TF Sport’s unbroken run of GT4 podium finishes in the 2014 Avon Tyres British GT Championship ended at Snetterton on Sunday (22 June), the team coming agonisingly close to beating the odds and taking an unlikely win in the Norfolk countryside.
The Redhill, Surrey-based team’s GT3 driver pairing – Paul Bailey and Andy Schulz – ended free practice just four tenths off the lead MP Motorsport Aston Martin of Mark Poole and Richard Abra, but qualified a lowly 21st and 16th for races one and two respectively.
After a tentative start, Bailey rounded the final turn at Murrays in 21st position and within striking distance of Ian Stinton in the IDL CWS Racing Ginetta G55 GT3.
Bailey eventually settled into a rhythm on the 2.99mile Snetterton ‘300’ circuit and halved the gap to Stinton on lap four, before pouncing the following lap and going in pursuit of John Dhillon’s AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia.
Less than three tenths separated the two on lap eight and Bailey mercilessly hounded Dhillon until lap 13, when the pit lane window opened and the Rutland-based driver gave way to teammate Schulz.
After the first round of stops, Schulz had a sizeable gap to bridge to the AF Corse Ferrari, which began making a move in the hands of Aaron Scott, defeating the Preci-Spark McLaren MP4-12C of Godfrey and David Jones, as well as Wolfgang Reip’s Nissan GTR.
Schulz took significant chunks out of Jones’s advantage with each lap of the Norfolk circuit and passed him for P17 shortly before recording a personal best lap time of 1m52.447s on lap 24.
Thereafter, Warren Hughes’s Porsche 997 GT3 R succumbed to terminal mechanical troubles to gift TF Sport with Horsepower Racing 16th for the final charge to the flag.
Race two began with Schulz behind the wheel of the red Aston Martin V12 Vantage and a storming opening lap saw him climb three places from 15th to 12th at the expense of Scott, John Gaw and Luke Hines.
Sadly, lap two commenced with a terrifying three-way collision at the high-speed Riches corner involving Aston Martin rivals Schulz and Gaw, as well as Hines’ Triple 8 BMW.
The race was red-flagged while the recovery operation was carried out, but despite the violent and high-speed nature of the incident, all three drivers incredibly emerged from their cars relatively unscathed – a testament to the high safety standards in modern-day GT racing.
TF Sport’s GT4 contenders, Andrew Jarman and Devon Modell, recorded the fourth fastest time in qualifying for race one, but were docked three places on the grid for exceeding track limits.
A red flag stoppage compromised Modell’s qualifying run and the Maidstone racer was adamant he had more to give, had he been able to complete more than one timed lap like his chief rivals.
Reigning Aston Martin GT4 Challenge Champion Jarman experimented with a new and untried setup during Sunday’s morning warm-up and reported an improvement in his V8 Vantage’s ability to handle quick changes of direction.
The Milton Keynes racer used a solid start to race one to maintain sixth position and, despite diminishing the gap to Oli Basey-Fisher and Beechdean Aston Martin rival Ross Wylie in the battle for fourth, maintained position until his stint came to a conclusion and Modell took the reins on lap 14.
A well-timed and superbly-executed driver change saw Modell emerge from the pits in fifth place and ahead of the Basey-Fisher/Matt Nicoll-Jones Academy Motorsport Ginetta.
The 23-year old from Kent had Jamie Stanley for company in the latter stages and set personal best lap times to close down on Century Motorsport’s Aleksander Schjerpen for fourth position before the chequered flag fell on the first of two hour-long British GT contests.
The weekend’s second race was heavily delayed after the lap two incident involving TF Sport with Horsepower Racing’s GT3 entry.
However, there was a full restart under Safety Car conditions and drivers took up their original grid positions for the clipped 55-minute contest, following an admirable and efficient effort from the Snetterton marshals to recover the three stricken cars and rebuild the mangled Riches tyre wall.
Modell was sent out for the opening stint and initially ran seventh in the wake of Ginetta rivals Tom Oliphant and Nicoll-Jones, displacing both of them for fifth place on the eighth lap.
TF Sport carried out its compulsory driver change, swapping Modell for Jarman at half-distance and sparking a hive of pit lane activity.
Once all strategies had played out, TF Sport’s Aston Martin V8 Vantage remained fifth in the GT4 classification, although stunning pace and consistency propelled Jarman to third and within sight of the front running Twisted Team Parker Ginetta of Adrian Barwick and Bradley Ellis.
The Milton-Keynes-based racer got to within 1.5s of the class lead. But in a repeat of Silverstone’s previous round, the Aston Martin mysteriously shut down at the exit of Turn 1, costing him 20 seconds and track position, taking the flag disgruntled 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.”
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