Paragon Porsche wins inaugural GT Trophy Endurance race

The inaugural round of the GT Trophy Endurance Series got off to a bright start at Brands Hatch on the Grand Prix Circuit in spectacular sunshine on Saturday, 22nd May.

The roster included a glorious variety of marques made up of BMW, Ferrari, Lotus, Porsche, Ginetta, Marcos, Mosler, Corvette, KTM and Honda, as well as some highly experienced driver and team combinations.

This was also organiser Bute Motorsports opportunity to try out its innovative handicap system, whereby variable-length minimum pit stops were calculated to help balance the score and encourage competitive racing to the finish.

The formula was strategically developed to still allow the best team that put on the best performance to win, but also to give teams the opportunity of using tactics to gain an advantage.

Proving that experience counts, however, were overall victors Mark Sumpter and Adrian Slater in the Paragon backed Porsche 997 RSR in its first outing since winning the Silverstone 24 hour in 2009.

An early pace car period on Lap 1, caused by the demise of the JDR Honda NSX of David and Rob Fenn, handed the teams an opportunity to pit early and get one of their two mandatory stops out the way.

After eight laps behind the safety car, there were still teams that had not pitted to take advantage of this tactically vital stop. Paragon, quick to take the initiative, took a timely lead that they were not to relinquish despite the hard-charging Mosler of Beamont and Fores beginning to eat into the Porsche’s lead.

Had the Mosler’s second stint been fractionally quicker, then they might have pulled it off. Instead the Mosler became involved in an epic tussle with the “mature” Marcos Mantis GT. She hounded them all the way and finally got past when the Mosler spun, relegating them to third place.

Being the surprise package for many, the very fast Topcats' Marcos Mantis of Fletcher and Fiorentino finished in a very creditable second position. The Xero-Competition Corvette of Millett and Vergers struggled with mechanical reliability. Despite turning in the fastest lap at both the one hour and full distance mark, the Corvette was unable to close the gap and came in fourth, two laps down which belied her true potential.

Group 2 saw an amazing race with six of the cars all finishing on the same lap after two hours with the top three separated by just 11 seconds. This seemed to prove that the handicap system had worked.

Probably the most unlucky team in this group was the Dryburgh/Gaw Porsche 997 GT3 Cup car.

Dryburgh had done an excellent job eating away at their handicap and when he handed the car over to Gaw, they looked set for an excellent finish. The fickle finger of fate struck, however, in the form of a puncture that put them – and rather suddenly – out of contention.

Bentley and Medeiros put in a faultless performance in their Alfatune Porsche 996 GT3 Cup car and the pair enjoyed a reasonably quiet race working their pit stops and overall strategy well to come home in first place in Group 2.

The Wilkins/Scott Ginetta had looked threatening and Scott did a rapid middle stint handing the car over to Wilkins who succumbed on Lap 49 when the car overheated. The Barwell-run Julian and Matt Draper Ginetta G50 had a great race and was looking strong at the chequered flag, finishing just 2.49s behind the Porsche 996 giving a grandstand finish after two hours of racing.

Next up in third place, despite an early off at Surtees, which nearly ended their race, was probably the biggest surprise of the weekend: Colin and Sam Mowle in their KTM XBow. Maybe the handicap had played into their favour, but whatever happened, they were just 0.4s behind the Ginetta after two hours and around 160 miles. Proving again that the handicap system had delivered on its promise!

In Group 3, having lost the Honda NSX on Lap 1and after a difficult race with various spurious vibrations, the Lotus Exige of Doug and Chris Setters eventually retired after 19 laps. This left the Bailan/Mason Lotus 211 with the job of fending off the surviving Lotus Exige of Barclay and BTCC regular Onslow-Cole. They did this with a lap in hand after nursing the car home. They had been suffering from mechanical problems all weekend.

Bute Motorsport Race Coordinator Belinda Edwards later commented, “We have learnt allot from this inaugural race, which we always said was designed to help us hone the regulations and we will probably have a minimum and maximum pit window in future.”

At the end of the race, Marc Haynes – MD of organisers Bute Motorsport – said, “Drivers and teams seemed unanimously to approve. The feedback I have had tells me that we will broadly stick with this format and develop this concept for our ‘Race in the dark’ at Snetterton later this year.

“I am already talking to MSVR about organising between four to six rounds of the GT Trophy Endurance Series next year with at least one race abroad and one of the races being of six hours duration.”

For more information, contact Hannah of Bute Motorsport at Hannah@butemotorsport.co.uk or telephone 01963 442787.

Image: In the shimmering haze of a glorious day at Brands Hatch, the inaugural GT Trophy Endurance gets off to a flying start.

Credit: Bute Motorsport.