Team Modena endured a nightmare start to its Avon Tyres British GT Championship campaign after an accident in the opening race at
Oulton Park forced the Lamborghini team out of the first meeting of the year.
The team had enjoyed a mixed start to race day after BTCC racer Adam Jones posted the quickest time during the morning free practice session, powering the GT3 Gallardo to a best time of 1min 38.585secs – more than a second quicker than the second placed
Ferrari of Allan Simonsen.
However, the session ended with the car off track after team-mate Piers Johnson was caught out on the entry to Britten's chicane on his out lap and slid off onto the wet grass and was unable to find enough grip to get the car back onto the race track.
It left Johnson to head into qualifying without the chance to drive the car at speed around the challenging Cheshire venue and resulted in him qualifying in 15th place, with Jones then posting the seventh quickest time in qualifying for race two.
Unfortunately for the team, the qualifying position in race one left Johnson in the middle of the pack as the first race kicked off and contact from the ABG Motorsport Viper of Craig Wilkins on the run into Cascades saw the Gallardo forced onto the grass, where the car dug in and was tipped into a roll.
"I got a nice clean start, and got to the inside of the first corner," Johnson explained. "That put me on the right with a Viper on my left, and I didn't want to be on the outside through Cascades, so I lifted off to let him past, but he kept squeezing me and I ended up on the grass.
"From then on I was just a passenger and unfortunately the car dug in and rolled over, and I have been told we did three rolls."
Although Johnson was uninjured, the damage sustained means the team is now heading for home to prepare for the second meeting of the campaign at
Knockhill in early May.
