Things Can Only Get Better

 

Stuart Scott arrived at Silverstone full of confidence that his brand-new Ford Mustang GT4 – prepared by JordanSport.co.uk – was a real contender for top Britcar Production honours; as indeed it was. Alas, the weekend was destined to end in the most frustrating manner for the team.

 

 

 

Despite several successful pre-season test sessions, the Friday of the (two day) meeting saw the car and team face a new challenge – rain; all previous running having been conducted on a dry surface, if not in glorious sunshine. Thus it was that Stuart Scott and Mike Jordan had to get used to driving the car on wets, rather than looking for the ideal set-up.

 

By Saturday morning, the rain was only intermittent, but the cold conditions meant that the track surface was very slippery indeed. Several cars found themselves experiencing 360° panoramic views of the International Circuit, but happily the Mustang was not among them.

 

 

 

Jordan was given the task of qualifying and managed a best of 1:42.120 on his last lap as conditions began to improve. This was good enough for third on the grid (out of 20) – a fine result, given that the vastly experienced Brummie described conditions as “Lairy!”

 

 

 

The car’s owner would be starting the race, with the intention being that he would do a thirty-minute stint before handing over to Jordan for the final hour. As the race approached, Mike practiced driver-changes in the Porsche that he would be racing in the Britcar GT opener late in the day, while Stuart ‘enjoyed’ Silverstone curry and rice in the company of friends and well-wishers, including Cambridge Business Travel co-founder William Burnett and former co-drivers Steve Wood and Chris Ryan.

 

 

 

As the race start (13:40) approached, Scott found his place on the grid and readied himself mentally for the challenge to come. Ahead of him was the Torquespeed BMW M3 E36 of Keith Gent (put on pole by Michael Caine) and the four-wheel drive Eclipse Mitsubishi Lancer of Sean McInerney.

 

As the pace car moved off ahead of the rolling start, Stuart began to put as much heat as possible into his tyres on the still slippery track, but was increasingly aware that Gent appeared to be making no such efforts; “He was just following the safety car round. I only saw his brake lights come on once near the end of the lap – that must have been his team radioing him to warm his tyres up!”

 

As the pace car pulled into the pitlane and the pace increased, Scott’s suspicions were about to be proven horribly accurate.

 

Approaching the line, the BMW driver put his foot dawn; but, with no heat in the tyres, this immediately pitched the car off in the direction of the pitwall. Scott took immediate evasive action and began to move to his left – but Gent’s attempts to prevent a collision with the wall had by now left the BMW rolling backwards across the track.

 

 

 

Scott found his vision full of BMW and, despite his best efforts, was unable to prevent a collision; the Mustang’s front right corner incurring significant damage.

 

 

 

This precipitated a chain reaction in the field and several cars collided and were forced into retirement. The Mustang was one of these, with the previously pristine car receiving a second blow on the driver’s door.

 

An angry – but fortunately uninjured – Stuart Scott could do nothing but pull over after a hundred yards; his race over.

 

 

 

“That has never happened to me before!” he related shortly afterwards, after making it back to the pit garage. “It was pure inexperience on (Gent’s) part that caused that; there was no way I could avoid a collision.

 

“I couldn’t even open the door when I pulled over, but I’m okay.”

 

 

 

Four cars were forced out by the startline shunt, and Keith Gent suffered a suspected cracked rib – the only reported injury. Given what happened at the start of the Britcar 24 Hours last September in very similar circumstances, we can count ourselves lucky that things were not more serious.

 

The racing gods clearly weren’t on Mike Jordan’s side that day. Denied a race in the Mustang, he then had to watch later as his co-driver parked the Porsche after just four laps of the GT race.

 

But Stuart Scott – once the shock and frustration had started to subside – began to look forward; “Oh well; a month to the next race!”

 

 

 

Two 90-minute races at Donington in early May will give the team the chance to avenge this most unfortunate of starts to the season; and they have every intention of doing so.