TF Sport resolutely continued its unbroken run of GT4 podiums in the Avon Tyres British GT Championship, taking a closely-fought third place in the three-hour ‘Silverstone 500’ endurance race (31 May-1 June).
The flourishing TF Sport outfit’s preparations for the ‘Silverstone 500’ – the jewel in the British GT crown and the fourth instalment of the 2014 season – included an outing in the prestigious Blancpain Endurance Series just over one week ago.
It took the opportunity to recce Silverstone’s Grand Prix circuit and bed-in its GT3 drivers, Paul Bailey and Andy Schulz, with the view of getting the jump on its British GT rivals.
Unfortunately, incident and inclement weather prevented the team from extracting the most from its Blancpain reconnaissance, although it felt confident that, true to form, the high-powered Aston Martins would excel on Silverstone’s fast and flowing confines.
Sadly TF Sport had a turbulent start to the British GT ‘Silverstone 500’ weekend, its programme stymied by free practice spins, collisions and failures.
Free practice was mired by a heavy shunt for Andy Schulz, who was an unsuspecting victim in a collision that meant TF Sport lost invaluable setup time during FP2.
The team was subsequently forced to take a flyer with its configuration in qualifying, but it missed the sweet spot and languished in 19th, at the bottom end of the GT3 leaderboard.
Bailey took the start of the three-hour endurance race on Sunday afternoon (1 June) and was 14th by lap ten, when a collision with Oz Yusuf’s lapped GT4-spec Lotus Evora sent the pair of them spinning out of the race at Brooklands.
In GT4, Andrew Jarman and Devon Modell were initially hampered when their Aston Martin V8 Vantage’s flat floor failed while under immense loads on Silverstone’s super-fast Grand Prix layout.
In addition, an overly cautious setup designed to counter extreme understeer, hindered the teammates in qualifying.
The decision was made to switch back to a more conventional, known configuration in Sunday’s morning warm-up and the team subsequently closed to within two tenths of the leading Beechdean Aston Martin.
Jarman elected to start Sunday’s headlining race and immediately made progress up the leaderboard until the TF Sport Aston Martin unexpectedly ground to a halt at Brooklands on the second tour of Silverstone’s 3.66mile Grand Prix circuit.
A master reset and an unscheduled stop resulted in a major loss of time, but the Milton Keynes driver continued on his way, emerging from the pits some 32 seconds adrift of GT4 tail-ender, Bolaji Odunsi.
Jarman was significantly quicker than his brawling rivals, even while being lapped by the leading GT3 contenders, and passed Alain Schlesinger in the RLR/Declan Jones BMW M3 GT4 as the first Safety Car deployment occurred on lap ten.
The pits came alive as soon as the race was neutralised and TF Sport took the opportunity to switch Jarman for Modell, who immediately reinforced his teammate’s pace to continue striding up the order.
TF Sport stuck to its original strategy and the Maidstone racer concluded his stint in third and within striking distance of second-placed Ross Wylie as the race reached half-distance, although Jarman would inherit the initiative as strategies played out during his final run, before a careless tap from Century Motorsport’s Rick Parfitt Junior sent the both of them into spins at Turn 5.
Parfitt justly received a drive-through penalty for “causing an avoidable collision” and Jarman returned to the fray having lost the initiative to Ryan Ratcliffe’s Ginetta G55.
However, first position eventually fell into the clutches of Twisted Team Parker and Bradley Ellis after the final round of stops, while Optimum’s Matt Draper and Modell in second and third places had Oliphant and Wylie bearing down on them fast.
Modell did well to narrow the gap to Draper, although the Kent racer’s charge was stalled when he had to fight a rear-guard action to protect the final podium spot.
Oliphant’s fate was sealed when smoke began billowing from the underside of his ailing Ginetta and this left Wylie to pick up the baton.
But Modell drove a canny line and the widest Aston Martin on the track, ultimately taking the chequered flag with half a second in hand over his Beechdean Aston Martin rival.
“It was really hard work at the end and I had to drive the widest Aston Martin in existence to maintain third place,” said Modell. “I wasn’t quite quick enough to begin with but I kept picking up the pace, settled into a rhythm and, by the end of my first stint, we were easily the quickest Aston Martin out there. We had no running during free practice, but decided to be ambitious and only change two tyres on the car during the stops. We just about got away with it and, given how the weekend started, a podium finish is amazing. Having said that, it speaks volumes that I’m slightly disappointed with third place!”
Jarman added: “Third place is a fantastic result considering where we began in free practice, as we’ve achieved some fantastic points and have moved back to the top of the GT4 standings. It has been a tough weekend with problems in practice and, having never driven the Silverstone GP circuit before, I could have done with more time and we could have done with a better setup. However, we got through it, the team did a great job and I’m delighted with the result.”
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