From Despair To Delight In Three Hours

Much had happened to the JordanSport, CBT backed Racing Mustang FR500 GT4 in the almost two months since Rockingham, with the hunt for pace resulting in some major surgery for the American muscle car.

Although aesthetically the car had lost its ‘purity’, the addition of a large rear wing and front spoiler, as well as upgraded springs, had been deemed necessary by Mike Jordan if the gap to the Class-leading BMWs was to be reduced; and in initial testing at Mallory Park in Leicestershire the modifications seemed to be working, as the car lapped a second quicker – on old tyres – than it had done earlier in the year.

So CBT and JordanSport headed off to Spa for the fourth round of the Britcar Production Championship confident that a step forward had been made.

This was to be a three-hour race, with a joint GT/Production grid, and held on the Saturday evening at the classic Belgian circuit; a ten o’clock finish meaning that the race would end in fading light.

With numerous other series involved in the Spa Euro Race meeting, the timetable would see free practice on the Thursday, followed by only the 45 minute qualifying session on Friday and then nothing until the race start on Saturday.

But it wasn’t long before the feel-good factor started to fade. The car felt heavy and sluggish in the practice sessions, and not at all as good as it had at Mallory. But the Thursday was all about setting the car up for the race, rather than the setting of times and the team focussed on this task.

The good news was that Stuart Scott’s neck had now fully recovered from the Silverstone shunt and that he was now able to drive alongside Steve Wood and Mike Jordan after missing Rockingham.

However, the enormity of the task facing them this weekend really struck home after qualifying on Friday.

Mike went out first on the new tyres and set a 2:46.393 on his third lap. Steve then took over, but as he began his flying lap the Red Bull Lotus had an off at Blanchimont and the yellow flags came out, scuppering the attempt at an improvement. Worse was the fact that a large amount of fluid had been put down through the corners, meaning any further improvement was now highly unlikely. The decision was thus made to put Stuart in the car for the remainder of the session so that he could get used to being back behind the wheel after his long lay-off.

But the post-session analysis wasn’t pleasant and the facts were plain to see – the Mustang was only eighth in the Production class and a distressing nine seconds off the pole time.

This wasn’t good news and didn’t bode well for the race; but Mike Jordan isn’t a man easily fazed and he set about analysing the data.

The forecast for the weekend had been heavy showers followed by more heavy showers, but in fact the majority of the meeting had remained dry so far. The team prepared on Saturday by practising driver-changes, but it seemed all but certain that the rain would arrive before the race began that evening; and, indeed, the heavens opened during the Clio race that preceded the Britcar event.

Mike made a quick decision to change the settings on the Mustang to full-wet and then got suited up.

 

Mike would begin the race, followed by Stuart and then Steve, but after vacating the car, he was due to change garages and get into the GT-class Ginetta G50 that he was sharing with son Andrew. Timing was therefore very important.

As the grid moved off for the formation lap, the rain was coming down hard and it was clear that conditions were going to be very tough. Mike Jordan, however, had the air of somebody who was more than content with his surroundings; he was looking forward to having some fun.

But that would have to wait for wait a while, however, after a shunt at Radillon eliminated two leading GT entrants and caused a very lengthy safety car period as Almo Coppelli was extracted from his damaged Ferrari – fortunately, without serious injury.

The field stayed behind the safety car for eight long laps, until, with 38 minutes, having elapsed, the green flag was flying once more.

The conditions were now at their worst – indeed, the local commentator suggested that the race would be red-flagged if this was a Belgian clubbie race – but the Britcar contingent got stuck in; but some were coping with the rain better than others.

Mike instantly closed on several faster GT cars and – having already passed two Production cars before the safety car came out – was up to fourth in class by the end of that ‘first’ lap; 16th overall. His time for that lap – 3:27.955 – was an incredible 14 seconds faster of class leader Keith Gent in the #60 BMW.

On his tenth lap, Mike knocked a further four seconds off that time and crossed the line first in class; an incredible show. But this was just the beginning.

His time on lap 11 came down to 3:16.919 and he was now on the verge of the top ten overall, passing Adrian Newey’s Lotus on that lap and closing on Wit Gamski’s Ferrari. That car fell behind the Mustang on lap ten, as did the Prosport on lap 11.

Mike was ninth overall as the race reached its first hour and had a lead of 20 seconds in class after a quite excellent stint of driving.

The rain had now almost stopped, however, and the pace was picking up quickly. This meant that the Mustang’s advantage over the BMWs was coming to an end, but with cool temperatures and no wind the track wasn’t going to dry any time soon.

 

At the end of lap 23, Mike pitted; but it was Steve who got in rather than Stuart. “I realised that we had a chance of a real result here today,” said the car’s owner, “but with my being out of action for so long, I knew it would take a while to get up to pace. I asked Mike if he was okay staying in the car for longer; and when he said yes I told Steve to get ready.” Through this selfless gesture, the team had saved a pitstop and had increased its chances of a result.

When Steve got in, there was just over half the race duration still to run and Adam, the team manager, told the new driver that he would have to conserve fuel to ensure getting to the end without a further stop.

Steve adopted a sensible but healthy pace from the word go and started to drift back up the timing screens as other cars made their stops. By lap 32, the Mustang was back in ninth overall and back in the class lead.

On lap 34, the car briefly reached its highest placing in the race – eighth – but behind, Kevin Clarke’s Intersport BMW was nearing rapidly in the ever-improving conditions. With the laptime differential being so great between the two cars, the decision was made to not defend the lead but to stick to the strategy. The gap to third at this stage was still great and the lead changed hands on lap 35.

Steve continued to reel off the lap at an impressively consistent pace, with a further safety car period with 30 minutes to go aiding the conservation of fuel. But as the race end neared the BMW of Michael Caine suddenly found a burst of pace and the gap between the two cars started to tumble; there was now a real threat of second place being lost.

 

With just a lap to go a change seemed inevitable, but Steve dug deep into his and the Mustang’s reserves and pulled out of the bag the car’s fastest lap of the race – 2:58.306 – to hold onto second by just 1.830s at the flag.

This had been a magnificent team effort, which extended beyond the confines of the production class. On a very good day for Mike Jordan – finishing on two podia after also clinching Class 3 with Andrew – the Mustang was shadowed on that last lap by his Ginetta; Mike ready to – in all seriousness – push the Ford across the line in case the tank ran dry. It didn’t, but post-race checks showed that it had only enough for one more lap.

After the long faces of Thursday and Friday, this result was a triumph for CBT and JordanSport. Now would come the challenge of finding more pace in the car in the six weeks before the next meeting at Castle Combe, where the Mustang would feature a lighter rear-wing and a sequential gearbox