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Qualifying session 2
Stewart took charge for race 2 qualification. He ended the session in fourth place, behind Joe Osbourne, Rob Austin and Bradley Ellis (the 2007 Avon Tyres British GT Champion and FIA GT3 racer) , who had been drafted in to help Fulvio Mussi attempt to hang on to the coat tails of Matt and Stewart in the Drivers Championship.
Race 1
Matt drove a superb race, moved his car into first place and pulled away from the following GT4 cars. He built up an impressive lead only to see it totally robbed from him with a Safety Car being deployed. This allowed the trailing GT4 cars to gain back their disadvantage and then all the teams waited for the Pitlane to open, to allow the driver changes to happen under the Safety Car. Rob Austin’s car emerged in the lead, but then was handed a drive through penalty for alledgedly speeding in the pitlane.. The car stayed out for a number of laps, whilst their team attempted to confirm the penalty. Rob, meanwhile, built up a large lead on the following two of Bradley Ellis and Stewart who were locked, literally together for the two lower podium positions.. Stewart bested Bradley, but then Bradley attempted a late desperate lunge manouevre coming into the complex, but in the end Stewart just manage to out-drag Bradley by a few hundredths! Second place was for the team. Later on the results were amended as the Rob Austin car was handed a 10 second penalty and the team were given the first place. The car, had a bit of bodywork damage and one of the rims was knocked, but the team soon sorted out the problems and the car was ready for the warm up and race on the next day.
Sunday
Morning practice
The ten minutes in the morning, before the feature race are a big help to the teams, especially after sustaining bodywork damage, it was essential for the team to ensure that the car was in good shape for the race to come, as it certainly looked like it would be a close race once more. The team also took the opportunity to use this period to experiment with the car, which in the end didn’t work, so they returned to the setup from the previous day.
Race 2
With a close race the previous day, it was obvious that this race was going to produce more close racing.. Richard, the team principal advised Stewart to steer clear of any trouble in the first few laps and drive a clean race... Towards the middle of the first stint, the race was red flagged, as the car of Bradley Ellis departed from the circuit and collided with a Marshall’s post. It’s unclear as to what exactly happened, but some contact had occurred between at least two cars, as the first three cars in the GT4 class jockeyed for position. There was a brief period whilst confusion reigned, the clock was initially still ticking, but then set to one hour, before being set to a half hour race. Bradley was rushed to hospital where later on it was confirmed that he had a chipped bone in his neck. Whilst the grid was being prepared for the restart, starting from positions counted back by one, the Rob Austin car was in the pits being readied to go back out on circuit as it had lost it’s bonnet and rear bodywork. Their team also removed the front windscreen which was cracked and the rear screen, as that would have blown straight out! It was a quick run to the finish, with pit window opening after ten minutes and then being open for fifteen minutes. The team made the decision to change drivers fairly early, thus avoiding any congestion issues and got Matt out in a good position, he brought the car home in second place and the result would mean that the team needed only a handful of points from the next few rounds to make the 2008 British GT4 Drivers Championship theirs.
A great weekend, with two more podium finishes, the team have so far finished on the podium in every round and won an amazing fifty percent of the races.
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