Allan Simonsen and Hector Lester have secured their first win of the 2008 Avon Tyres British GT Championship season following a highly controversial, and at times farcical, opening race of the weekend at
Thruxton.
The Christians in Motorsport pairing came home ahead of the ABG Motorsport Viper of Craig Wilkins and Aaron Scott while championship leaders Jon Barnes and James Gornall took third to strengthen their position at the head of the standings.
The race itself started in somewhat confusing fashion towards the rear of the field as the cars came through the final chicane to take the rolling start, with Hunter Abbott being tipped into a spin in the Rob Austin Racing Ginetta that saw him immediately dropped off the back of the pack – which was missing three cars after the Moore Racing Dodge Viper and Maserati Trofeo and the Promotorsport Nissan all failed to make it to the grid.
From pole position, Jeremy Metcalfe held the lead in the #16 CR Scuderia
Ferrari ahead of Barrie Whight in the Cadena Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9 and Paddy Shovlin in the #18 CRS 430. Gornall jumped up to fourth place ahead of Nick Foster's RPM Viper, with Wilkins rounding out the top six at the end of the first lap.
Those positions stayed static until the third lap when Foster ran off course at the final chicane and pitted with a puncture which promoted Michael Meadows up into the top six. Further down the pack meanwhile, the #1 Viper in the hands of Steve Clark had been delayed following an off on the opening lap, as had Leo Machitski's Tech 9 Lamborghini – with both cars making their way back through the slower cars up the order. Also coming from the back was the Ferrari of Peter Bamford, with the Chad Peninsula Racing team having been granted permission to use its otherwise vacant #3 car to replace the usual #4 which Bamford had crashed during qualifying.
