A bitterly disappointed TF Sport team was left reeling after a poorly managed Safety Car intervention cost it a GT4 class win in Brands Hatch’s penultimate round of the 2014 Avon Tyres British GT Championship, jeopardising its title bid (Sunday 31 August).
A highly competitive British GT field took to the 2.30mile Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit for free practice and the crucial qualifying session on Saturday (30 August) and there was nothing to choose between many of the teams, with the top ten separated by little more than one second in FP1.
The Horsepower Racing-liveried Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 was driven to the eighth-fastest time straight out of the blocks in FP1, although the pace ramped-up dramatically throughout the day and the ambitious TF Sport team and its drivers – Andy Schulz and Paul Bailey – were underwhelmed with 18th in qualifying.
Sunday’s (31 August) two-hour contest – the penultimate round of the 2014 British GT season – got underway in warm, dry conditions and Bailey, wanting a clean race, took a conservative approach during the opening tours of the Kent circuit while trying to settle into a rhythm.
Emerging in 19th position overall, two seconds adrift of the Triple 8 BMW Z4 GT3 in the hands of Lee Mowle but ahead of Hector Lester’s Rosso Verde Ferrari 458 Italia and Godfrey Jones’s Preci Spark McLaren MP4-12C, Bailey had his rhythm disturbed and lost chunks of time to the main GT3 pack in a off at Paddock Hill Bend.
A pair of Safety Car interventions as the race neared half-distance bunched up the field and brought Bailey back into play just before handing the reins to Schulz who, on a set of scrubbed Avon Tyres, drove a solidly consistent stint and steadily reduced a gap of over a minute to Jones to just 5.1s while in a guaranteed 14th position.
Bailey, who has now vacated his seat in TF Sport’s Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 ahead of Donington Park’s much-anticipated season finale (13-14 September), said: “We finished the race and that is the main thing. I didn’t want a DNF, especially one that’s down to me. I went into Paddock Hill Bend too quickly and threw the car into the gravel, but continued on my way, tried to re-focus and found it extremely difficult. I dropped significant chunks of time while being super-cautious, but today we finished higher than our starting position and I’ve gone quicker than ever around the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit.
“I’m hoping to run with Tom (Ferrier) next year, but not in British GT, as the team has done a fantastic job all year. We have several different GT cars and we will be renting out the two GT3 cars to people who might want to do the Blancpain Endurance Series, British GT or the GT Open, for example.”
Fresh from a highly encouraging test in TF Sport’s GT3-spec Aston Martin V12 Vantage, Jarman and Modell returned to the cockpit of their V8-engined GT4 racer at Brands Hatch and searched frantically for the optimal setup in free practice, before going sixth fastest in qualifying, with their Beechdean AMR championship rivals setting the pace and nabbing pole position in class.
Neither Jarman nor Modell were wholly satisfied with the car’s handling, particularly as it didn’t inspire confidence over Brands Hatch’s high kerbing, and work to refine the setup continued in Sunday’s morning warm-up.
Modell got back behind the wheel and made positive adjustments to the Aston Martin’s configuration, but felt other minor tweaks would yield more speed, and felt confident TF Sport would move forwards in the race, as it has done repeatedly in 2014.
Jarman started the two-hour contest in the GT4-spec Aston and made rapid progress up the order. The Milton Keynes-based driver had entered the podium positions by lap four and continued his ascent by pulling off another surefooted overtake on Paul McNeilly’s FOX Motorsport Ginetta G55.
Now in second place, supremely quick and consistency laptimes in clean air allowed Jarman to narrow the gap to the title-rivalling Beechdean Aston Martin of Ross Wylie to a mere 1.1s, although he suffered greatly at the hands of blue flags.
However, colourful language reverberated from the TF Sport pit-wall when poorly-timed Safety Car deployments allowed the class-leading Beechdean team to gain almost a full lap on its rivals, taking TF Sport out of the reckoning for the GT4 victory.
Modell took over from Jarman with just over one hour remaining and lapped strongly, but had an unbridgeable gap of almost a minute to Beechdean’s Jake Giddings once everybody had made their mandatory pit stops.
Nevertheless, the Maidstone driver pressed on and, although his deficit fluctuated during the final hour, he brought the #49 Aston Martin home in a creditable second position to remain within the title race going into Donington Park’s decider (13-14 September).
“We always race better than we qualify and the car’s setup is catered to the races, but I was able to make quite a lot of progress up the order, picking them off one-by-one, staying out of trouble and getting my head down,” said Jarman. “It was essential to get as close to the Beechdean car as possible and that’s what I did. It was all looking very positive and we knew the strategies would work in our favour, but then the Safety Car came out and everything changed, with Beechdean being allowed to gain a lap on us. It spoilt what was going to be a great GT4 race between two title contenders, but the championship isn’t over and we’ll keep pushing until the final lap at Donington Park. This just makes the challenge a whole lot harder.”
For more on TF Sport, visit the official www.tfsport.co.uk website, ‘like’ the team’s Facebook page of follow @OfficialTFSport on Twitter.