DRIVESHAFT DRAMA ADDS TO GT CUP EXCITEMENT
Team Hard mechanics replaced a driveshaft in less than 10 minutes to ensure Joshua Jackson and Simon Orange could secure the GT Cup championship.
The Ginetta G55 racers took a hat-trick of podiums in the GTA class to set up what should have been a relatively relaxed coronation drive in Sunday’s final endurance race. But just 10 minutes into the final 50-minute encounter, Jackson pulled over at pit exit with a loss of drive. Pushed back up the pitlane by the Team Hard squad, Jackson was out with a new driveshaft 10 minutes later to ensure they didn’t end the season in retirement.
After the race, Jackson was relieved the issue only cropped up after the overall – and GTA class – title was already realistically in their hands. “It’s a shame the driveshaft went but it’s better that it did it when it didn’t matter as much, rather than yesterday when it did,” he said. “The team did a great job to get it replaced. We’ve had a great season – a bit of good luck, a bit of bad luck. We got the wins when we needed them and sealed the title, which was our objective for the year.”
The pair’s nearest competition for the title came from the other side of the garage as Porsche 997 GT3 Cup racers
Ben Clayden and Sam Randon came into the final round with, as Randon described, “a mathematical but not so much realistic” chance.
Despite four GTB wins, under sunshine and amid a torrential downpour that hampered the early stages of Saturday’s endurance race, the reduction in points because of the smaller class entry meant they missed out on the overall title, although they secured the class crown.
“What is so sweet for us is taking second in the overall championship,” Randon said. “Someone was looking down on us, as not only did we secure the GTB championship, the car we were battling for P2 overall [the Mclaren of
John Whitehouse and Steve Ruston] didn’t make it to the grid, which then secured the runner-up spot overall.”
The races themselves were dominated by JMH Automotive. A win in Saturday’s endurance race for Marcus Clutton and John Seale – despite a Seale spin early on – was added to with a victory in Sunday’s sprint for Seale, with the pair combining again to lap the field in the final 50-minute encounter in a Lamborghini Huracan that was swapped from the GT3 to the GTO class overnight on Saturday after having restrictors removed.
They were denied a clean sweep by Grahame Tilley’s Nissan GT-R in race one, after contact between Seale and John Dhillon’s Ferrari, before a gearbox fault ended Tilley’s weekend early.
Also leaving the weekend with a hat-trick of successes was Fun Cup racer Henry Dawes. After collecting his Ginetta G55 on Friday, he took three GTA class wins but was denied a fourth by fellow
G55 driver Chris Hart.