GT
BGTC: Balfe Motorsport Thruxton summary
The Balfe Motorsport team nearly made a triumphant return to the British GT Championship at Thruxton at the weekend, after taking pole position and second place starting positions for the two races. However, the weekend came to a dramatic halt for ...
Edited: Jul 2, 2009, 5:35 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Balfe Motorsport team nearly made a triumphant return to the British GT Championship at Thruxton at the weekend, after taking pole position and second place starting positions for the two races. However, the weekend came to a dramatic halt for the team just before the end of the first race, with Balfe being spun out of the race at over 150mph.
The Newark Glass Group backed squad had starred in the wet qualifying sessions on Sunday, making the rest of the series regular's sit-up and take notice of its return. A superb drive by Nigel Taylor in the first half of the race meant Balfe returned to the race after the driver changeover in good shape and inherited the lead.
A battle with one of the front running Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari's looked on the cards as the newer, more modern machine hunted Balfe down towards the closing stages of the race. The crowds cheered as the Mosler MT900R went up against the Ferrari in the last few laps in what was a classic cat and mouse chase.
With just three laps to go though, the dream return for the team turned to a nightmare when Balfe was tagged by the Ferrari on the run up to the final chicane,, with both cars traveling in excess of 150mph. Balfe was pitched into a violent spin that sent him off the circuit and forced the windscreen out of the car.
Balfe rejoined the race and immediately went into the pit-lane to have the car checked over. The team made a handful of hasty repairs and sent the car back out for the last two laps. The damage caused in the spin made him spin once again, this time more slowly at the chicane on the penultimate lap, but the team was still able to claim fourth place at the flag.
"I don't remember too much about the spin to be honest, it all happened that fast," said Balfe. "I pulled across to pass a back marker N-GT class Porsche, who was also lapping a slower Cup Class car."
"I didn't expect the Ferrari to try and go for the gap in between us and when the car went everything just happened so fast. I remember the windscreen being blown out, that was pretty frightening, but then the car had come to a rest and I just put it in gear and carried on," he added.
"It's very disappointing for the whole team as we obviously had the pace to win races this weekend and it would have been a great way to come back into the championship. As it is we only have a handful of days to repair the car before we go out to Valencia for the next round of the Spanish GT Championship, so it's going to be a long, hard week for the team now," said Balfe.
The team heads across to Spain next week for the next round of the Spanish series, taking place at the challenging Valencia circuit from the 9th to the 12th September.
-bm-
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article BGTC: Thruxton qualifying summary
Next article AGT: Glen Andrew, Tri-American to debut at VIR
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Nigel Taylor
Dijon: Balfe Motorsport preview
GT World Challenge Europe Sprint
GT World Challenge Europe Sprint
Dijon: Balfe Motorsport preview
Balfe Motorsport Paul Ricard driver lineup
GT World Challenge Europe Sprint
GT World Challenge Europe Sprint
Balfe Motorsport Paul Ricard driver lineup
Silverstone warmup times
GT World Challenge Europe Sprint
GT World Challenge Europe Sprint
Silverstone warmup times
Latest news
Zane Smith fined $50,000 by NASCAR for ramming Carson Hocevar after Phoenix Cup race
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
2 h
Zane Smith fined $50,000 by NASCAR for ramming Carson Hocevar after Phoenix Cup race
FIA expects F1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to continue as planned
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
7 h
FIA expects F1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to continue as planned
TDS Racing doubles down on IMSA program with two-car LMP2 return
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 7 h
TDS Racing doubles down on IMSA program with two-car LMP2 return
Why Isack Hadjar doesn’t like F1 sprints anymore
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
7 h
Why Isack Hadjar doesn’t like F1 sprints anymore
Feature
Discover prime content
Did Audi ‘give up’ on GT3 too soon?
GT
By James Newbold
Did Audi ‘give up’ on GT3 too soon?
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe