BGTC: Castle Combe round eight summary

Jordan and Sumpter Victorious at Combe

Mike Jordan and Mark Sumpter scored their second victory of the year in front of a packed Castle Combe crowd in round eight of the British GT Championship.

It was the Mosler MT900R of Patrick Pearce that led the field into the first corner, but, his lead was short lived as Nigel Greensall dived up the inside at Camp corner in the RSR TVR T440R.

Greensall set about pulling out a lead over the rest of the chasing pack. However, his early hard work was undone when the safety car was deployed when David Jones' Porsche broke a suspension component and pitched it into the tyre wall at Old Paddock.

At the re-start the TVR managed to pull away once again. Pearce was holding off the Ultima of Matt Manderson in third with race one winner Tim Sugden struggling in fourth.

As the pit-stop window opened Sumpter came in from fifth place to hand over to Jordan. An inspired drive followed from the former GT champion, including a stunning move around the outside of Richard Stanton in the Molser at Camp corner.

Jonathan Cocker had taken the lead after Sugden pitted at the last minute but a handful of laps later and Jordan was all over the rear of Cocker's Porsche. A move at Quarry gave him the lead and even a torrential downpour and an intermittent power steering problem could not put him off.

"That was a classic race for me," said Jordan. "It could not have been a better result, especially in front of all the guests and sponsors. Jonathan drove a very mature race and made very few mistakes," he added.

Richard Stanton eventually brought the Rollcentre Mosler across the line in third place. A battle with the Ultima of Steven Brady and Alan Bonner in the closing stages eventually went the way of the current team champions.

The Dailysportscar.com Cup Class was once again dominated by the Lotus Sport Elise of Gavin Kershaw and Barrie Whight. However, the car was disqualified following post-race scrutineering, handing the race win to the Marcos Mantis of Chris Beighton and Jon Finnemore.

Phil Hindley and Adam Sharpe took second place with the DRM Ferrari of Adam Wilcox and Ni Amorim in third. Dan Eagling and Colin Blower had their second good result of the weekend in the new Vauxhall VX220, ending up in fourth place. Simon Pullan and Fanny Duchateau overcame early race problems to take fifth.

British GT Championship -- Round Eight

Results:

N-GT
1 Jordan/Sumpter Porsche 911GT3-RS 43 laps in 54m24.183s
2 Sugden/Cocker Porsche 911GT3-RSR 54m24.947s
3 Stanton/Pearce Mosler MT900R 54m44.000s
4 Brady/Bonner Ultima GTR 54m47.004s
5 Coleman/Greensall TVR T400R 54m51.215s
6 Niarchos/Mullen Ferrari 360 Modena 55m26.771s

Dailysportscar.com Cup Class
1 Beighton/Finnemore Marcos Mantis 42 laps
2 Hindley/Sharpe Porsche 911GT3-Cup 42 laps
3 Wilcox/Amorim Ferrari 360 Modena 42 laps
4 Eagling/Blower Vauxhall VX220 41 laps
5 Pullan/Duchateau Noble M12GTO3R 41 laps
6 Broster/Brown Porsche 911GT3-Cup 41 laps

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