FUEL ISSUES HALT CHALLENGE FROM BEECHDEAN AT SEASON OPENER
Rounds 1 & 2
Saturday 11th & Monday 13th April 2009
The season finally got underway at Oulton Park in Cheshire this weekend and Andrew Howard & Jamie Smyth were behind the wheel of the Aston Martin DBR S9 but it was not to be an easy start to the season.
The team experienced issues with the championship’s Sunoco fuel during the first race of the weekend on Saturday which saw the engine on the car shut down.
The problems arose as they made their way to the grid for Race one so they were unable to take up their 3rd place qualifying position and had to start from the back of the pack for the hour long race. Both Jamie & Andrew battled as hard as they could but were unable to capitalise on a great qualifying position and come the chequered flag were classified in 7th place.
Race two took place today (Monday) and due to the British GT regulations the Beechdean-Barwell car had to run on championship-spec race fuel, even though there was a possibility of risk to the car and engine. It was Jamie who was behind the wheel for the start and even though the team were aware problems could occur they carried on to make the most of the hour long race. Andrew took over at the half way point and was again fighting his way through the pack when he spun on the final lap and out of the race.
Race 1 Classified 7th
Race 2 Classified 8th
Andrew Howard "We had a few issues which made the weekend more challenging than we would have liked but I have to say that the team did a great job of trying to find a solution so that we could go racing. It was such a disappointment and very frustrating after we had worked hard to qualify the car at the front end of the grid for the first race."
Barwell-Beechdean GT4
Richard Jones and Ben de zille Butler contested the GT4 category with the Beechdean-Barwell run Aston Martin Vantage N24. It was mixed fortunes for the pair from the off after Richard damaged the car in a qualifying incident and they never quite got on the pace for both GT4 events.
Additional Information:
One-hour stand-alone programmes on each championship will be aired on Motors TV, both in the UK and across Europe, after each race meeting, with 30-minute shows on Channel 4, provisionally scheduled for Saturday mornings.
The Avon Tyres British GT Championship races from Oulton will be shown on 25th April at 6pm (GMT).