British GT (GT2) Donington Park 10/04/2005

Paragon misses out on Donington podium

It was a bittersweet weekend for the Paragon Porsche supported Team Eurotech in the opening round of the British GT Championship at Donington Park (2/3 April).

In the team's lead car, Mike Jordan and Michael Caine finished fifth, but knew that they had the speed to claim a podium finish had they not lost time early in the race with a loose wheel.  

The Donington weekend marked the start of the season for the three-car Eurotech squad. Jordan and Caine lined up in the Paragon Porsche 911 GT3RSR, alongside the similar Preci-Spark backed car of David and Godfrey Jones. In the GT3 category, Stuart Scott and Steve Wood drove the Paragon 911 GT3 Cup car.  Right from the start of the weekend, Jordan knew that his car was handling superbly and was only likely to be headed by the pair of Ferraris at the front of the field. With a big push on his best flying lap, Jordan posted third fastest time in qualifying. "Our aim was to be third," he said. "We knew we couldn’t catch the Ferraris, but I'm absolutely delighted with the car." 

Despite spinning out of the session after only seven laps, the Jones car qualified seventh, while Scott/Wood qualified 12th in the GT3 category.  Caine took the start of the two-hour race on Sunday afternoon and immediately jumped ahead of one of the Ferraris to take second. However, on the second lap he slowed and headed for the pits, knowing that there was a problem. "There was a problem with a drive peg and a rear wheel worked loose," said Jordan. In all, the incident cost them two laps and they resumed in 25th place.  For the rest of the two hours, Caine and then Jordan - after the driver change – passed car after car as they fought back to finish fifth. "The car was good enough for a podium finish; I think we could have been second," said a disappointed Jordan. "But it is still points for fifth place and there's a long way to go in the season," he added.  

The Jones twins had a fine race and drove superbly all afternoon to secure fourth place, while Scott/Wood also had a strong race to move up to finish eighth in GT3.  The team now has a break of almost a month before round two, which forms part of the FIA GT Championship race at Magny Cours in France on 1 May.