An incident packed Britcar MSA British Endurance Championship at Cheshire’s Oulton Park circuit saw Newbridge Motorsport and Guillaume Gruchet leave with a handful of vital championship points (5 July).
Friday’s Britcar Endurance Championship’s practice sessions were a mixed weather affair for Chris Valentine, who was quick to find the sweet spot on Oulton Park’s varied confines to familiarise himself quickly with the 2.69mile layout.
Unfortunately, due to business commitments, Gruchet was unable to test of Friday, which meant the Newbridge Motorsport team were unable to optimise both tyre and car setup on the Porsche 997 GT3.
The weather cleared for weekend’s opening race, which saw Gruchet bolt off the line and climb an impressive five places to seventh, before the race was brought to a halt due to a high-speed collision involving Mike Millard and Manuel Cintrano on the opening lap.
After a lengthy pause to procedures whilst race marshalls repaired the damaged tyre wall, racing was resumed for the second time, only for a Safety Car interruption several laps later due to a spin for Jonny MacGregor in his Ultima GT3.
When racing was resumed for a third time, Gruchet was quick to latch onto the back of the class rival, Jensen Lunn in his Chevron GT3.
The pair produced some incredible nose-to-tail racing, much to the fans’ delight, but were respective of each other to keep it clean.
The enthralling battled lasted several laps, before Lunn unfortunately peeled into the pits and into retirement with mechanical issues, freeing Gruchet, who crossed the line seventh.
Race two saw Valentine and Gruchet share the same grid for the first time this season in a race that proved to be a challenging affair for all competitors with many on-track incidents, including a long red flag period following Jensen Motorsport’s Alistair Lindsay’s crash on lap four, which in turn shortened the session to 45min sprint race.
When racing was resumed, Gruchet’s 997 GT3 suffered from clutch problems, which saw the Frenchman struggle with pace, but in true Newbridge Motorsport fashion, he refused to give up and showed huge amounts of determination and resilience to nurture the car to the finish line in eighth to claim a handful of vital championship points.
Elsewhere, Valentine, who secured a hat-trick of class victories at Thruxton last month, made his Endurance Championship debut, and despite racing against much higher powered machinery, finished the race without incident and bettering his previous best lap record by almost a second.
“I wasn’t able to test on Friday and felt very uncomfortable in qualifying,” said Gruchet. “The track was very greasy, bumpy, and due to a lack of track time, all contributed to a rather poor lap time and I ended qualifying towards the rear of the grid.
“But, I have thoroughly enjoyed the day. Oulton Park is a challenging circuit and has one of the most wonderful backdrops one can imagine, and most importantly, we kept on scoring those all-important points for the championship. I was aiming at something better, but I can’t be too disappointed.”
Valentine added: “As usual, one or two corners continued to be a specific problem for me, however, with the help of data and video analyst we were able to identify key areas for improvement in order to improve lap times.
“In the race, I already knew that I couldn’t match the pace of the higher powered Audis and Ferraris and therefore my real aim – as well as testing my stamina for longer races – was to finish without incident or failure and I’m very glad that was the case.”
Newbridge Motorsport Team Principal, Richard Tovey, said: “We had an interesting weekend, but ultimately it was positive. Chris’ (Valentine) main objective coming into this weekend was to compete in a longer race and build stamina, but unfortunately due to several stoppages, he wasn’t able to hit that target. He came out of the car feeling fresh and wouldn’t find the full 90-minute race an issue at all, which was great.
“Guillaume (Gruchet) suffered with clutch issues in race two and was still able to nurse the car home in eighth, which is mightily impressive. Had he tested Friday and the clutch went, the whole weekend would have been a washout, so we got away lightly with what could have been a disastrous weekend.
Tovey continued: “Overall, the team and drivers had another positive weekend in the Britcar MSA British Endurance Championship and we look forward to our next event at Snetterton in August.”