News

3 September 2000
Second victory in a row for Rymer!

What a difference a win makes. Two weeks after Silverstone, Geoff Lister and Terry Rymer did it again. Once more, the win was preceeded by a mighty dust-up in the GTO class, which becomes more and more competitive by the race.

"We've got a really good set-up on the car now." said Terry. "We don't need to touch it much at all."

In the first qualifying session, Geoff was banging in the fast laps straight away. Two of them in the 1:10 bracket, one slower lap, then a 1:09.882. That looked to be good enough for pole, but he was pipped by Watson in that other Porsche once Terry had taken over.

Geoff was unconcerned though. He knew what his partner could do. Terry reeled off a sequence of 1:11s, then produced almost a 1:10 dead. Great team work.

So would Geoff have a go at pole position in the afternoon? Of course he would.

Temperatures were cooler as the cloud drifted overŠ so it was doubly disapointing that a few spots of rain would ruin the session. There was just enough moisture about to make the track greasy and prevent any significant improvements. Except for Martin Short; he went two seconds quicker than his (slow) morning time after a fitting a new engine overnight, suggesting that the TVR would be a major rival on raceday.

A feature of the race was the battle (war? No, it was very hard, perfectly fair racing) between the #42 PK Sport Porsche and the TVR. In the first stint, it was Terry and Rob Barff going at it, although Terrry had to dispose of the pole position Porsche first.

"I started to outbrake him (Simmons) at Riches, but I pulled back in. He looked in his mirror, got sideways and got into a tank slapper. I went inside him at Sear, but we touched on the exit and he spun."

So Terry led the class, but he had the TVR right in his wheeltracks. The gap across the line was two or three tenths for lap after lap, despite the English car having a clear power advantage.

Eventually that had to mean Terry conceding, but he took up the role of the chaser, ever mindful of the fact that Mark Sumpter was right behind him. It was spectacular stuff. Marcus was chasing the lot of them. This was the best race of the season.

The lead pair pitted together after 17 laps and reappeared in the same order.

Geoff had the advantage though. He was quicker into his stride and "I got him round the outside onto the backstraight." Good move. "I decided to put five laps together, then find a pace that would bring me home." That produced a series of low 1:10 laps, with a best of 1:09.784, faster than Geoff had qualified.

³I had a three second lead, but I lost half that to a backmarker, and ŒShorty¹ was back on my tail again. I was quicker on the front half, but he was quicker round the back."

Martin Short is a fighter too, getting alongside at Sear and re-passing Geoff along the back straight. Or did he? At the Esses, Geoff hung on, and they tore round still nose to tail. It was too much for the TVR. Short cruised past the pits and parked up with the differential broken. Geoff could relax for the last five laps, taking the flag 10 seconds ahead of Mike Jordan. He'd passed Paul Fuller, who then came to grief with a blown tyre at the end of the back straight.

"PK did a great job this weekend," said a very satisfied Geoff Lister. Geoff and Terry are in very strong third and fourth places in GTO, ahead of Marcus and Paul.