KIBBLE AND O’BRIEN WIN BEFORE MCLAREN TYRE GAMBLE PAYS OFF
TF Sport showed that it remains the team to beat in British GT’S GT4 class with a comprehensive 1-2 in race one, but a Mclaren tyre gamble paid dividends in race two.
The TF Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Patrick Kibble and Connor O’brien was outshone by the sister car driven by Jamie Caroline and Dan Vaughan in the opening race, but the latter pairing’s 15s success pitstop penalty carried over from the previous race meant their team-mates took an uncontested win.
From fourth on the grid, Caroline quickly picked his way through to lead in the slippery conditions, and even pressured GT3 tailender
Stewart Proctor as Patrik Matthiesen’s polesitting HHC Mclaren bottled up the pack behind, led by Kibble. After finally passing the Dane at Melbourne Hairpin on lap nine, Kibble promptly ran wide at the very next corner and dropped back behind the Mclaren and James Kell’s Toyota. It was another five laps before he had cleared them, by which time Caroline had around 18s in hand.
But Caroline’s Aston had a damaged rear diffuser from being rear-ended by Ian Loggie’s GT3 Mercedes at the Old Hairpin, and the team was unable to replace it in the pits. Combined with the success penalty, that meant Vaughan rejoined behind O’brien. They held station to the finish, with Kell and Sam Smelt taking the Speedworks Toyota Supra’s first podium in third.
As in the GT3 class, race two was decided by tyre choice, as Gus Bowers (HHC Mclaren) and Euan Hankey (Balfe Mclaren) pitted for slicks on their way to the dummy grid. Both had to start from the pitlane, as the rest of the field took the start on wets, but it was soon apparent that slicks were the way to go as first Hankey, then Bowers powered through.
TF gambled on the much-threatened rain arriving during the pitstop phase and stayed out a lap longer than its GT4 rivals, but it was
already far too late to reverse the earlier time loss.
Hankey stayed out as long as possible before handing over to Mia Flewitt, who had 30s in hand over Bowers’s team-mate, reigning RGB Sports 1000 champion Chris Wesemael, upon rejoining. But birthday boy Wesemael was charging and carved 5s per lap out of Flewitt as conditions worsened before making the winning pass with six minutes to go at the Melbourne Hairpin.
“We thought if there was any chance we could go for slicks we would, because we were starting last,” the 25-year-old said.
“It’s incredible, the best present ever!”