TF Sport concluded Round 3 of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship with a brace of top ten finishes for its pair of Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3s at Corby’s Rockingham Motor Speedway (2-3 May).
Free practice got underway under overcast skies on Saturday (2 May) and was near enough red-flagged immediately as the Tolman Motorsport Ginetta G55 GT4 ground to a halt on the racing line at Piff-Paff.
At the restart, Derek Johnston in the Steel Decking Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 managed to break into the 1m24s during the Bronze-only session to be within spitting distance of the top of the timesheets, only 0.018s behind Team LNT’s Ginetta GT3, as the Eurostar-liveried car finished eighth after completing a total of 27 laps.
The day’s second free practice was dedicated to race simulations instead of chasing lap times, with both cars running high fuel loads on used tyres.
The rain held off for the afternoon’s qualifying session, where Johnston and co-driver Matt Bell battled for the front row against their BMW and fellow Aston Martin rivals to set a best combined time of 2m47.969s to line-up in fourth for Sunday’s (3 May) televised two-hour race.
Andrew Jarman and Jody Fannin set a best time of 2m49.409s to line-up 13th, as the field of 30-plus GT3 and GT4 supercars took to Rockingham’s steep banking for the season’s first enduro encounter (3 May).
With the morning’s constant downpour replaced with bright sunshine, the field made it safely through the tight Deene hairpin for the first time, Johnston and Jarman maintaining their starting positions after the first tour, before contact between two McLaren 650s GT3s at Brook chicane warranted the first appearance of the Safety Car.
At the restart, Johnston became engaged in a five-car tussle for the lead, before moving up to third position, past fellow Aston Martin driver, Andrew Howard, who briefly led the race during the early stages.
Jarman, who stood on the final step of the podium in the GT4 category last year, took a few laps to generate heat into his Avon slicks, but when up to temperature, consistently lapped Rockingham’s 2.05mile International Super Sportscar Long Circuit several tenths faster than those ahead to climb as high as ninth.
Both TF Sport drivers, Johnston and Jarman, would continue to run strong stints in their Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3s before peeling into the pits after 50 minutes of racing for more fuel, fresh rubber and the compulsory driver changes, relinquishing their cars to Bell and Fannin, who would re-join the race in fourth and ninth positions respectively.
Bell would immediately set a personal best lap time to reduce the deficit to third-placed Rory Butcher, as Fannin was handed a one-second stop/go penalty for a pit lane infringement, which would see him drop outside of the top ten, before another penalty for a refuelling infringement saw him become entangled in a tight duel with the 22GT Racing V12 Vantage GT3.
The pair would run nose-to-tail in the dying embers of the two-hour race, with Fannin positioning his car perfectly at each corner to emerge on top, bringing the car home in ninth position.
“It was a satisfying weekend to bring the car home and score some points, but unfortunately two pit stop related stop/go penalties interrupted our progress. I’m looking forward to Silverstone for the next round at the end of the month, as I think the fast flowing nature of the track should suit our TF Sport Aston Martin.”
After a lengthy Safety Car interruption for a beached Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4 at Tarzan towards the latter end of the two-hour endurance race, Bell would fall victim to the slower GT4 traffic at the restart, dropping to fifth position and into the clutches of Triple Eight Racing’s BMW Z4 GT3.
Bell would drive the widest car on track to hold position up to the chequered flag and record his and teammate Johnston’s first championship points of the 2015 season.
“The weekend has been positive and we recorded a strong result compared to Oulton Park,” said Johnston. “The aim for me this weekend was to get as much running as possible to learn the braking points and understand the car’s handling characteristics, as it’s a completely different machine to the BMW I drove last season. We’ve learnt a lot here at Rockingham this weekend and have shown that we have a strong race pace. We certainly can fight for race wins and we will only move forwards from here.
“I’m happy with the overall weekend and the car has been great considering it went away for a rebuild. The team has done a flawless job in rebuilding the car after the incident at Oulton Park, as it was stripped back to its shell. Credit to those guys, and I cannot thank them enough.”
TF Sport Director, Tom Ferrier, said: “This weekend has been better than Oulton Park. There has been some very hard racing here at Rockingham and we thought we had a chance of a podium with the #17 car of Derek Johnston and Matt Bell, but a few things cost us. But still, a fifth place finish is much better than a DNF, so it was nice to get some decent points on the board and boost everyone’s confidence.
“With these longer races, you are always learning with drivers doing 50-plus minute stints, so we’ve got to our work on the setups to get the best out of the cars and find a bit more pace. Fifth and ninth-place finishes are good, but a first and second would be better and we will get there. Silverstone will be more suited to us at the end of this month.”
TF Sport will return to action in Rounds 4, 5 and 6 of the GT Cup at Kent’s globally renowned Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit (9-10 May).
For more information on TF Sport and its racing activities, visit the official www.tfsport.co.uk website, ‘like’ the team’s Facebook page of follow @OfficialTFSport on Twitter.