Richard Ashburn extended his lead at the top of the British GT standings with victory in Sunday’s two hour enduro at Silverstone alongside Glynn Geddie.
Ashburn began the race in 10th position, but soon had the Trackspeed Porsche moving up the field as Tom Ferrier’s Chad Ferrari and Stuart Hall’s Vantage Racing Aston Martin DBRS9, both making their first appearances of the campaign, set the pace early on.
Ferrier was beginning to build a considerable lead of over 20 seconds when most of the chasing pack began to make their pit stops.
Philip Walker, behind the wheel of the pole position-winning Trackspeed Porsche, had fallen back to the fringes of the top ten when he was one of the first to stop and handed over to international GT ace Richard Westbrook.
And the reigning FIA GT2 champion soon began to make headway, passing Allan Simonsen who was also on a recovery charge after co-driver Hector Lester span the Ferrari earlier in his stint.
Back at the front, Paul Warren had a lead of nearly half a minute in the Chad Ferrari recently vacated by Ferrier over Adrian Beer’s Rollcentre Mosler and David Jones in his Ascari.
But the good work from Geddie, Westbrook and Darren Turner (Barwell-Beechdean Aston Martin) however meant that the leading trio was soon under threat.
First, Geddie caught and passed Jones with around half an hour to go and was then gifted second when British GT debutant Beer spun. The championship leader then also dispatched Warren to claim the lead with 10 laps remaining.
Westbrook closed on Geddie in the final stages but held station to defend any attack on team boss and title leader Ashburn’s potential win.
In fact, Westbrook dropped back to help defend Geddie’s lead, but was himself passed by Simonsen who missed out on victory by just 2.4 seconds behind the leading Trackspeed car.
And it got worse for Westbrook on the final lap when Turner shot by on the run to the line to take the final place on the podium.
Meanwhile, title contenders Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin had a day to forget and finished 10th, helping Ashburn build a 26-point championship lead over the MTECH Ferrari duo and Geddie.
In the G4 class, it was a good afternoon for the Bell brothers as Matt and Rob took first place in the United Autosports Ginetta.
Series returnee Stark Racing and its Ginetta G50, driven by Paul Marsh and Ian Stinton, took second place, while European G4 star Kevin Veltman and Rockingham winner Athanasios Ladas took the final podium place in Chad’s KTM.
Catch British GT highlights on Motors TV throughout 2010.
Josh Modaberi
International
