Photos: Tony Wright, Whole Tone Media
AMOC-Racing kicked off their season at the British GT meeting at Brands Hatch last weekend Saturday 16 April with their much anticipated new ‘Aston Martin GT4 Challenge and AMOC Intermarque Championship’ on a combined grid
A fantastic atmosphere enveloped the pit lane and race centre as the Aston Club Racing qualifying session headed out as the first session of the day onto a dry but cold track which had been thoroughly washed by the previous day’s torrential rain. As a result, a distinct difference in performance of cars on the road legal E marked tyres, (AMOC Intermarque Championship) and those on slicks (Aston Martin GT Challenge).
Wayne Marrs in his Ferrari 355 Challenge set the pace initially but his weekend was to be cut short with engine failure. The Porsche 968s of James Hilliard and Steve Atkinson, these cars were never going to be far from the action all day. In the second half of qualifying lap times dropped as grip was found, and when Mike Dowd took over the newly acquired BMW M3 GT4 of Jeremy Cooke – a car they had never driven in the dry – he immediately set the timing screens alight posting lap times of 1.427 then 1.420. Dowd must of felt he had done enough because he then parked the car. The rest tried to match his pace but couldn’t, and so he finished pole with Chris Kemp (Aston Martin Vantage GT4) only 2-tenths behind and the team of Steven Byrne and Jerry Bailey (Aston Martin N24) 3-tenths behind him.
The excitement was palpable as the 50-minute race started. It was expected that the modern GT cars on slicks would run away with it, but after the first five minutes it was clear that the result of the race was not going to be certain.
With temperatures still low and track slightly damp the Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Chris Kemp and Aston Martin GT4 of Tom Black in the Aston Martin GT Challenge dropped back as the AMOC Intermarque Championship cars tried to capitalise on their opportunity.
Other drivers may have been rash, but Kemp and Black are two experienced endurance racers and they knew they had to be patient and hope their tyres would come good. However, as the other cars got quicker they fell further back. After 10 minutes three of the first five cars were AMOC Intermarque Championship cars; a couple of Porsche 968s and the 944 turbo of Tony Jardine and Bob Searles. Mike Dowd in the BMW M3 GT4 car was leading, also on road tyres. James Hilliard in a Porsche 968CS made a sustained and valiant attempt to stay with Dowd, but Dowd knew he had a job to do to get as big a gap as possible to allow his second driver Jeremy Cooke to defend the certain challenge that Kemp and Black would make as soon as they could get their tyres working. This came just before the pit stops when all of a sudden, Black now in front of Kemp, started passing cars with Kemp in hot pursuit.
After the pit stops and with 10 minutes left the BMW M3 GT4 now with Cooke driving was leading, with Hilliard 2nd and Steve Atkinson in 3rd also driving a Porsche 968CS. The question on everyone’s lips was would the charging Aston Martin GT4s of Kemp and Black catch them. When Kemp posted the fastest lap of the race 1.388 it was inevitable, but Cooke was too far ahead and the race finished with his BMW M3 GT4 as overall winner and Hilliard taking first place in the first round of the AMOC Intermarque Challenge.
Jeremy Cooke commented: “We’re absolutely over the moon with this result. The car is new to us for this season and very different from cars we’ve raced before. In fact, we raced it last weekend and blew the engine, and so this week we found a new engine on Ebay and managed to get it fitted before racing here today. I’m glad to say that all that hard work has paid off and we are thrilled with this win today.”
Joint winner of the 2015 AMOC Intermarque Championship James Hilliard “It was fantastic to be back racing again today defending the individual 2015 championship title. It was a tremendous race with an incredible atmosphere amongst drivers. All in all a wonderful start to the season, throughly enjoyable, and I’m already looking forward to the next race.”
Race Director of Aston Club Racing, Roger Bennington commented “Watching the electrifying British GT grid practice we wondered whether our race would be able to provide the sort of entertainment that the spectators had come to see. Luckily it did, and it very much became the talk of the paddock, which we were absolutely delighted about. We couldn’t have hoped for a better start to our new format of racing.”
A bustling official prize-giving was held in the Aston Club Racing hospitality area which was attended by every driver, and ACR was also delighted to welcome family and friends who were supporting competitors.
Bennington added: “I’d like to thank all of our drivers for competing today and for making it such a great success. We look forward to welcoming you again as we turn our attention to our next race meeting at Outlon Park on Saturday 28th May.”
The popular AMOC Intermarque Championship welcomes a wide variety of marques to compete including Aston Martin, Porsche, Ferrari, Sunbeam, Jaguar, USA V8 and AC. For more details of specific models and also suitable cars for the Aston Martin GT Challenge visit www.amocracing.org, email enquiries@astonclubracing.com or call 01508 530491.
