British GT Snetterton 07/06/2004

Sumpter and Jordan hit gearbox dramas

Mark Sumpter and Mike Jordan were denied a possible victory in the fifth round of the British GT Championship at Snetterton over the weekend (5/6 June). Gearbox problems forced retirement in the opening race but they overcame more problems to finish fourth in the second race of the weekend.

The Paragon Porsche-backed Porsche 911 GT3RS encountered a handling problem on Saturday morning during free practice. With no time left to test the car they made a judgment at the suspension set-up for race one in the afternoon. It proved to be a good call and as the field stormed into the opening race, Jordan found that he had a good handling balance. He duly moved into second place, following the Ferrari 360 of race leader Nathan Kinch.  

However, just six laps later Jordan's run came to an end after a gear selector broke, leaving the car stuck in second gear. He had no choice but to tour into the pits, their race over before Sumpter even got into the car.  “We had a general handling problem this morning and just couldn’t get to the bottom of it, so we guessed at the set-up and Mike said that the car was really good when the race started," explained a disappointed Sumpter. "I was quite content to sit behind Nathan for a few laps and see how everything went. 

Then I went for third gear and found I couldn’t get out of second,” added Jordan.  “We had the same part fail at Enna in the FIA Championship last year and Porsche built some stronger ones, but this is one of them," said Sumpter. "We've had to strip the spare gearbox down and take that piece off and fit it to the current gearbox as the ratios are better. Hopefully that will solve the problem."  

Things looked good as Sumpter started the second race strongly, but another gearbox problem quickly developed. The Porsche lost fifth gear completely, meaning a shift from fourth to sixth on the long Snetterton straights. This left the car down on speed and effectively out of contention for a podium finish.  

However, Mark raced as hard as he could despite the handicap to keep the car in contention and when Mike took over at the pit-stop they were in contention for third place. But Jordan knew that fourth was their likely result. “I was trying so hard but was never going to be able to get past Godfrey Jones for third as he just had that extra power on the straight that I couldn't overcome,” added Jordan.  The team will be back in action in the next pair of races at Castle Combe (Wiltshire) on 19/20 June.