| ||||
 | ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
 |
The Scottish duo of Andrew Kirkaldy and Nathan Kinch scored a perfect set of results for the Scuderia Ecosse 360 GTCs at Castle Combe last weekend, taking their sixth and seventh wins of the 2005 British GT Championship. With team-mates Chris Niarchos and Tim Mullen finishing close behind in second place in both races the team achieved its first ever double 'one-two' and is now flying clear at the top of the Championship tables. Ferrari honours in GT3 went to the 360/Ch
of the United Christian Broadcasters team of Allan Simonsen
and Hector Lester taking the class win (7th O/A) in Race 1and second in
class (9th O/A) in Race 2. Kinch and Kirkaldy started from pole, but were given a nasty scare when the Eclipse Motorsport Mosler driven by Phil Keen charged past Kinch on lap 4, But an unforeseen pit stop forced the Mosler in and the Scots cruised to the win, 9 seconds ahead of their team mates Tim Mullen and Chris Niarchos who had a much more dramatic race, Niarchos spinning on lap four whilst running fourth, chasing a Porsche. The spin put Chris down to ninth but he got stuck in immediately and handed the Ferrari over to Tim Mullen in fourth place after lapping just a few seconds shy of the third placed Porsche. Once all the pit stops had taken place and the scores had levelled out
Kirkaldy was leading and Mullen was in second place, the two drivers swapping
new lap records, a battle ultimately won by Mullen. The final one-two
result was testament to the hard work of the whole Scuderia Ecosse team. Race 2 - Sunday 26 June Andrew Kirkaldy and Tim Mullen got away well from the front row of the grid for Sunday's race but Mullen was caught out by Ben Collins' Porsche on the first lap, the Embassy driver passing him for second place. As Kirkaldy began to pull away Mullen went into battle with Collins' Porsche, passing him on lap six before hunting down his Scottish team-mate. Twenty minutes into the race Mullen was running with Kirkaldy, then almost as soon as the pit window opened the Safety Car was dispatched whilst a crashed Porsche was cleared from the circuit. The team immediately signalled for both cars to pit to change drivers but as they had just gone past the pit lane entrance they had to complete another lap so were hobbled somewhat by the timing of the safety car. The Embassy Porsche meanwhile had pitted just as the Safety Car came out so rejoined the race in first place! Nathan Kinch and Chris Niarchos had it all to do and immediately set
about chasing the Embassy Porkie, now driven by Neil Cunningham. A few
laps later, under serious pressure from a charging Kinch, Cunningham went
off onto the grass, rejoining in second place. So with Kinch in the lead
and Niarchos now chasing Cunningham for second the race was going to plan
for Scuderia Ecosse. The team, and Kinch especially, had a heart-stopping
moment a lap later when the Embassy Porsche spun in front of them as they
both came through Camp Corner. Kinch emerged unscathed just as the Embassy
Porsche peeled off into the pit lane with its radiators full of grass.
Chris Niarchos was now second and ten minutes later he and Kinch cruised
home to another one-two victory for Scuderia Ecosse. Damax's tale of woe continued on the Sunday, Hulford
and Smyth's car had its 2nd alternator fail whilst being warmed up to
go onto the grid. Stirling work by the mechanics saw a new alternator
fitted and Jamie Smyth leave the pitlane to join the grid with 8 seconds
to spare before the pitlane was closed.
Click here to return to the Ferrari Happenings page.
|
