After a dramatic start to his maiden Australian GT campaign, former rally-ace and part-time circuit racer Mark Griffith has put his Vawdrey Trailers supported Ginetta G50 on top of the GT4 Sports points table after another dominant win at Sydney Motorsport Park [SMP] last weekend.
With V8 Supercar endurance driver Jack Perkins alongside, the duo lined up at SMP eager to replicate their performance during the previous round of the Pirelli supported GT series at Phillip Island where they stole pole position for the GT4 class, and dominated the category with two vital wins. The result also put them well within shot of category points leader Michael Hovey.
“The Ginetta is a ripper thing to drive,” Perkins admitted post-practice after mixing it with some of the more powerful Porsche’s and Lamborghinis. “It’s a very well balanced car, and around SMP we’re not at as much of a disadvantage as we were at Phillip Island, so it’s nice to be pushing some of the bigger cars.”
Car-owner Mark Griffith too was rapt with the team’s practice performance, and happy to be the leading Ginetta again ahead of qualifying.
“I’m really enjoying having Jack onboard,” he admitted. “Having him to compare notes with and set the car up has improved not just my performance, but the performance of the entire Ginetta crew.”
Their chances only improved post-qualifying, with Perkins putting the #19 Vawdrey Trailers Ginetta onto the fifth row, alongside former Porsche champion Matt Kingsley in Brendan Cook’s Type 997 Cup Car, and ahead of Jan Jinadasa’s V10-powered Lamborghini Gallardo.
Whilst the more powerful GT3 cars pulled away at the start of the opening one-hour race, Perkins reeled off a string of consistent laps in the high 35s and low 36s to pull clear of the GT4 field. He needed to too, as his 18-second additional pit stop parity penalty for his seeding as a professional driver meant that he had to ‘push on’ and reduce the deficit before his mid-race compulsory pit stop.
Pitting at the half hour mark, the team conducted their driver change comfortably before Griffith rejoined the race, now in position 11. By the time the full field had completed their stops, the #19 Ginetta was still holding down P9, and continuing to lap faster than the other GT4 cars.
By race end the Griffith/Perkins combination were rewarded with a ninth place finish, in the process finishing between the Porsche’s of the two leading Challenge class teams, and a full 50-seconds up on points leader Michael Hovey.
Griffith was behind the wheel for the second rolling start, the part-time driver quickly slotting in to P11 as the more powerful cars starting at the rear of the field began their progression forward.
Consistency was the key, and Griffith delivered, turning in a string of laps in the low to mid 39s, to hand the car across to Perkins in position eight. From there it was Perkins’ turn to deliver, the former V8 Supercar ‘main-game’ regular showed just why he’s one of the first drivers contracted ahead of the annual V8 endurance rounds, moving quickly up the order to move the Vawdrey Trailers supported G50 back into the GT4 race lead almost immediately.
Sadly for points-leader Michael Hovey, his progression was aided by Hovey’s premature retirement mid-race with mechanical failure. The repercussions of which handed the Griffth/Perkins pairing not just the round win, but the championship points lead.
“I feel sorry for Hoves that he wasn’t able to complete the race, and for taking the points lead away under such circumstances,” Griffith admitted post-race. “But I know how he feels, the same thing happened to me in race one at Clipsal – in a huge way.
“We had a trouble-free run fortunately, and with Jack’s help, I was able to continue to improve my pace all weekend. As always, he was just super-consistent, rattling one hot lap off after another. We had a pretty big time penalty to overcome, but we did it.
“Playing the ‘joker card’ too worked in our favour, and doubled our points haul for the weekend [all teams are allowed to nominate a ‘joker card' at one round in the 2013 season - the card must be chosen prior to qualifying, with the points scored in that round doubled].
“It was a fantastic weekend all round – but now it’s off to Queensland Raceway.”
“I had a blast,” Perkins added. “These guys are only part-time drivers, it’s not their profession, but they take things just as seriously as we do, so to see them continue to improve each time out for me is actually very rewarding.”
There is now just a three week turnaround until the team’s ‘local’ round at Queensland Raceway (August 2-4) for the penultimate round of the championship, followed by a lengthy break until the final event of the season, on the new Highlands Motorsport Park circuit in New Zealand in early November.
Source : Australian GT