TF Sport ticked all the boxes in Round 2 of the 2014 Avon Tyres British GT Championship, achieving its first points in the headlining GT3 class and once again scaling the GT4 winners’ rostrum at Rockingham Motor Speedway on Bank Holiday Monday (5 May).
Paul Bailey and Andy Schulz qualified 16th, producing a combined time of 2m51.230s in the two-part qualifying session to determine the starting order for Monday’s (5 May) second round of the British GT Championship at Rockingham.
The Horsepower Racing pairing went as high as sixth fastest with a 1m25.024s in the weekend’s first practice session and found another tenth in FP2, although Bailey himself reported a massive 1.15s improvement in lap time compared to his previous visit to the Corby-based circuit in 2013.
Bailey elected to start the two-hour contest and gradually increased his pace in the striking red-liveried GT3-spec Aston Martin V12 Vantage to break into the 1m29s bracket.
He drove solidly and yo-yoed up and down the leaderboard while rivals faltered or were hit with penalties for various infringements, but was a full 15 seconds adrift of the similar Oman Racing Team Aston Martin in the hands of Liam Griffin.
A collision instigated by Griffin sent Steve Tandy in the Generation Bentley Racing Continental GT3 into a spin and brought Bailey back in contention.
Bailey continued chasing the Bentley and less than four seconds separated the pair when, after 40 minutes of uninterrupted racing, the Nissan Juke-R Safety Car made its first appearance of the day.
Racing resumed after a short delay and TF Sport pulled Bailey in from 14th position on lap 34 for the compulsory driver-change.
Schulz took over with four fresh tyres and a full tank of fuel and broke into the top ten as strategies played out and the second successive Safety Car intervention occured.
At the restart, Schulz quickly made up a position at the expense of Oman Racing Team’s Rory Butcher and rose as high as eighth before an unfortunate slide at Deene left him vulnerable to John Dhillon and Aaron Scott’s AF Corse Ferrari and the Triple 8 BMW Z4 of Lee Mowle and Joe Osborne.
Just over a second separated the trio until Schulz overshot the Tarzan hairpin. Scott’s Ferrari muscled its way past to also open the door to Osborne, demoting the Horsepower Racing Aston Martin driver to tenth.
However, TF Sport with Horsepower Racing was promoted to ninth post-race when the Triple 8 BMW of Mowle and Osborne was demoted from ninth to 11th for driving in an unsafe manner.
“We achieved exactly what we set out to achieve and we didn’t expect to do it in only the third race of the season,” said Bailey. “We’re very pleased, particularly as Rockingham is an unusual and demanding circuit on driver, car and tyres. I’m very pleased with my lap times, because I’m 1.15s quicker than I was here last year when I ran with a lot more horsepower and weight. It’s not where I need to be, but I’m up against some of Europe’s best and most experienced drivers. It’s a great result and the team did a superb job!”
Andrew Jarman kicked things off in TF Sport’s GT4 Aston Martin V8 Vantage, immediately ascending up the order and passing no less than three rivals on the opening tour of Rockingham’s International Super Sportscar circuit.
Coming from the very back of the grid, the Milton Keynes-domiciled driver lapped more quickly than all those ahead of him, with the exception of class leader Rick Parfitt Junior in clean air.
Jarman was fourth and targeting Oli Basey-Fisher by lap seven. The gap between third and fourth places ebbed and flowed as the drivers gave way to the leading GT3 contenders, but Jarman soon got the better of the Academy Motorsport driver with a well-timed lunge at Deene hairpin, only for a slow rear puncture to halt his progress on lap 12.
As the pit window neared, Jarman still managed to pull a significant gap on his rivals before an admirable drive was brought to an end when TF Sport pre-empted a second Safety Car deployment by carrying out its compulsory driver change on lap 36.
Devon Modell took over and emerged from the pits following a lengthy stop, which included the obligatory 20-second halt for winning the previous race, in fourth place.
He inherited a position as Century Motorsport’s leading Ginetta faltered and then embarked on a heated and prolonged tussle with Jamie Stanley’s Fox Motorsport Ginetta G55 that lasted more than 40 minutes.
Maidstone’s Modell stuck out his elbows in defence of his position and held his nerve while dealing with a succession of overtaking attempts on rapidly degrading tyres, to finally pull a gap on the Ginetta racer and take the chequered flag in a well-earned third position.
TF Sport Director, Tom Ferrier, said: “We were always up against it, but we got what we came for, achieving a point in GT3 and a podium finish in GT4. In hindsight, the GT4 result may have been even better if we hadn’t had to start from the back of the grid, but Andrew’s (Jarman) pace was exceptional and moved us forwards and Devon (Modell) did a very good job considering he turned up today with hardly any practice miles under his belt. I’m sure we would have scored more points in GT3 too, but a small mistake cost us. However, today’s results mean that we go into the next long races aiming for more and I think we might target a minimum of eighth in GT3 and second in GT4 next time out at Silverstone. We came here knowing this wasn’t going to be the strongest track for the Aston Martin and we have some circuits coming up that the drivers excel on. Onwards and upwards!”
For more on TF Sport, visit the official www.tfsport.co.uk website, ‘like’ the team’sFacebook page of follow @OfficialTFSport on Twitter.