jumping up to fourth and cutting the deficit to the leaders down to eighteen laps, nine behind WHAM! Racing. Johnny's Workshop were in fifth with Terry at the wheel, three laps behind AST One and just a lap ahead of AST Better, where Kevin had pitted to give Dean the final stint...

It proved an exciting sixteen minutes, with Oliver reasonably safe, but Mike and Andy going hammer and tongs for second. The gap between the leader and the chasing duo did come down to seven laps, but that was mostly due to an early stop for tyres - Oliver going back out on Wets as the track was drying extremely slowly. Andy would also need to make a lengthy stop for tyres, but could Mike make it to the end? As the Bentley's tyres degraded and braking distances lengthened significantly, Mike managed to put a lap between the two cars - the WHAM! Racing team strategists responded with a mid-stint stop and a gamble on Intermediates. Although tricky to begin with, the track conditions soon turned in favour of the Inters and the Bentley was now quicker than the AMG that was three laps ahead.

The Fundamentally Barley strategy was to go the end on the worn wets, but they began to wear more quickly as the track dried... With just ninety seconds to go, Mike was forced to stop. When he left the pits a minute later, Andy was just a few corners behind and closing rapidly. An off for the Mercedes saw the Bentley get through and take second place - the chequered flag falling at the end of the lap for a dramatic finish. Of course, that was just for the minor podium places - Oliver brought the winning AMG home eleven laps ahead. It had been another fabulous collaborative effort - a third win out of three for the team and a second for the line-up of Ryan, Oliver and Matthew. Ed brought the 'Vette home in fourth, twelve laps behind the pair ahead - and three laps ahead of Johnny's Workshop. Seven laps adrift in sixth was the second Aston Martin of AST Better.

       

And here are all your stats from the race...

   

The final round of the GT Championship is next month - with three wins already, Sports Carazing can't be beaten...

   

However, there's going to be quite a scrap for second and third - and maybe for a consolation race win?

Next up is Group C and the Muscle Car Mondiale...