British GT (GT3) Snetterton 16/07/2005

Sumpter and Chambers win Britcar 3 Hour

Mark Sumpter and Pete Chambers battled for three hours at Snetterton with two rear wheel punctures and two safety car periods to a superb class win in there Porsche 911 Supercup car against some greater horsepower opposition. 

After qualifying a respectable two and half seconds off pole position Sumpter and Chambers car was fourth in class behind pole man Wright in his GT2 Mosler, Parr garage’s Porsche GT3 and a Ferrari 360 GT.

Chambers had a superb start and managed to miss a first corner crash involving Coles Ferrari, Wilson’s BMW Z3M, Scott’s BMW mini and Whites BMW M3 which brought out the first safety car, twenty minutes later racing resumed and Chambers was battling hard with the Marcos of Mercer and Fores.

By mid race distance the Porsche of Cameron and Horne had retired with mechanical problems as did the Porsche of Phillips and Joules an hour later. 

During the second safety car period the team decided to refuel and change drivers, this was the most efficient time to change but gave Sumpter two hours of racing, 45 minutes into Sumpters stint he hit a Marcos whilst lapping it, this caused Sumpter’s car to lose its power steering still with over 1 hour of the race to go! “The race was going so well for us until I hit the Marcos!”

With another puncture in the last hour Sumpter had to make an extra pit stop which allowed the Ferrari of Lockie to catch up, “the last few laps were very hard as the Ferrari was catching” after 3 hours the Paragon Porsche won the race by less than 5 seconds “I was very pleased to see the chequered flag” said Sumpter.