News 2006: British GT
29th August
Motorbase Performance swept to an impressive victory in round 13 of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Brands Hatch on Sunday (27 August). The team's new pairing of Tom Ferrier and Philip Glew scored a great GTC victory at the expense of the season-long title contenders.
The deal to put the two young chargers together was only finalised in the run-up to the team's home race weekend and team boss David Bartrum was eager for Motorbase to prove its pace at Brands.
In qualifying, both drivers spent time getting used to the car and posted third and fourth places in GTC for the pair of races. "The car feels excellent," said Ferrier. "Every time we go out I'm getting more confident in it and I'm just glad to be back out racing," he said ahead of his debut British GT race
In the opening race, Ferrier was badly delayed when he was caught behind an Aston Martin DBRS9. Although Tom was much faster through the corners, the greater power of the Aston Martin kept it ahead on the straights. "Tom got hooked up behind the Aston and eventually that rooted our tyres," said Bartrum after they took fifth place, right on the tail of the fourth-placed Ferrari.
However, after being fastest in the Sunday morning warm-up, Tom and Philip went into round 13 on Sunday in confident mood and duly delivered a mighty performance to win the GTC class.
Although they were consistently the fastest GTC pairing in the race, several safety car periods negated their advantage and Ferrier had to fight back into the category lead on the very last lap before scoring a great victory.
"It's excellent to be up here," said Ferrier on the top of the podium. "We had a bit of a disappointing race yesterday so to win it today was exceptional. It was an incredibly close race and Phil did all the hard work really getting us up to second. It was just close from then on. It all worked out on the last lap for a pretty exciting finish!"
Bartrum was equally delighted with his drivers. "They both drove fantastic stints," he said. "They both did all that I could have asked of them and the pit stop was spot on."
To complete a great weekend for the team, the cars of Gary Eastwood/Rob Wilson and Rod Barrett/Jan Persson each took a seventh place finish in GTC during the pair of hour-long races.
29 August 2006
