By Jan Stevenson
Azteca Motorsport Mosler claims second place on the podium in the opening round of the new Britcar season.
After a supurb qualififying and starting the Britcar in pole position, Javier Morcillo slipped backed to second surrendering the lead to Aaron Scott in the GT3 Racing Dodge Viper as the Azteca Mosler warmed up. After only five laps out, Morcillo regained the lead and twenty minutes in had stretched the lead tp nine seconds. As the safety car came out for the first of two sessions, it gave a warmed up pack the chance to catch up.
“The other guys are just getting up to speed with their cars,” said Scott after his first stint. “We had a good dice with the Mosler but once that gets going it’s a much quicker car and he got away from me but I think it will be good over the course of the season. I would expect a couple of years ago British GT with the Lamborghini and the Ferrari is was always good battle, so I expect it’ll be like that through the season.”
Sadly for the rest, once the green flag flew again they had no answer to the Mosler ahead, Morcillo streaking away into a 28 second lead before the safety car was called into action once more.
The green flag stint – less than 20 minutes, however, saw the Viper leap back up the order. After taking the restart after the first yellow flag in eleventh overall it met the second safety car in third before pitting for the second time – Morcillo again stayed out in a race where the varying fuel consumption of the array for cars on show was expected to be crucial.
Morcillo’s stint finally came to an end at almost exactly the halfway point in the race, bringing the car for fuel, tyres and to hand over to co-driver Manuel Cintrano. It looked like a text book stint from the Spaniard, but talking to TCF minutes after climbing from the car he revealed otherwise – apparently he spun on the warm-up lap.
“This car is really bad on cold tyres, so I was on brand, brand new tyres with stickers on,” he said. “I had one lap to make them warm and I was working very hard and I made the mistake and spun the car around, just a little spin. No bit dramas but a little bit embarrassing.”
He explained the monster opening stint; “we have our fuel consumption calculation, and we were planning to stop earlier than that but I had two safety cars and we save huge fuel because basically I was on idle in third gear so we took no fuel and I was changing early every gear with that in mind, but I was really aware we were going after our window. It’s a good surprise.”
Cintrano was unable to keep up the pace of his countryman, and a storming Keith Robinson took the lead shortly for MJC before the two-hour mark and began pulling out an – in hindsight – unassailable lead. He was four seconds a lap faster than the Mosler, and Cintrano slipped back to third behind Aaron Scott, in for his second stint in the KJ&TG backed Viper on the other side of the two-thirds point of the race.
The three leaders made their final stops close together. Cintrano brought the Azteca Motorsport Mosler back in to give Morcillo a final stint on fresh tyres, Scott brough the Viper in, Craig Wilkins climbing aboard, while Keith Robinson remained in the leading Ferrari, now enjoying a 1:40 lead. The gap was too much for Morcillo, but he was still able to reel on the Viper, racking up the fastest lap of the race (2:07.358) in the process, completing the pass at Village on the new GP complex. The second place was the silver lining on a cloudy weekend for the Mosler contingent. Strata21’s entry had crashed in testing the day before the race, and Martin Short’s Rollcentre entry had a destroyed an engine in qualifying, putting it out of the weekend.
Azteca Motorsport Mosler claims second place on the podium in the opening round of the new Britcar season.
After a supurb qualififying and starting the Britcar in pole position, Javier Morcillo slipped backed to second surrendering the lead to Aaron Scott in the GT3 Racing Dodge Viper as the Azteca Mosler warmed up. After only five laps out, Morcillo regained the lead and twenty minutes in had stretched the lead tp nine seconds. As the safety car came out for the first of two sessions, it gave a warmed up pack the chance to catch up.
“The other guys are just getting up to speed with their cars,” said Scott after his first stint. “We had a good dice with the Mosler but once that gets going it’s a much quicker car and he got away from me but I think it will be good over the course of the season. I would expect a couple of years ago British GT with the Lamborghini and the Ferrari is was always good battle, so I expect it’ll be like that through the season.”
Sadly for the rest, once the green flag flew again they had no answer to the Mosler ahead, Morcillo streaking away into a 28 second lead before the safety car was called into action once more.
The green flag stint – less than 20 minutes, however, saw the Viper leap back up the order. After taking the restart after the first yellow flag in eleventh overall it met the second safety car in third before pitting for the second time – Morcillo again stayed out in a race where the varying fuel consumption of the array for cars on show was expected to be crucial.
Morcillo’s stint finally came to an end at almost exactly the halfway point in the race, bringing the car for fuel, tyres and to hand over to co-driver Manuel Cintrano. It looked like a text book stint from the Spaniard, but talking to TCF minutes after climbing from the car he revealed otherwise – apparently he spun on the warm-up lap.
“This car is really bad on cold tyres, so I was on brand, brand new tyres with stickers on,” he said. “I had one lap to make them warm and I was working very hard and I made the mistake and spun the car around, just a little spin. No bit dramas but a little bit embarrassing.”
He explained the monster opening stint; “we have our fuel consumption calculation, and we were planning to stop earlier than that but I had two safety cars and we save huge fuel because basically I was on idle in third gear so we took no fuel and I was changing early every gear with that in mind, but I was really aware we were going after our window. It’s a good surprise.”
Cintrano was unable to keep up the pace of his countryman, and a storming Keith Robinson took the lead shortly for MJC before the two-hour mark and began pulling out an – in hindsight – unassailable lead. He was four seconds a lap faster than the Mosler, and Cintrano slipped back to third behind Aaron Scott, in for his second stint in the KJ&TG backed Viper on the other side of the two-thirds point of the race.
The three leaders made their final stops close together. Cintrano brought the Azteca Motorsport Mosler back in to give Morcillo a final stint on fresh tyres, Scott brough the Viper in, Craig Wilkins climbing aboard, while Keith Robinson remained in the leading Ferrari, now enjoying a 1:40 lead. The gap was too much for Morcillo, but he was still able to reel on the Viper, racking up the fastest lap of the race (2:07.358) in the process, completing the pass at Village on the new GP complex. The second place was the silver lining on a cloudy weekend for the Mosler contingent. Strata21’s entry had crashed in testing the day before the race, and Martin Short’s Rollcentre entry had a destroyed an engine in qualifying, putting it out of the weekend.
