Chris Niarchos and Tim Mullen have extended their lead in the Avon Tyres British GT Championship to four points after claiming a tenth win in twelve races at Silverstone.
Niarchos started the race from pole position and was running third at the 30 minute mark – when the picture of the race changed completely. The Safety Car came out and the Greek/Canadian took the opportunity to pit to hand over to Tim Mullen. The race was 35-minutes old by then and he had completed the mandatory minimum time. Mullen joined the race behind the Safety Car and, when the team realised it would be a long caution period, they made a swift strategy change. Just over ten minutes later Tim came in again, prompting a few raised eyebrows from those who didn't know the plan. The Ferrari was now in a position to run to the end of the race on its newly-acquired full tank of fuel.
“The team is really on the ball as we have a lot of endurance racing experience now,” Niarchos said. “We saw that it was going to be an extended period so we played the statistics. The start was a bit of a drag race down to the first corner. I knew that the Mosler and Panoz would get me into turn one, as there is such a long run up, but I also knew I had to sit tight and avoid any trouble. The Ascari coming through was a surprise though! When Tim got in he did what he does best: drive fast!”
Whilst the Ferrari stopped under the Safety Car the LNT Panoz didn't, so the quick-thinking from the Scuderia Ecosse pit wall had done the trick. All Mullen had to do was keep it neat and tidy which he duly did, bringing the #1 Ferrari all the way to the chequered flag with over a minute in hand over the Panoz.
“The team came up with a great strategy for us today,” he said. “We made those two stops early and then all we had to do was wait for it to pan out, which it did beautifully. I had a very comfortable lead by the closing stages; I had a few moments with traffic but everyone was pretty good today.”
The final two rounds of the 2006 British GT Championship are scheduled to take place at Magny Cours in France next month, although rumours persist that the race may not take place.
“We've won ten out of twelve races now but with the half points system we still haven't won the Championship,” team boss Stewart Roden said. “It's frustrating as I think we've proved we can do it! It doesn't make much sense for us to go to Magny Cours and race within a French GT race with GT1 cars and people trying to sort out their own title races but, like Chris says, if we go, we go to win. The team did a fantastic job today and so did the drivers. I couldn't have asked them for more.”
