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Silverstone

Eurosport Super Racing Weekends

13/05/2001

N-GT

Race Report

With Graham Goodwin taking on the GT race report, a chance to really do justice to the N-GT class. The weather contined to be superb, exactly as it was last year when the ALMS shared this date.

It wasn't a thriller, but the manner of the win for Christian Pescatori and David Terrien in the JMB Ferrari 360 was breathtaking in its simplicity. Michel Neugarten had yesterday referred to the Ferrari's ability to race without apparently using any fuel (tongue in Belgian cheek of course), but the fact that it could run for three hours around Silverstone's GP track with only one stop for fuel was remarkable. Christian Pescatori had run hard and fast in the the first stint (87 minutes / 44 laps) and David Terrien was easing off through the second half of his, but 47 laps in one go was mightily impressive. The Frenchman was outside 2 minute laps in the last half hour, but he always had time in hand over the two stopping Porsches. He looked to have run out of fuel on the Hanger Straight on the slowing down lap. That's planning to perfection. Except that he didn't run out. "The fuel light was on for two laps, so I stopped there because the regulations say you have to have three litres in the tank after the race."

Fabio Babini and Luigi Moccia were the other top class act, although it could have worked out a little better for Luca Riccitelli and Johnny Mowlem, who had one mishap in the Italian's stint and therefore dropped to third, in tyre trouble 30 minutes into each (new tyre) stint.

Now if we could just persuade a number of the Porsche entrants to use a dominant colour other than white. The GTs are a wonderful mix of colours (and sounds), but too many of the N-GTs are white(ish). It was hard to work out what happended to two of the mainly white ones at Copse on lap two, but already at that stage, the colourful Riccitelli was out ahead. He'd got the jump on Pescatori, who slipped to fourth after the first lap confusion; he could afford to be cautious. Neugarten was up to second initially, but he and Bruno Eichmann somehow contrived to both go off at Copse on lap two, amidst a huge cloud of dust.

Fabio Babini in the #54 Art Engineering Porsche took second place avoiding the melee, and he would be in the hunt throughout the first 80 minutes - and when he took over for the last dash to the flag. Babini glued himself to the back of the RWS car, rarely much more than a tenth behind for the first eight laps. Pescatori had lost time at Copse, but eased up to the first two with no trouble at all. Ominous. Babini grabbed the lead on lap nine, at Copse, but the best moment of the N-GT race came at the conclusion of lap 12. The three Italians at the front were virtually three abreast, only finally sorting themselves out five laps later as Pescatori took the lead - for the first time. We'd lost Kaufmann from the top seven by then, delayed in the pits with a look at the rear suspension / tyres. Dumez, Mancini and Bertolini in numbers 50, 76 and 53 had been chasing the first three, and it was Dumez / Goueslard Porsche that would fare best by the flag. Their tactics were different though. Sebastien Dumez completed a short first stint, so Goueslard and then Dumez again were always playing catch-up.

Dumez set the fastest race lap of the class as early as lap 4 as he chased Pescatori, eventually settling in behind Riccitelli (left) before his early stop. None of the Ferrari drivers needed to consider such tactics. The second 360, driven initially by Andrea Garbagnati, had an interesting dice with Tim Sugden for seventh in class, but the latter doesn't like racing for such positions. He was sure that "we'd have been a second a lap faster but for a bent track rod". That happened at Copse on lap 1. "The slow GT2 Porsche was slow away, again, and it just concertina'd everyone. Someone hit me, and I had lock on down the straights after that." Sugden drove further than anyone in this event, 71 laps altogether after Steve O'Rourke suggested that the team called him in after 18 middle-stint laps. The EMKA car and its stubborn, never-drive-at-less-than-ten-tenths driver would gain a plae on the last corner of the race as some sort of reward for stubborn determination. A point was earned too.

Goueslard was out of sequence for much of his fast drive, but by then we'd lost the #76 Red Bull with lots of expensive looking smoke, while 58 and 65 spun off and were thereafter doomed to play support roles only. Pescatori led after almost 40 minutes, pulling out a gap as the Listers lapped he and Babini - but then getting involved with Goueslard and spinning down to second, just behind Babini again. When Bertolini stopped early in the slightly slower Art Porsche, Sugden was up to fourth. He didn't believe his pit board, as he couldn't work out where the rest had gone.

He was third when Riccitelli had his slight off onto the grass at Becketts. That meant a stop to clear out grass, the Italian staying on board with the same tyres for another (less quick) crack at it.

Pescatori led Babini (and the race) for the second time on lap 30, and the #62 JMB Ferrari was never headed after that. These two were fifth and sixth overall after 1 hour, with Sugden a minute behind in 11th overall, Garbagnati 16th in the other 360. Riccitelli was catching #63, but not as fast as you'd expect. With Sugden and Babini pitting either side of 80 minutes, the Ferraris were 1-2 - until their late stops. Very, very late for Gargabnati - 94 minutes into the race. Terrien returned to the track a handful of seconds in front of Garabagnati, whose car slipped away in the second half with Pregliasco driving.

Terrien was actually closing on Gosselin's Viper at the start of his stint, and was pulling clear of Riccitelli, who was being caught by Luigi Moccia in #54. Second place changed on lap 50, and soon after, #50 made its second stop (from fourth). Riccitelli had assumed a similar schedule to the Larbre car, and he stopped for Johnny Mowlem with 70 minutes left. Mowlem appeared on track about 15 seconds ahead of Dumez, and the Englishman controlled that gap perfectly. Dumez was pushing very hard, but the gap wasn't going to come down. These two were lapping quicker than the two ahead, initially.

At the front it came down to Moccia (above) chasing Terrien, but we knew the Porsche would have to stop longer for fuel - we didn't know that the Ferari wouldn't have to stop at all. Terrien kept the gap to #54 to 20 seconds, and it was stalemate all round. Moccia's quick stop with 30 minutes left saw Basbini slot back into second, 80 seconds behind the Ferrari (30 ahead of Mowlem), and Terrien let that shrink to 24 at the flag. With almost all the stops over, the smallest gap was Mowlem to Dumez. Sugden was haring after Sylvain Noel in #60, and a late splash for the Frenchman in #60 saw the EMKA car have a chance for sixth on the last lap. "I think he missed a gear into Luffield; I got him round the outside." A great way to finish an unusual race within a race.

"After 30 minutes, I was in big tyre trouble," said Riccitelli, third the best that he and Mowlem could have hoped for in the circumstances. Babini and Moccia were an excellent second, but honours went to Ferrari for the second race in a row. Who would have thought, even two months ago, that the 360 would develop into such an effective, adaptable race machine. Now, who's going to get one out in the ALMS? Two hours 45 should allow a 360 to go at it hammer and tongs on the fuel - and still have no worries.

Now, who was that having a Pearce-sized fist shaken at him as he passed the pits in the last hour? Was it a Russian in a Freisinger Porsche? Had someone carved up Tom Coronel - and inadvertently 'made' the GT race, at least until the flag was almost in sight?

Ay 17.30, a thunderstorm struck the track. Good timing with the weather, for once, someone.