Strong podium challenge for Barwell Aston Martin DBRS9 at Silverstone

Barwell Motorsport featured strongly in the battle for honours during the latest round of the British GT Championship at Silverstone last weekend. The Aston Martin DBRS9 of Andrew Howard/Jamie Smyth challenged for a podium finish on its way to an eventual 5th place.

Race – Sunday, 2-Hours (82 laps)

The 2-hour British GT races feature re-fuelling and tyre changes for the teams, although this would be water off a duck’s back for the well-drilled Barwell crew, coming fresh from doing 23 such pit stops at the Spa 24 Hours! Despite the longer distance race, the action all the way through the British GT grid was pretty hectic from the green light. Andrew was starting the Beechdean Ice Cream-backed Aston Martin and immediately started to hound the Ford GT of Philip Walker for sixth place. The Ford man succumbed to Andrew’s challenge on lap four, and the charging Howard then immediately demoted the Ferrari of Phil Burton to claim fifth spot on the next lap.

Andrew then concentrated on keeping the gap down to the leading quartet ahead of him, and keeping him and Jamie in the hunt for a podium finish. He stuck incredibly well to his task, which is not easy around a tight Silverstone International track not ideally suited to the DBRS9. After 41 tough laps, exactly half distance, Andrew came in to hand over to Jamie with the car in good fettle and the race very much on for a podium.

The mandatory pit stops are regulated by a minimum time that must have elapsed from the moment a car crosses the pit lane entry line to when it crosses the exit line, and this time includes the refuelling, driver change, and tyre change procedures that must be carried out. A team therefore has to calculate how long it takes for a car to travel down the pit lane at the maximum speed allowed, and work out from that how long the car needs to be stationary at the pit stop in order to meet the minimum total elapsed pit lane time. Of course in a race every second lost in the pit lane is crucial and thus the target is to achieve the minimum elapsed time and no more during your car’s pit stop. We certainly ticked this box, with both Barwell cars timed at within a second of the minimum – the ideal situation. During the stops the cars were serviced quickly and immaculately by the crack Barwell crew, with a full tank of fuel being put in and all four tyres changed. We gained many seconds on the majority of our rivals during this pit stop period, including over 10 seconds on one car!

When all the stops had been completed, Jamie was holding a strong fourth position in the Aston, and setting very good lap times which were right in the ballpark of the three cars ahead. He was also maintaining the gaps back to the Ford GT and Burton/Wilcox Ferrari behind. We knew that the big front-engined, 6-litre V12 Aston would be working its front Avon tyres harder than the two mid-engined cars behind, however, and thus Jamie was set to come under increasing pressure as the race wore on. On lap 61 this three-way fight became the battle for third place and the final podium spot, with the demise of the Jones twins’ Ascari. Jamie could now sniff the opportunity of another podium, and he wasn’t going to give that up without a fight.

Jamie held sway in third place for four laps, but he then had the Alex Mortimer-driven Ford right on his tail. These two then duelled it out for three laps in a great fight, but Smyth was managing to successfully counter every attack that the Ford driver launched. On lap 67, however, the Ford forced a gap down the inside at Priory and banged into the side of the Aston in a forceful move. Jamie managed to keep the Aston on the track, but after this contact with the Ford, was concerned about a vibration that he could feel. This left him powerless to defend from the Wilcox-driven Ferrari, which usurped the Aston with 11 laps to go. Considering the fact that Silverstone is not one of the Aston’s strongest circuits, however, fifth was a very good result and top performances had been put in by both drivers and team alike.