Devon Modell was left disgruntled by a “topsy-turvy” weekend at Norfolk’s Snetterton ‘300’ circuit, the host venue for Rounds 5 and 6 of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship (21-22 June).
Modell and teammate Andrew Jarman recorded the fourth fastest time in Saturday’s qualifying session, but lined-up seventh on the Round 5 grid after being docked three places for exceeding track limits.
A red flag stoppage compromised Modell’s qualifying run and the 23-year old racer was sure he had more to give, had he been able to complete more than one timed lap like his chief rivals.
Jarman experimented with setups during morning warm-up on Sunday in an attempt to improve the TF Sport Aston Martin’s speed and agility through Snetterton’s high-speed turns and reported positive results.
This was evident when the Milton Keynes-based driver took the start of Snetterton’s first 60-minute sprint race and immediately climbed a position after dispatching of the Optimum Ginetta G55 of series newcomer, Jade Edwards, before latching onto the back of Academy Motorsport’s Oli Basey-Fisher.
At the halfway mark, Jarman had climbed to an impressive fifth in class, before peeling into the pits to hand the reins of the Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4 to Modell, who, thanks to a well-planned pit stop strategy, rejoined the race ahead of Basey-Fisher’s Ginetta.
Modell looked to reinforce Jarman’s impressive stint and ascend further up the timing screens – a challenge he gladly rose to after setting his sights on Norway’s Aleksander Schjerpen, some 15 seconds down the road.
As the race progressed, Modell began lapping Snetterton’s 2.99mile ‘300’ configuration over a second quicker than his class rivals, continually setting personal best times on increasingly grippy Avon tyres.
After just three laps behind the wheel of the TF Sport-prepared Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Modell had closed the gap to within ten seconds and his pace was unrelenting as he continued to light up the timing screens with green sectors.
The British GT and Courier Connections Renault UK Clio Cup driver ran strongly throughout his stint as the clock counted down when, with just one lap remaining, Modell set yet another personal best time of 2m02.176s.
As the only GT4 driver to consistently lap within the 2m02s, the gap to Schjerpen had slimmed to just eight tenths of a second as the pair crossed the line in fourth and fifth places respectively, bringing to an end Modell and Jarman’s unbroken run of podium finishes.
The weekend’s second race on Sunday afternoon was heavily delayed after a three-car incident involving the TF Sport with Horsepower Racing GT3 entry of Andy Schulz on lap two brought the session to a halt.
After nearly an hour-long delay, the race was resumed under Safety Car conditions.
A plethora of race-spec supercars were finally unleashed for the final race of the weekend after two warm-up laps behind the course car and Modell was quick to dispatch Ginetta rivals Tom Oliphant and Matt Nicoll-Jones and promote TF Sport to fifth position in class, within reach of a podium finish.
Resolutely charging during his stint, TF Sport opted to pit Modell as soon as the pit window opened in a bid to release Jarman into clean air.
Another well-planned pit strategy worked wonders again as Jarman slotted back into fifth position, although stunning pace and consistency propelled both himself and Modell up to second in class and onto the tail of class leader, Adrian Barwick.
Unfortunately, a power loss like the one sustained during Silverstone’s previous round brought Jarman to a stop at the exit of Turn 1, costing him 20 seconds and track position, and denying him a chance of victory in fifth position.
A disappointed Modell reacted by saying: “We came agonisingly close to achieving another victory today, so it’s immensely disappointing to be denied another result by a recurrence of the same issue that hit us at Silverstone. Once again we need to look at the car to see what happened. We got ourselves in the perfect position, but there’s not much we can do about it now. Both times, this issue has cost us victory.
“It has been a topsy-turvy weekend. Free practice one was good and we were pleasantly surprised about our pace, but then the speed dropped off on Saturday. Overnight changes improved the situation and that’s demonstrated by our race performances. It’s onwards and hopefully upwards, as we head towards the end of the season. It’s imperative that we solve this problem to give us the best shot at the championship title.”
For more information on Devon Modell and his racing activities, please follow @Devon_Modell on Twitter.