Mutsch and Khan take back-to-back wins at Silverstone

Thomas Mutsch and Ian Khan made the perfect start to the season by winning both races at Silverstone in the No.20 Matech GT Racing Ford GT. Even a minor delay during the mandatory pit-stop of the second race couldn’t prevent the pair from taking maximum points. James Ruffier and Arnaud Peyroles, in the No.1 Martini Callaway Racing Corvette Z.06 GT3 took second, while a remarkable charge through the field carried the No.36 Prospeed Competition Porsche 97 GT3 Cup S of David Loix and Mikael Forsten from nineteenth on the grid to third.

 

DRAMATIC START FOLLOWED BY CONSTANT SHUFFLING

As the pack came onto the main straight the No.25 Team Berlanga Ascari KZ1R GT3  spun in the middle of the pack, with cars scattering left and right. Two cars, the No.30 AutoGT Racing Morgan Aero 8 and No.8 Hexis Racing Aston Martin DBR9, hit the wall and were out on the spot, while the No.7 Trackspeed Porsche limped round to the pits to retire. The safety car was sent out while the stricken cars were removed.

 

Thomas Mutsch had made a clean start from pole in the No.20 Matech GT Ford, but behind him the order had been thoroughly shuffled. Biggest winner was the No.29 AutoGT Morgan, which leapt from fifth on the grid to second; by contrast, the No.10 Hexis Aston Martin fell from second to fifth. Once the safety car pulled in at the end of lap 3 Mutsch steadily pulled away, establishing a lead of three seconds by the end of lap 8. Behind him there were five cars covered by another three seconds battling for second place – every lap saw move and counter-move being made.

 

The No.6 Trackspeed Porsche was the car on the move, going from sixth on lap 5 to second place on 15. At one time there were three cars swapping positions at almost every corner, for virtually an entire lap.

 

TOP THREE DECIDED IN FINAL FOUR LAPS

At the end of lap 15 the entire top five headed for the pits leaving their compulsory stop as late as they dared. Unfortunately for Ian Khan, when he took over the No.20 Matech GT Ford, it refused to restart until he had switched the car off, then back on. It only cost him ten seconds – but that was enough to drop him to third. After the stops, the No.6 Trackspeed Porsche led – but their stop had been 2s too quick, and the car was called in for a stop-and-go penalty. That handed the lead to the No.29 Morgan, with the No.1 Martini Callaway Corvette in second – but they were being hunted down by Khan. On lap 19 Peyroles, in the Corvette, got past the Morgan to take the lead, but it was only delaying the inevitable.

 

On lap 24, Khan went right around the outside of the Corvette at Stowe corner and swept into the lead; when the chequered flag fell three laps later, he was just under 2s clear. Behind them, Mikael Forsten, in the No.36 Prospeed Porsche, was on a charge; fastest car on the circuit by several seconds, he passed car after car. He dived past the No.29 AutoGT Morgan going into Maggotts on lap 26 to go third – but there were too few laps remaining for him to close on the Corvette.

 

“This is the perfect start to the season – two races, two wins,” said Khan after the race. “Last year Gilles Vannelet and Henri Moser won the opening two races, then went on to win the championship, so I’m hoping this is a good omen. Thomas did a good job during his stint, and we were first before the pit-stop – I’m glad we were able to recover from the minor problem.”

As an aide memoire, below is the method for calculating Drivers’, Teams’ and Manufacturers’ points for the Championship.

 

Drivers Championship

Drivers of the top eight cars score points as per FIA standard – 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.

 

Teams’ Championship

A car is eligible to score points in the Teams’ Championship if all the cars the team entered for the full season are present.

 

Manufacturers’ Cup

Manufacturers’ Cup competitions will only be held if six cars are on the full-season entry list. For 2008, this means:

• Aston Martin
• Chevrolet
• Ferrari
• Ford
• Porsche

 

Points are scored as per FIA standards – unless less than six cars are presented for scrutineering. In this case, the top scores are omitted – e.g. if four cars are entered, they will score 6-5-4-3.

 

2008-04-20
Subscribe:   Subscribe with small images:   Subscribe with medium images: