Bradley Ellis and Alex Mortimer endured a weekend to forget at
Croft as they slipped eight points off the pace in the race for the Avon Tyres British GT Championship title.
The pair went into the weekend just a point away from the championship lead but were denied a podium finish in the opening race by race officials and were then taken out of race two by an incident involving the
Ferrari of Adam Wilcox and Phil Burton.
As the lights turned green for round eleven, Mortimer made a good start from sixth on the grid to finish lap one in fourth, just over a second behind the sister Viper of Nigel Redwood. Mortimer pushed to within just over half a second of Redwood in the opening laps while David Jones in the Ascari was bearing down from fifth.
Jones managed to slip past Mortimer on the run up to Hawthorn on lap six but the 22-year-old stayed in contention and got the margin down to six tenths of a second in the following laps. Jones quickly reeled in and subsequently took Redwood 15 minutes into the race, allowing Mortimer to follow suit and take fourth the following lap.
Pulling clear of his team-mate, Mortimer was left chasing Jones, who was now nearly four seconds ahead in third by lap 13. Mortimer managed to reduce Jones' advantage to three seconds before pitting just before the halfway mark.
Ellis emerged third, eight seconds behind Godfrey Jones in the Ascari, with the #3 Aston Martin still in the lead. On a charge from fourth was the Christians in Motorsport Ferrari and Allan Simonsen soon began to pressure Ellis. The 20-year-old held his nerve to stave off the Dane's advances for a good few laps before the Ferrari took third at the final corner with 20 minutes remaining. But three laps later the Ascari went off the circuit, demoting Jones from second to fourth and Ellis to third in the process.
