Scuderia Ecosse confirmed their position at the top of National-level motorsport on Bank Holiday Monday when their 360 GTs won both British GT races at Thruxton. Tim Mullen and Chris Niarchos took a hard fought win in race one whilst Andrew Kirkaldy and Nathan Kinch won the second race. A key feature of both races was the excellent performance by Niarchos and Kinch, who both cut their racing teeth with Scuderia Ecosse in the Pirelli Maranello Ferrari Challenge.

Race 1 saw Chris Niarchos in the number 34 360 GT running in the top six throughout the first half of race one. Whilst its sister car struggled with high water temperatures after an excursion across the grass, Chris brought the car in for Tim Mullen in the lead. A quick changeover put Tim out in third place, ten seconds behind the second placed car which he quickly reeled in and passed. With 20 minutes of the race remaining, Tim set his sights on the leader.

With only a handful of laps remaining, he caught a Balfe in a Mosler (Is that a car?- Ed) which he attempted to go around the outside of at the chicane but the door was firmly slammed shut. Next time around things were different as Tim explains. “I got a great run out of Church and could see one of the Jones boys on my left and the Mosler moving over to the right so I went straight through the middle! Balfe turned into me but luckily he suffered the consequences of that and not me".

Chris was equally pleased with the victory and said “What a result! I think I’m the happiest man in the world today. We have been improving steadily throughout the season so we knew we could do a good job here and we’re obviously delighted to get a victory! The car felt fantastic and was a lot of fun to race.”

Kirkaldy and Kinch finished race one in sixth position after their 360 had to make two extra pit stops in addition to the usual Pro-Am penalty. The first stop was for Nathan Kinch to come in and have the car’s radiators cleared of grass after a trip across the green early on in the race and the second to replace a punctured right rear tyre.

In Race 2, Both Andrew and Tim got good starts and soon passed the pole man, establishing a Ferrari one-two. Kirkaldy needed to secure a 20 second advantage over the GruppeM Porsche before the pit stop because of the Pro-Am penalty. It was looking good with a gap of over 15 seconds after only seven laps but a lap later the Safety Car was dispatched, it came back in just before the pit window opened and Andrew set about building up the gap again with Tim Mullen close behind in P2. The Safety Car came out again on lap 16 so Andrew dived into the pits to hand the car over to Nathan who rejoined just behind the GruppeM Porsche. Tim Mullen came in a lap later.

After the pit stops and the Safety Car period, Nathan was running in second position but Chris Niarchos had taken over the sister Ferrari from Tim Mullen and ended up in tenth once everything levelled out. He was able to make his way through to eighth place, which would be his final finishing position.

Nathan soon made light work of Cocker’s Porsche, breezed into the lead and never looked back. He explains: “It’s fantastic for the team to get both wins today. I couldn’t believe it when the first Safety Car came out but as things panned out the second Safety Car actually helped us".

“I’m really pleased with the job the team did today”, commented Team Principal Stewart Roden. “It’s tough on everyone to run two races in one day but they all worked incredibly hard and did me proud. Naturally we’re disappointed not to get the driver’s championship but the team title is still up for grabs".

Rounds 15 and 16 of the British GT Championship take place at Brands Hatch in October.

 

pics by Brit GT