In the second race of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Zandvoort, Nick Tandy and David Ashburn secured a dominant flag-to-flag victory, a result that sees them remain in the title hunt. Not only did the No.31 polka-dot Porsche claim the top step of the podium, Phil Keen and Jon Minshaw sealed an accomplished third-place finish.
Starting from pole position, Tandy was in supreme form and was soon breaking away from the rest of the field. Within just a couple of laps, the Porsche works driver had created a lead of over two-seconds as he mastered the 13 corners of Zandvoort. In a display of faultless driving, Tandy continued to push and by the time he’d completed his 35 minute stint and handed the 997 GT3 over to co-driver Ashburn, the margin was 18 seconds. Putting in what was arguably one of his best stints of the season, Ashburn continued to manage the leading margin, to keep second place at bay by 16 seconds. With such an advantage, the former British GT champion was able to relax and look after the car to bring it to the chequered flag with 12 seconds in his pocket.
“We were confident this weekend because it was a sprint race. Today was like it should have been yesterday.” Tandy said at the post race press conference. We had a really good car, a really good first stint and a really good pit-stop. Dave was straight on it as soon as he went out, it’s the best I’ve seen him drive all year.”
In the Demon Tweaks livered Porsche, Keen got off to a perfect start to move into second position at the first corner. There he remained until just before the pit-stop window opened, when lapped traffic came into play. Baulked by a GT4 car, Keen had to yield his second spot to the Ferrari of Rob Barff, just before heading to pit lane to hand over to Minshaw. With the bit between his teeth, Minshaw charged onto the 2.7 mile circuit, but was caught out by cold tyres, which resulted in spin, midway around the traffic. This dropped the Englishman to fourth, but with grit and determination, he caught up to the third placed BMW over the next 15 minutes, before making a pass to reclaim a podium spot. Unshackled, Minshaw pushed the No.33 Trackspeed Porsche to the finish line, to take third place, eight-seconds clear.
“Jon drove really well.” Keen said of his team-mate. “To be fair he always drives well. He had no testing here, so he went in blind and drove brilliantly, I couldn’t fault him.”
An opening lap incident with Benji Hetherington’s Mercedes scuppered the chances of Stephen Jelley and Gregor Fisken in the ‘Tartan Terror’ Porsche. As Jelley negotiated the final high-speed Zandvoort corner, the SLS Mercedes made contact with his right rear quarter, sending him spinning precariously close to the crash barrier. Jelley recovered the No.32 Trackspeed car, and launched an attempt at a comeback, from the back of the field. By the time the former BTCC brought the car to Fisken after 35 minutes, he’d clawed his way back to seventeenth. It was then up to classics racer Fisken to progress through the field. Driving like every lap like it was a qualifying one, he worked his way past several cars to progress up to twelfth position with 10 minutes of the race remaining. Alas, with the next placed car a further six-seconds ahead, Fisken was unable to make any further in roads.
“I had a very good stint.” Fisken shared. I was two seconds a lap faster than most of the other cars on track; I can’t do much more than that. I thoroughly enjoyed my stint. There’s no result though, it seems this season that luck isn’t going our way. Trackspeed gave me a great car, and Stephen done a great job saving the car from being a complete write off, but this is again another race where we’ve been assaulted from the rear.”
With just the final round of the Avon Tyres British GT remaining, it’s still mathematically possible that Tandy could claim the 2013 title, as he’s just 14.5 off the leader. In the team Championship, Trackspeed Racing hold a healthy 74.5 point lead and will be looking to seal the title for a second year running at Donington in October.
Source : Trackspeed Racing