|
The Scottish duo of Andrew Kirkaldy
and Nathan Kinch scored a perfect set of results at Castle
Combe last weekend in their Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari 360 GTC,
taking their sixth and seventh wins of the 2005 British GT
Championship.
With team-mates Chris Niarchos and Tim Mullen finishing
close behind in second place in both races the team achieved
its first ever double 'one-two' and is now flying clear at
the top of the Championship tables.
RACE ONE
Not scoring any points at last year's Castle Combe meeting
proved disastrous for Nathan Kinch and Andrew Kirkaldy's
2004 Championship charge so they were keen to get a good
result in the bag and break their duck at the Wiltshire
circuit. By the close of play they had done it; Kinch took
pole position for the race and the Scottish pair duly took
their sixth victory of the season.
Team-mates Tim Mullen and Chris Niarchos had a much more
dramatic race, Niarchos spinning on lap four whilst running
fourth, chasing Mike Jordan's Porsche. The spin put Chris
down to ninth but like a true professional he got stuck in
immediately and handed the Ferrari over to Tim Mullen in
fourth place after lapping just a few seconds shy of the
third placed Porsche of Neil Cunningham. Once all the pit
stops had taken place and the scores had levelled out
Kirkaldy was leading and Mullen was in second place, the two
drivers swapping new lap records, a battle ultimately won by
Mullen. The final one-two result was testament to the hard
work of the whole Scuderia Ecosse team.
RACE TWO
Andrew Kirkaldy and Tim Mullen got away well from the front
row of the grid for Sunday's race but Mullen was caught out
by Ben Collins on the first lap, the Embassy driver passing
him for second place. As Kirkaldy began to pull away Mullen
went into battle with Collins' Porsche, passing him on lap
six before hunting down his Scottish team-mate. Twenty
minutes into the race Mullen was running with Kirkaldy, then
almost as soon as the pit window opened the safety car was
dispatched whilst a crashed Porsche was cleared from the
circuit. The team immediately signalled for both cars to pit
to change drivers but as they had just gone past the pit
lane entrance they had to complete another lap so were
hobbled somewhat by the timing of the safety car. The
Embassy Porsche meanwhile had pitted just as the safety car
came out so rejoined the race in first place!
Nathan Kinch and Chris Niarchos had it all to do and
immediately set about chasing the Embassy Porsche, now
driven by Neil Cunningham. A few laps later, under serious
pressure from a charging Kinch, Cunningham went off onto the
grass, rejoining in second place. So with Kinch in the lead
and Niarchos now chasing Cunningham for second the race was
going to plan for Scuderia Ecosse.
The team, and Kinch especially, had a heart-stopping moment
a lap later when the no. 36 GT3 Porsche span in front of the
no. 35 Ferrari as they both came through Camp Corner. Kinch
emerged unscathed just as the Embassy Porsche peeled off
into the pit lane with its radiators full of grass. Chris
Niarchos was now second and ten minutes later he and Kinch
cruised home to another one-two victory for Scuderia Ecosse.
Nathan Kinch (#35): "We've always known our car would
be good here but weren't able to show it last year.
Yesterday was fairly straightforward for us but we really
had to work hard for the win today! The safety car came out
just when we didn't need it so that helped the Embassy
Porsche get by which gave us a lot of work to do. This is a
fantastic set of results for us and it helps us to get the
momentum going again.
|
