TF Sport left the opposition dazed on its International GT Open debut, as Darren Turner and Jody Fannin raced the team’s Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 to a victory and a podium finish on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit (19-20 July).
Silverstone hosted the British round of the International GT Open for only the second time and the Tom Ferrier-led TF Sport operation entered the series’ SuperGT class with a stellar new driver line-up composed of double Le Mans 24 Hours winner, Turner, and former British GT4 Champion, Fannin.
There were two faces to free practice on Friday (18 July). A summer storm affected the morning session and the afternoon was dominated by warm and humid conditions, but TF Sport was unfazed and thundered to the top of the timesheets in FP1, just ahead of the Villorba Ferrari of Andrea Montermini and Niccolò Schirò.
The debuting TF Sport outfit carried its pace through to qualifying, nabbing pole position for the first of two International GT Open races on the fast and historic Northamptonshire circuit, which was rich in contact and punctures.
Fortunately, the incidents never impacted on the final result and helped TF Sport’s bid for victory, as the sole Aston Martin V12 Vantage in the hands of Turner and Fannin dominantly led the entire race from pole position, despite its 40-second lead being negated by an untimely Safety Car intervention in the latter stages.
Turner held the initiative over Montermini at the start, leaving those behind him to squabble over the remaining positions, and had drawn out a commanding 15-second lead by lap ten.
A well-executed driver-change saw Fannin emerge from the pits still in the lead and ahead of second-placed Francesco Pastorelli and, while a stricken car prompted a late Safety Car deployment, racing was resumed with five minutes remaining and the Surrey-based driver kept a cool head during two lively final laps to achieve a momentous race win for TF Sport on its International GT Open debut.
Fannin took the start of race two in milder conditions on Sunday (20 July) and made a lot of headway during his stint, passing several cars, including Italian Schirò for second position on lap five, before going in hot pursuit of leader Matteo Beretta.
On a charge, the former British GT4 Champion was soon within striking distance and mounted a successful attack for P1 at Stowe corner on the seventh tour of the 3.66mile Grand Prix circuit.
The SMP Racing Russian Bears Ferrari 458 Italia of Daniel Zampieri and Roman Mavlanov tailed Fannin as he handed the V12 Vantage to Turner on lap 12 and had a dozen seconds in hand over the rest of the field as the strategies shook out.
Turner was sixth as he joined the fray but pushed hard to surge back into contention for a podium, but was unable to bridge the gap to the leaders and challenge for a second consecutive victory after recapturing P2 from fellow Briton Archie Hamilton, simply opting to reduce his speed and conserve his Dunlop tyres.
“It was great to rock up and take a race win and a second place straight out of the blocks in the International GT Open, and the TF Sport team did a very good job,” said Turner. “There were no problems with the car, there were no mistakes, the strategy was good and the engineers did a great job at giving us a fast racecar. I believe you can always tell the quality of the team by the way the car is prepared and presented, and I was highly impressed with what I saw. The team was thorough in testing and the car felt strong, you can never be sure of what’s going to happen in qualifying and the races.”
Fannin added: “I’d like thank John Gaw from Aston Martin Racing and Tom Ferrier from TF Sport for working so hard to put this all together, as well as IWI Watches for coming on board. Thanks to the guys at TF Sport, we had all the tools necessary to achieve two sensational results, as the Aston Martin V12 Vantage was fantastic all weekend at Silverstone. I’ve really enjoyed working with Darren (Turner) and hope to have another outing in an Aston Martin before too long.”