Donington played host to the final round of the 2013 Avon Tyres British GT Championship, an event that would decide who would claim the drivers title by the end of it’s two-hour run. One of those in contention was Trackspeed’s Nick Tandy, who headed into the weekend with a 14.5 point deficit on the standings leader. Despite the slender chances of claiming his first ever British GT title, Tandy and co-driver David Ashburn approached the race in buoyant spirits, in the hope that the main protagonists would falter, giving them the opportunity to snatch the title.

Starting fifth on the grid, the early signs were promising. With Ashburn behind the wheel, he maintained his top-five placing through the early stages, and even when he dropped two spots on lap five, there was still hope for the Polka-dot Porsche. However, with 12 minutes of the race complete, all thoughts of a championship bid were scuppered. As Ashburn approached McLean’s corner, he had to negotiate his way past a lapped GT4 car. Whilst the former British GT champion held his line, the Ginetta turned in and caught the rear quarter of the 997GT3, causing suspension damage and sending the No.31 car into retirement.

“At the end of the day it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.” Tandy said post race. “Even if we’d had a perfect race, we would have maybe finished on the podium, which wasn’t enough. It was just bad luck with the contact, it’s just one of those things.

“The season has been fun and an experience and it’s been good to work with all the guys here. Ultimately, looking back, I’m sure I’ll look back with fond memories, and you never know, you may see me back in the British GT paddock in the future.”

Whilst the sister car had fallen victim to an incident out of their control, Gregor Fisken was flying the flag for the Trackspeed team, as he hassled and harangued the leader. His ‘Tartan Terror’ Porsche had started in second position, and from the moment the green flag dropped, Fisken was glued to the bumper of the leading BMW. With 90 minutes on the clock, Fisken found himself in a pirouette, as he took action to avoid fluid on the circuit. This would set-up a titanic comeback for the No.32 machine.

“I reacted to an oil flag by taking a slightly different line into the corner, and forgot there’s a nasty bump on the way in, and it just caught me out.” Fisken shared about his mid-stint incident. “I spun the car, then had a box full of neutrals, before I had to wait for everyone to come by.”

Once the classics racer had gathered his car back up, he was in ninth position, a place he held until the pit-stop window, when he handed over to team-mate, Richard Westbrook. With the bit between his teeth, the Corvette works driver wasted no time in clawing his way through the field, as he pushed his Porsche to it’s limits.

With 40 minutes of the two-hour race remaining, Westbrook had progressed to seventh position, and was on the tail of a three car squabble for fourth place. He soon dispatched Oli Bryant’s BMW to take sixth, before getting onto the bumper of Johnny Adam’s Aston Martin. The former BTCC racer proved to be more resilient, and Westbrook remained glued to the Vantage’s tail for 10 minutes, before getting by at the hairpin. Just a few laps later, fourth became third, when Joe Osborne’s BMW retired with mechanical issues. Unfortunately for Westbrook, the gap to second place was too distant to for him to make up ground, so he safely brought the car to the finish line in a podium winning third place.

“I really enjoyed it.” Westbrook said. “I feel bad for Gregor. He made a small mistake and paid the price for it. The Porsches are really thirsty on the overlap, so everyone else could get their pro drivers in nice and quick on fresh rubber, whilst we still had Gregor in the car. So we lost a lot of time on the overlap. I then found myself in ninth when I got in the car, so I got the hammer down, the car was good, and it was nice to end up on the podium.”

The Demon Tweeks Porsche of Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen saw it’s hopes of a high finish evaporate when the No.33 997GT3 collected a penalty a few minutes before the pit-stop window opened. In the confusion of lapped traffic, Minshaw was deemed to have passed a GT4 car in an area of the circuit where yellow flags were waving. This earned him a drive through penalty, which he honoured immediately, before heading to pit lane again to hand over to Keen. By this time, the pair had dropped to twelfth place, which left Keen with the near insurmountable task of clawing his way back into a points paying position. Methodically, Keen powered his way around the 2.4 miles of Donington, and edged his way up the order.

With 20 minutes left on the clock, Keen had made his way up to ninth position, a position he held until the chequered flag. With the three-points collected, the pair finished their 2013 British GT campaign, fourteenth on the leader-board.

“The drive through penalty really hurt us, with the 10 second penalty from Zandvoort.” Keen explained. “I think our race pace was OK, we were quick enough to run near the top, and compete with the Ferraris and Audi’s. So maybe next year.”

Although Trackspeed Racing were unable to secure the drivers title, the Surrey-based outfit did win the British GT Team Championship title, and for the fourth consecutive year. As a result, the SRO have invited the team two field two entries in the FIA GT Championship at Baku in November, when Danny Watts, Martin Ragginger, Stephen Jelley, and Keen will take to the street circuit of the Azerbaijan capital.