KEEN: LATE PASS WILL LEAD TO STRAINED ATMOSPHERE
New points leader defied team order to stay behind sister Barwell Lamborghini
British GT points leader
Phil Keen says he expects the dynamic at Barwell Motorsport to be strained at the Donington Park season finale, after disobeying an order to hold position behind team-mate Jonny Cocker on the last lap at Brands Hatch.
Keen and team-mate Adam Balon topped the standings from Snetterton until Spa, when Balon’s crash gave Cocker and Sam De Haan a 0.5-point advantage. With the pair running line astern in fourth and fifth as the final lap commenced, Cocker and De Haan would have extended their lead to 3.5 points, but Keen’s slingshot pass around the outside at Hawthorn caused Cocker to lose momentum and drop another three places, leaving them 11.5 points behind.
Keen and Balon now lead by six points over Brands race winners Jonny Adam and Graham Davidson.
“For sure it causes problems,” Keen told MN. “Jonny [Cocker] is always going to say that
I was unfair and I gave him no choice, chopped his nose off, but I felt like I was alongside him enough to pull through.
“It’s difficult because it’s customer racing, they both pay to race and it’s a difficult situation to manage, but I’m employed to do a job and that is to help Adam win the title.”
Barwell boss Mark Lemmer confirmed Keen had been ordered to hold position, but said he would likely be powerless to intervene if a similar situation presented itself at Donington.
“I’m guessing that the outcome will be similar to today, I can’t get involved,” he said. “We’re a customer racing team, our job is to provide the equipment and put them in a position to win the championship. The best thing we can do as a team is to have two drivers fighting for first place, but inevitably that has its problems.
“Phil was faster than Jonny, but it’s down to those guys to sort it out on track, I can’t make a call to swap those guys.
“We’ve had a debrief, we’ve reminded them that the team ultimately can only point out what the best options may be and it’s up to them to decide how they want that to play out.”