Maiden win for Holme amid safety-car confusion
BRANDS HATCH MSVR JUNE 23
Mark Holme recorded a memorable maiden Equipe GTS race win in his MGB at Brands Hatch, overcoming a safety-car period that sparked controversy.
Holme had been part of a five-way battle for third in the early laps, while Chris Ryan’s Triumph TR4 pursued the TVR Grantura of Mark Ashworth for the lead. Shortly before half-distance, Jonathan Smare spun his Lotus Elite into the barrier exiting Druids. Confusion followed as
Ryan suddenly appeared in the lead after Ashworth had slowed in the belief that he had seen a safety-car board.
Amid the uncertainty, Holme and Marc Gordon were among a handful of drivers to make timely mandatory pitstops.
Ashworth was sidelined by a wheelhub problem when racing resumed, while any lingering doubts concerning Ryan’s claim for the win were ended when he retired five laps from the finish. Holme was the grateful beneficiary, leading home Gordon’s Lotus
Elite SR and Rob Cull’s Grantura.
Cull finished two places higher in his MGA in the Equipe GTS Pre-63 contest following a dramatic conclusion to the race. After the pitstops, Cull joined Gordon and Paul Kennelly (Austin-healey 100M) in a thrilling threeway lead tussle. Kennelly held the advantage into the final lap until a puncture sent him spinning off into the Paddock Hill Bend gravel, helping Cull seal victory. “I couldn’t live with the pace early on so I decided to protect my tyres before going for it in the second half of the race, and that’s the result,” he said.
After powering into the lead from the outside of the front row, Steve Watton proved unstoppable in the Jack Fairman
Cup encounter in his Turner Sports. Mark Ellis claimed second in his MGA TC, while in the battle for third Rob Newall’s hopes of challenging Oliver Llewellyn came to a spectacular end when his Jaguar XK120 lost a wheel at Clearways. Llewellyn steered his smart-looking Allard J2 to the final podium spot thereafter, despite having to serve a drive-through penalty for a safety-car infringement.
In the first of two BMW Car Club races, Dave Heasman made a superb start from fifth on the grid to take the early initiative from
polesitter Gary Hufford. Hopes of an exciting battle between the pair disappeared, though, when Heasman was forced into retirement as his car “went into limp-home mode” on lap seven. Hufford reeled off the remaining laps in relative comfort to win from Kirk Armitage. Former Kumho BMW Class C champion Paul Travers took third ahead of Hugh Gurney. Hufford’s margin of victory over Armitage was tighter in race two, while Gurney tipped the third-place battle in his favour following a minor excursion for Travers at Graham Hill Bend.
Gavin Dunn was another BMW driver eager for success in the sole AMOC Intermarque race, having narrowly been beaten by Robert Hollyman’s Porsche 964 in the Oulton Park opener last month. The duo ran close early on, but a trip into the Paddock gravel for Dunn meant he had to make an unscheduled pitstop, dropping him to fifth. Hollyman went on to secure his second successive win in the category, despite a valiant pursuit from Richard Higgins in his Porsche Club Championship-specification 996.
Grahame Tilley lapped the entire thinly supported GT Challenge field on route to a crushing win in his Ginetta G55 ahead of the BMW M3 GT4 of Edward Leigh and Charles Hyde-andrews-bird.