Avon Tyres British GT Championship front-runner Jeremy Metcalfe saw a
potential race victory slip through his fingers at Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire
this afternoon, Saturday, 28th June, when misfortune befell team-mate Luke Hines
during the compulsory driver change pit-stop.
Eventually finishing the ninth round of the season in seventh position, the
CR  Scuderia pairing did look on course to challenge for their second win of the
campaign when Fleet based Jeremy handed over his Ferrari 430 GT3 to Hines in the
lead of the race under Safety Car conditions on lap 16.
However, contact from the then second placed Cadena Motorsport Aston Martin
as Hines attempted to leave his pit-box, still with the lead intact, resulted in
chaotic scenes and saw the CRS Ferrari slip to eighth position as the race
resumed.
Reflecting on round nine, Jeremy said: “It’s really frustrating as we had a
great chance to have a very good result today. After qualifying on pole position
with just one flying lap, I was really confident we could pull out a good lead
and that’s what I was doing until the Safety Car appeared about 12 minutes into
the race.
“The car felt fine and I could easily have pulled away more but the Safety
Car spoiled that. When Luke took the car over we should have gone back out in
the lead but as he tried to leave the pits we were blocked in. When our car was
pulled back into a better position to allow Luke to leave, the Aston Martin went
straight into the back of it.”
Having secured the second pole position of his debut sportscar season
during the earlier round nine qualifying session with a thoroughly dominant
performance – Jeremy’s best lap of 1m 16.697 seconds (110.58mph) achieved with
just one flying lap – he led the race very comfortably from the start and looked
in good shape throughout his stint.
Posting his quickest lap of 1m 17.350 seconds on the fourth tour, which
ended up as the second fastest lap of the race overall, the 20-year-old British
Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Star comfortably opened up a gap to the
second placed Aston Martin until the Safety Car was deployed on lap 11.
Wiping out his four second lead, the field continued to circulate under the
Safety Car until the compulsory pit-stop window opened at the end of lap 15 and
Jeremy led the train of cars into the pits. Rejoining in eighth place after the
pit-lane debacle, Hines climbed into sixth as the race entered lap 27 but had to
settle for seventh in the end.
“It’s annoying we didn’t have better fortune today but I raced strongly and
I’m happy with how I performed”, added Jeremy, “We start tomorrow’s race from
13th on the grid which will be tough but hopefully we’ll be able to fight for
some points.”
Following a short 10-minute warm-up session at 10.45 tomorrow morning,
Sunday, 29th June, the 10th round of the 2008 Avon Tyres British GT Championship
will follow at approximately 13.45.
Provisional Avon Tyres British GT Championship Driver Standings
(after Rd9)
=1st James Gornall & Jon Barnes, 53pts; =8th
Jeremy Metcalfe & Luke Hines, 30pts
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