MOTORBASE LOSES GT ASTON

Motorbase will be forced to run double duty with its second Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in order to race in the second British GT round at Rockingham later this month after its first chassis was written off at Brands Hatch last weekend.

Phil Dryburgh was at the wheel of the car he shares with Ross Wylie when he was involved in a high-speed accident at Pilgrims Drop. Dryburgh was attempting to pass the Ginetta G55 GT4 of Nick Jones and the Aston Martin Vantage of Matthew Graham when there was contact and Dryburgh’s car was tipped into the barrier before rolling repeatedly. All three cars retired. Stewards looked into the clash but labelled it as a racing incident.

The accident brought out a lengthy caution period, and delayed racing by 40 minutes while barriers were repaired.

Motorbase’s Ricki Martino said the car was a total loss, and that the team would have to use its second car at Rockingham. That car is competing in the Blancpain GT Series at Misano this weekend.

“Phil’s car is totally gone, it was a very nasty accident,” said Martino. “We’ll get the wreck back and see what we can salvage from it, but there’s no way it’ll be repairable. Hopefully we can have a clean race in Blancpain and still make Rockingham as we’ll use that car.”

Dryburgh added: “I didn’t know too much about it really. We touched and next thing I knew I was in the barrier and then the car dug into the wet grass and over I went. They build these things strong.”