Britcar GT Brands Hatch

Sumpter and Slater miss Britcar title by one point

Mark Sumpter and Adrian Slater claimed another top result in the final round of the Britcar GT Championship at Brands Hatch (7 November), but the results of a hectic race left them just one point short of winning the overall title.

  Instead, the class one crown was their reward for a great season in the Paragon Porsche/Baylis and Harding-entered Porsche 911GT3RSR as the championship wrapped up with a 90-minute race in the dark on the Indy circuit at Brands Hatch.

  "The car was really good in dry testing on Friday, but in the wet it was absolutely amazing," said Slater. While on a dry track the Porsche battled against its power deficit to the Moslers, on a wet track they were able to set the overall pace. 

 Saturday's qualifying session ran on a dry track and the Porsche ended the session sixth overall fastest. "We did a 47.5s lap in qualifying, which was about as good as we thought we could do," said Sumpter of the time that put them sixth on the grid.

 Sumpter started the race and nearly got the jump on one of the Moslers. However, there was chaos right behind the Paragon Porsche at the first corner as several cars tangled. Sumpter grabbed fifth place at Druids before the safety car came out for 11 laps while the first corner shunt was cleared away. The re-start offered just one racing lap before another safety car, but Sumpter used that lap to jump up to fourth and he did the same again on the second re-start to take third place. "The Porsche is always good on cold tyres," he said.

 Sumpter then ran third through to the mid-race pit-stop, which came during another safety car period just after half distance. With a good stop, the Porsche rejoined in second place and that became the lead when the Mosler of Phil Keen was penalised for a pit-stop infringement. "That put us into the lead with a 30s gap," said Sumpter.

 However, that margin was soon eroded by yet another safety car, the fourth of the race, which cost Slater much of his advantage. Still Slater led and he was setting a cracking pace when, with eight minutes left, the fifth safety car period of the race was called. That allowed the quicker cars behind the Porsche to close right in and the Paragon car was edged back to third in the final laps.

  However, third would have been enough for the overall title until the Prosport of Mike Millard retired with less than five minutes to run. That retirement elevated the Ferrari of Witt Gamski/Keith Robinson into the class two lead; a position that earned them the overall title by a single point from the Paragon/Baylis and Harding Porsche. 

 However, Sumpter/Slater finished the season as class one champions. "There was nothing more we could have done," said Sumpter after another great team effort from the Paragon squad.