Top British sportscar squad Academy Motorsport scored its first podium of the year in the second round of the British GT Championship at Rockingham last weekend.
The team returned to the circuit at which it took GT4 class victory last season, with the #61 Aston Martin Vantage crewed by Will Moore and Dennis Strandberg, and #62 Vantage of Chris Webster and James Harrison.
It was an eventful week for the team, with the #61 Vantage sustaining heavy damage the weekend before during the European-based Nova Series opening round at Paul Ricard in France.
The car required substantial repairs to the front of its chassis. It was therefore taken to Aston Martin who brought the car back to life in just two days ahead of the British GT weekend.
The team made a great start to the Bank Holiday weekend, with Moore and Strandberg setting the third fastest GT4 combined time. That put them on the second row of the grid ahead of the first two-hour race of the season. The #62 Vantage qualified 11th in class.
With the Amateur drivers starting the race and completing the first half of the race, Moore did a sterling job of bringing the car through into the pit window after 50 minutes, in fourth place in class.
He handed over to Swedish racer Strandberg who performed fantastically to hunt down two Ginetta G55 GT4 machines ahead, using his typically cool head, in a car which, due to the lack of time to be prepared, did not have an operating air conditioning system.
Strandberg moved into second place on lap 61 of 73, and pulled clear of the chasing pack to comfortably take the flag. Sadly, due to a late safety car, Dennis was unable to charge for the victory.
Strandberg says: “Will did a brilliant job handing the car on to me with the tyres in good shape. I got my head down and pounded on and made sure I strung some solid laps together.
“I wasn’t getting any lap times on my dashboard, so was relying on the team feeding them to me via my headset. The team kept telling me I was getting closer and catching the Ginettas in front and pushing me onwards.
“That drove me on to and I got some help from the safety car towards the end to get passed those cars, but it meant we lost any chance of the win because the leading GT4 car was ahead of the safety car.
“The longest raced I’d ever done was my stint at the first round at Oulton Park of 30 minutes. So to be in the car for 65 to 70 minutes, it was very different and a challenge in the car without air conditioning.”
The #62 Vantage began under the steam of Chris Webster who performed fantastically to move up to seventh before handing over to James Harrison at the 50-minute pit window.
Harrison continued the car’s assault up the grid, scything his way through up to fifth. But sadly, James was involved in an incident with the #18 Ferrari 458 GT3 car which was attempting to lap James at the Tarzan hairpin.
James was squeezed on to the wet grass verge, making the car unstable and forced him to take evasive action on to the grass around the outside of the corner. Due to the speed at which he the cars take the corner, James was unable to stop the car heading into the gravel trap and becoming beached.
It led to the car’s retirement, with the #18 Ferrari quickly given a black flag and immediately excluded from the race.
Harrison says: “I found a good rhythm and got into a good pace towards the end. We’ve tested at Rockingham a lot and know the full potential of the car. Chris knows how to look after the tyres and did a great job. He’s really come on leaps and bounds since Oulton Park.
“It was a sad end to our race though. On the approach to Tarzan, I followed the normal racing line to brake and the Ferrari came across and was squeezing me over. We made slight contact and he had a big moment to recover from that.
“That was enough to push me on to the grass which dragged me out into the gravel which is so deep, there was unfortunately no way out. I’m really gutted about it because we were on for a good result. We deserved better and it’s no consolation that the Ferrari was excluded as he is a GT3 car, and we’re in GT4.”
Team boss Matt Nicoll-Jones concludes: “It’s been a great, yet annoying weekend for the team as a whole. We had a week’s worth of re-building work to do in the space of two days on the #61 car.
“I would like to say a big thank you to Aston Martin Racing, because they and their support has been awesome over the past week to get the car back out. It was a tough week for both them and us.
“I’m very happy with the pace of both Will and Dennis, the car was put back together and it worked perfectly. Had it not been for the safety car putting us a lap down on the leading GT4, we would have mounted a challenge for victory.
“Chris Webster is doing great, and I’m very proud of him. James’s pace was very good but it was taken out of our hands by the incident. I certainly don’t believe it was malicious, but careless.
“After the events of the past week and the haste in which the #61 car was rebuilt, if I’d been offered second place I certainly would have taken it. But heading to the next round at Silverstone, I expect a victory.”
-ENDS-
Notes to Editors: Copyright-free images of Academy Motorsport supplied courtesy of Purple M Photography. Please click on each image and credit where used.
The next round of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship takes place at Silverstone GP on May 30-31.