Buurman and Loggie shine through the spray
SNETTERTON BRITISH GT 7-8 AUGUST
The 0.004 seconds splitting Dennis Lind and Yelmer Buurman in qualifying at Snetterton proved crucial in deciding the outcome of the second of last Sunday’s British GT one-hour sprints, held on a freshly soaked track.
Buurman’s silver lining to missing pole was to take the rolling start from the outside lane, setting him up perfectly to take the preferred wet line at the first turn. Barwell Lamborghini driver Lind knew it too and attempted to crowd Buurman’s RAM Mercedes into Riches, but the unflappable Dutchman powered ahead.
Buurman was handed another crucial advantage when the safety car was deployed just after he’d lapped Darren Turner’s delayed GT4 Aston Martin, one of several victims of lap one antics that required barrier repairs at Turn 3.
With Turner an unwitting roadblock that Lind could not pass until the restart line, Buurman was gifted a 3.5s lead. It was extended still further when Lind made “a pure driving mistake” at Riches and ran wide in his haste to close, dropping behind Charlie Eastwood (TF Sport Aston Martin) and Barwell team-mate Sandy Mitchell.
That set reigning Pro-am champions Buurman and Ian Loggie up for an overdue first win of 2021 after a puncture had dropped them from race-one contention. With series leaders Lind and Leo Machitski only scoring points for fourth – they finished fifth on the road behind the guesting Eastwood and Ahmad Al Harthy – there are just 6.5 points between the top three crews with three races remaining.
“We always had good confidence in our capabilities, but everything has to go your way,” said Buurman. “The first race we were a bit unlucky; Spa [hit by Richard Neary at the start] we were a bit unlucky; so let’s hope the unlucky part is done and we have a good end to the season.”
Buurman handed over to Loggie 8s ahead of Mitchell, who had cleared Eastwood with a clever cutback move on the exit of Agostini on lap 10 and then pumped in the fastest laps of the race to date. Mitchell’s co-driver Adam Balon got to within 4s of the Mercedes, but never truly threatened.
A shower just before the pit window
meant a switch to slicks was out of the question, but a clear dry line had emerged by the closing laps, bringing a charging Michael Igoe into play.
Igoe took over the WPI Motorsport Lamborghini started by Phil Keen one lap sooner than his rivals, and made full use of his warm rubber by ducking past Andrew Howard’s Beechdean Aston fresh out of the pits at Riches, deposed Machitski at Agostini, and then disappeared into the distance. Machitski was powerless to prevent Al Harthy repeating the move he’d pulled one lap earlier on Howard around the outside of Coram into
Murrays, ending up 36s down at the flag.
“We have a very good car underneath us in the dry and then quite the contrary in the wet,” said Lind. Barwell’s Chris Needell confirmed that the two cars were running slightly different set-ups, a by-product of limited data with the new Pirelli wet, only introduced at the Spa 24 Hours last month.
Al Harthy had only been behind the race two Machitski-howard battle because of a 10s success penalty for utterly dominating race one. A full 0.84s clear of the field in qualifying after “one of the cleanest” laps of his life, the Omani made hay on his return to the series while Kelvin Fletcher’s Paddock Motorsport Bentley in second held up a clearly faster Igoe.
“I think I could have been on pace with the [Al Harthy] Aston,” said Igoe. “The Bentley backed me up in the corners and just used his acceleration for the straights.”
In traffic on lap 12, Igoe sensed his chance at Agostini, but only succeeded in half-spinning Fletcher. With bodywork rubbing against his right-front tyre, Igoe stayed behind as both headed to the pits – “I thought if I didn’t take advantage, there would be no penalty and it would just be a racing incident” – but a 10s stop/go came Keen’s way regardless.
Machitski spent much of the first stint frustrated behind Morgan Tillbrook’s Enduro Motorsport Mclaren before capitalising on a mistake at Williams to pit from fourth, only for Lind to rejoin eighth after the 10s penalty carried over from
Spa. But with Buurman (puncture) and
Keen (penalty) falling out of contention, and Marcus Clutton (in for Tillbrook) blackflagged for ignoring a pit infringement drivethrough, Lind sensed a podium chance.
He passed Mitchell, who was suffering from brake problems that caused him to repeatedly run wide at Wilson, then capitalised on Adam being baulked on the final lap by GT4 battlers Jamie Stanley and Turner to claim third as Eastwood headed Fletcher’s team-mate Martin Plowman. “This feels like a win to get the first podium with the team,” said Plowman.