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Team-mate race accident robs Jake
Rattenbury in a difficult weekend at the new Snetterton 300 in British GT By Chris Roberts/WiderViewPhoto.com
Jake practices the Ginetta G50
However issues with power steering & red flags meant Jake could only qualified the car 5th in class. The changes from wet dry and wet tyres, back to slick tyres when the line dried, with 5 wheel nuts per wheel, meant that not many laps were completed by either driver. After qualifying Rattenbury commented "I struggled with traffic on new tyres, having to give way to the quicker GT3 cars, so didn’t find a clean lap to set a quicker time. With the earlier issues with power steering I really needed a bit more time in the car. The race is 2 hours long so we will need to battle to get higher up in class, I’ll get into the car at the 1 hour mark" Jake & Josh pre race As this was a 2 hour race this meant a re-fuel as well as a driver change, and if the changeable conditions returned tyre changes as well. So the team got Rattenbury and Wakefield to practice the driver change procedure assuming a re-fuel timed against the clock. At re-fuelling there are rules of when fuel could be put in (after the original driver had been helped out by his teammate) and how long the stop would be. In the race, after 20 minutes, the safety car was called out after a heavy collision between the two Trackspeed Porsche 911 GT3 RS cars, which led to a very lengthy period behind the safety car. So Wakefield (who had started in the car) had to follow the train of cars behind the safety car. Finally after another 20 minutes the safety car pulled in and the cars went back to racing speed. Unfortunately disaster stuck as Wakefield pulled an overtaking manoeuvre on a GT4 Lotus Evora into the chicane but was hit by another car, which broke an upright beam and put the car out of the race. After Wakefield had returned to the pits he was gutted for his team mate who didn’t get into the car. Jake commented "I am frustrated that I didn’t get to race as we would have got on the podium again. I am now looking forward to the next races at the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent and be able to take the battle to the other GT4 class cars". The British GT championship now moves onto the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent for a pair of 2 hour races on June 18/19. Information about the Avon Tyres British GT Championship The Avon Tyres British GT Championship (previously known as the BRDC GT Championship) is a sports car racing series currently based in the United Kingdom, although they have had select races outside of Britain in the past few years. The series was created by the British Racing Drivers' Club in 1993 and for its first two seasons was called the National Sports GT Challenge. The series is currently run by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation in conjunction with the British Formula Three Championship, and sponsored by Avon Tyres. As part of the evolution of the series, the GT3 class of cars were introduced in 2005. This class later became identical to the FIA GT3 European Championship class, using nearly identical rules from 2006 onward. Due to the cost-saving measures in the class, the faster GT2 class was phased out at the end of 2006. The new FIA GT4 class will be adapted in 2008, replacing the unique GTC class that had previously been used. For 2011, the GT4 category amalgamates GT4-homologated cars and Supersport-type machines |
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WRDA member Jake
Rattenbury had high hopes that he could continue his great partnership with Josh Wakefield
in the 2 hour Avon Tyres British GT race at the newly created Snetterton 300 circuit
layout which was upgraded over the winter with a new infield section with its length
increased to 2.99 miles.