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Britcar Endurance – Race Report. Silverstone Int’l 12th April 2014

April 29, 2014 by James Reay in BEC
Neil Garner Motorsports Mosler

Neil Garner Motorsports Mosler

Neil Garner Motorsport are celebrating after taking the win in the first exclusively Britcar Endurance Championship race of the season. The #2 Mosler MT900 GT3 of Javier Morcillo and Manuel Cintrano set a blistering pace in the early action to build an unassailable lead over the Stark entered Ginetta G55 GT3. Morcillo did the heavy lifting but Cintrano’s stint at the tail end of the race sealed the deal for the team.

Race 1’s winner, the Rapier SR2 of Mike Millard, had a race to forget, only turning in 14 laps before retiring with an unidentified problem. The #19 Chevron of Jensen Motorsport also struggled in the race, dropping out after 23 laps with yet another undisclosed problem.

With only two runners in the top class you could be forgiven for thinking the race would be boring. Far from it however as Cintrano battled in the second half of the race to preserve as much of the lead, which started at almost a lap, his younger team mate had fought so hard to build. Nathan Freke also put in an astonishing stint to cut that minute plus advantage to just 21.072 seconds by the end of the 79 lap contest.

Calum Lockie took third overall in the class 2 entered FF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia Cup after a battle with the BAMD Racing 458 Challenge. The battle was ultimately futile for the #31 machine which fell foul of the regulations relating to driver times. They didn’t pit in time to switch from Darren Nelson to Nigel Greensall, who crossed the line only to be excluded from the result.

That also put Calum Lockie’s inspired double stint strategy into the redundant pile. The former Strata 21 driver left team mate David Mason in the garage for the entire 90 minute race, building a lead over the excluded 458.

Class 3 went to the Intersport entered Ginetta G50 of Andrew Donaldson, who split the Porsche 997 Cup of Guillaume Gruchet from the class winning Ferrari. Second in the class went to the long serving E46 M3 of Adam Hayes and Mark Radcliffe who broke away from the second Intersport Beamer to battle with Gruchet, from a distance at least. The #42 car only lost 51.270 seconds to the class 2 entered Porsche over the course of the race, which helped them to build a two lap lead over their team mates.

The Intersport BMW M3 V8 of Ian Donaldson, Andrew’s father, and Anna Walewska took the final spot on an all Intersport podium.

The #78 class 5 entered Honda Civic S2000 of Ryan Cefferty and David Whitmore was the final classified car though they only turned in two laps, both untimed and ended its participation after less than three minutes.

While the entry was smaller the butcher’s bill was equally impressive. Four cars languished on the not classified listing by the end of the race, including the excluded Ferrari and the aforementioned class 1 runners. Joining these unfortunates in retirement was the #86 Toyota GT86-F of Nick Holden. The new Toyota sports car didn’t have the best of debuts at Silverstone, retiring in both clashes.

The BMW 1-Series of Nick Barrow and Jamie Morrow also suffered a double DNF at the opening weekend.

The Britcar Endurance Championship returns to action in on 10th May with two races at Donington Park. The Endurance Sports and Touring Car Championship and Britcar Trophy Series will also race at the East Midlands venue.

Written By – Nick Smith

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