The leading TF Sport team achieved four points finishes in Rounds 3 and 4 of the 2016 Pirelli British GT Championship at Oulton Park (28-30 May), but left Cheshire feeling that it hadn’t quite maximised its potential.
Free practice went as expected and Derek Johnston extracted every ounce of performance from himself and his car to qualify fourth for the first of two races, while his Pro teammate Jonny Adam set a time that was good enough for fifth on the race two grid.
The sister Blue Steel-backed Aston Martin of Mark Farmer and Jon Barnes remained under the radar; neither driver was able to pull together representative lap times and they qualified out of position in eighth for both races.
As usual, the typical two-hour race format was replaced with a pair of one-hour contests for the British GT Championship’s Bank Holiday weekend at Oulton Park, therefore opportunities for drivers to progress from their grid positions were relatively thin on the ground.
An early Safety Car intervention scuppered any attempt by Johnston to make a difference and counter the ten-second success penalty TF Sport would serve during the compulsory driver-change, and the #17 car lost heaps more time in a chaotic pit lane, when its exit was blocked by the rival Beechdean Aston Martin.
Farmer, meanwhile, drove superbly during the opening phase of the race and the #11 car was fourth on merit after the stops, Barnes holding off Adam’s advances on the run to the chequered flag.
Fourth for Farmer and Barnes – their first representative finish and one that is worthy of their talents – and fifth for championship leaders Johnston and Adam was solid, but it was felt that bigger results were there for the taking and that was also the feeling after race two on Monday (30 May) afternoon.
Adam dropped a position to sixth at the start and was mired in among a long train of cars until the driver-change, when a loss of radio communication caused confusion and resulted in another time-loss.
Fortunately, the team retained track position and Geordie racer Johnston pushed on to a fourth place finish, although TF Sport was frustrated that its troubled pit stop had prevented it from capitalising on problems for Barwell Motorsport and reaching the podium.
With little or no chance of pulling an overtake on Oulton Park’s narrow and twisting confines, Barnes spent his entire stint baulked behind the BMW Z4 of Joe Osborne, and he and Am teammate Farmer were ultimately resigned to an eighth place result.
TF Sport Director, Tom Ferrier, said: “If I had been offered a pair of fourths, a fifth and an eighth at the start of the weekend, I would have taken it. We were 45kgs heavier than the Lamborghinis, the #17 car of Derek Johnston and Jonny Adam had a ten-second success penalty to serve and there are very few overtaking opportunities at Oulton Park, so we never expected to win.
“However, there is an underlying feeling that more was possible and I think we missed out on a podium in both races due to inconvenient Safety Cars, problematic pit stops and traffic. We have been left with a bitter taste, but the results are absolutely ideal for the championship and we’ll definitely be stronger in the next round at Silverstone.”
Round 5 of the 2016 Pirelli British GT Championship will be held at Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire on 11-12 June.