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News page
29 September 2001
The Show Goes On
The final round of the 2001 British GT Championship at Silverstone last weekend was a truly memorable occasion. Although they had made some attempt at backtracking mid-season, the organisers had been brave enough to try something different, and sanction the first-ever British GT night race.
Frequently at the heart of the action, and providing perhaps a little more than their fair share of some of those salient features, were Adam Simmons and Terry Rymer. The Harlow team was a trifle disappointed to be fielding just the one car for the season finalé, but the singleton they did send out became one of the stars of the show. In what became something of a trial against adversity, both Adam and Terry overcame a whole gamut of obstacles to reach the flag. Even if they were a couple of laps down on the leaders by the end, their determination and style was an example to all. One begins to wonder where they might have finished had things gone more smoothly . . .
It was an amazingly clean start. There were no significant dramas anywhere, and certainly not in GTO. The first five swept through that opening lap in qualifying order, although Adam Simmons made a better stab at it than Stephen Stokoe in the Cirtek
Porsche #8. He got ahead of the GT car to be tenth overall as they crossed the line. The Stealth lead outright from an impressive Xavier Pompidou in the Chamberlain "works" Viper, up to second from fifth at the expense of David Warnock.
Unfortunately, as the cars began their second lap, it was all about to go horribly wrong for Adam. He was able to smile about it later — even share a few jokes at his expense - but Porsche #45 was about to become a frightening place to be. As they barrelled down the main straight and pulled the flat-out right hander at Copse, mechanical grip gave way to opposing forces and a helpless Adam Simmons was sent flying off across the gravel.
Finally, after what seemed an age, the nose of the Porsche crept back out onto the track, only for a passing Lotus to swipe it smartly backwards once again. "I came back on at Becketts," he admitted. "I must have lost about forty seconds or so. "
The driver change was as slick as you’d expect from a squad like Harlow, used to international competition and multi-driver endurance races. Terry Rymer emerged just behind Kelvin Burt in the class-leading Parr Porsche, and took up his position as the eighth car in the train behind the pace car.
When the all-clear was finally given Martin Short sped off into the darkness. He was five laps down on Kelvin Burt, who was himself a few feet and a lap ahead of Terry in the Harlow car. The latter was still 9th in class but the squad had made up one place overall in the pitstop to be running fourteenth. "I had to make up time, really, that was all," explained Rymer. "The next position was about five seconds in front of me, so I was really pushing." With the TVR out of the equation, the two Porsches set up what became one of the most interesting mid-race battles waging anywhere through the field. It was hard to believe that they were not actually competing for position, with Rymer placing the new champion under tremendous pressure for the first couple of laps.
Burt was suffering from oversteer and the Parr car was sliding about all over the place. On the twenty-third lap, as they hurtled down towards Abbey, the former Touring Car driver made a rare error. He slithered wide, leaving the door open for Rymer to dive through on the inside. "We were both catching Martin after that," continued Rymer. "Then he got black flagged or something, tail lights not working I think, so it was just Kelvin and me after that."
Initially Terry was able to pull away cleanly, and eased out an advantage — if it could be called that, bearing in mind he was a lap down - of well over a second. As they headed for Brooklands to complete the thirty-first lap there was, as Kelvin Burt described it, "a disagreement over territory". Terry saw things differently. "Kelvin was right behind me. I wasn’t concerned about it, to be honest. I was just concentrating on my racing, pushing as hard as I could, trying to make up ground. Then he came up the inside of me at the complex. He didn’t just tap me, he slammed into me and spun me round."
They patched up their differences some while afterwards, but Terry’s ire at the time was probably as fiery as the blossom of flame that erupted from the rear of his Porsche. He’d attempted to restart the engine, but at first it refused. It fired correctly at the second time of asking and Rymer executed a copybook spin-turn as he headed back into the race. Adding insult to the injury, the leaders had just gone past for the second time, making Terry’s deficit now two laps. "By then all I wanted to do was just finish the race," said Rymer, somewhat despondently. Fortunately the car was not seriously damaged and Rymer was able to regain his original pace as he rattled off the final ten laps. It was a disappointed man, however, who crossed the line unlucky thirteenth overall, seventh in GTO.
Kelvin Burt survived the encounter, recording an eighth win of the season with Marino Franchitti. Stephen Day gave the Hayles GTO Viper its best result for months with second, ahead of Stanton & Hyde third in the #99 Tuscan. Horner and Turner never finished, but still picked up the runners-up title after Sumpter and Balfe could only manage fourth. Overall honours went, once again, to Warnock and Jordan in the Lister after the long-time leading Stealth was caught out totally by the safety car.
Given a few hours to gather his thoughts, Terry Rymer was able to look back on the evening with better feeling. "I really enjoyed it," he said. "It was fantastic to be racing at night and the atmosphere was brilliant. It’s just a pity the race was so short!" He was also sorry to be missing out on the Malaysian race. "I was really looking forward to it, and it’s a shame the race has been cancelled. So, the season’s come to an end now. It’s gone really quick this year, but I’ve enjoyed racing with Harlow. It’s been a good season - our first together - and they’ve done an exceptional job. I’ve not spoken to anyone seriously about next year yet, but I’ll be discussing it with my sponsors to see what direction we want to go. I’m sure we’ll be speaking to Harlow in the near future."
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Pics: Peter Lord |
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Pics: Marcus/CMC |
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