The International Open GT at Brands Hatch this weekend saw an entry from Rollcentre Racing, and a new pairing with Martin Short in the shape of Steve Quick. Steve has a background in Lotus Europa and GT Cup, although he has only raced for a year. Steve has an eye on moving up into a higher series and had fhis first official outing in the Mosler to gain experience and licence upgrading signatures.
Autumnal temperatures played havoc with qualifying and pace for the Mosler with the drivers qualifying near the back as they struggled to get heat in the tyres and make an impact on the field. Martin Short was the opener in race one, but after moving aside to let a GT2 car through he paid the price for his generosity by being hit as the CRS Ferrari driven by Klaas Hummel sideswiped the Mosler breaking its rear suspension. Short returned to the pits for repairs with steam emanating from his ears, and eight laps later Steve re- emerged with the damage repaired. Signature 1 gained.
Klaas Hummel the CRS driver ,to his credit was very apologetic, and offered to pay for the damage. That’s a rare thing in Motorsport! A gentleman indeed.
Race two fared little better for the Mosler pairing. Steve Quick started this time, and was left out for the maximum time again to broaden his experience. The Mosler pace on the Open GT ‘tropical’ spec Dunlops was again dire, and the expected performance again failed to ignite, unless you were in a Kessel Ferrari, with one catching fire (for the second time in two races). By the time the safety car came off it was almost time for the driver changes. Short stepped in for the last 20 minutes but could do nothing with the performance of the car.
Martin Short : “If ever anyone had any doubts about the importance of different tyres on a race car, and the effect they can have on a race, they should watch the footage of this one. We were dead in the water. We have to be careful with tyre selection on the Mosler, as its very light on its tyres. Our car is normally brilliant on Dunlop, but with these super hard series mandated ‘Jerez 60 degrees track temps’ tyres (mandated by Open GT) at an autumnal Brands cost us an instant 2 seconds a lap. It doesn’t help that we have big tyres all round…. We will need significant weight breaks (easily attainable as we lug 150 kilos of ballast around) before we can resume ‘racing’ in this series. The organisers were pleased to see us though, and keen to work together, so hopefully we will be back. The main thing though was that this was a massively valuable experience for Steve Quick, and he came away with 2 signatures, so mission accomplished, albeit rather slowly!”
Source : Rollcentre