Racecar's own girl racer wins at Brands Hatch!
Class win for Sarah at Brands Hatch in the GT Cup
Sarah was back out in the Adrian Flux E46 M3 BMW this weekend for round 5 of the GT Cup Championship hosted by the International GT Open at Brands Hatch. It was looking good on Saturday with Sarah being the fastest in her class in free practice and she found another half a second in qualifying to do a 1.37.5. However, it wasn't enough as her class competitors Tom Andrew in the X-Bow pulled out all the stops to qualify on a 135.9 and Lotus Elise of Dan Norris-Jones on a 1.36.9 leaving Sarah 3rd in class.
In Race 1, after getting off to a good start Sarah was hot on the tail of the Lotus of Dan Norris-Jones but after just a few laps started to incur problems with the Power Steering which was working intermittently then failed completely. The team spotted fluid dropping from the car and called the car in to the pits to investigate. With the Power steering now completely failed and the coolant fluid pouring out onto the tyres and brakes it was decided to retire the M3 from the race. A disappointing start to the day but Butler Motorsport set to work to fix a new cooling radiator, and get the car sorted for Race 2.
Race 2 followed the Spanish GT Open races leaving the track littered with marbles and various oil slicks. This only became apparent on the first lap of the GT Cup race when various front runners span off, leaving the rest of the field picking their way through the spinning cars whilst trying to avoid whatever it was they all span off on! Sarah seized her opportunity to make up the places as did fellow class competitor David Botterill who shot into class lead in the Porsche 944 Turbo. After a brief safety car period which closed up the remaining pack Sarah got to work on passing David whilst fending off attacks from the Class 2 X-Box of Peter Belshaw and others who decided to come alongside the E46 for almost a complete lap. Sarah kept her cool, determined to get clear of the fighting rabble she saw her chance to overtake David going into Westfield and once clear concentrated on pulling away. With 5 minutes to go she put in some qualifying speed laps to ensure the chasing X-Bow of Tom Andrew (now insight) stayed behind, to give Sarah her first class win finishing 14th overall from 26 starters.
"It was an action packed race, the track was slippery round druids, I could see everyone spinning but you couldn't see what or where it was, it obviously wasn't my turn to fall off this week! Once I saw David ahead of me I was determined to get that Class win, the hassling class 2 cars weren't making it any easier at one point I think two of them got in-between me and the Porsche 944 so I had to deal with them before tackling David. It was a proper battle and one I shall am very pleased to have come out of unscathed and in P1, thanks again to Butler Motorsport for giving me such a great car to drive." Sarah will be back out in the Adrian Flux M3 at Silverstone GT Cup rounds on the 16th & 17th October
BackgroundAdrian Flux specialise in insuring classic, vintage cars, right through to heavily modified sports cars. They use their specialist knowledge to offer great rates covering almost every vehicle imaginable and have a friendly flexible approach with exceptionally good rates for Women drivers across the board.
When Sarah is not racing she does all sorts of CRM stuff - click on link below for more information: