STRONG PACE GOES WITHOUT REWARD FOR TF SPORT AT BRANDS HATCH

It was a dream start to the weekend with the pair of Aston Martins topping the timesheets in every session leading up to the two-hour endurance race. Despite the on and off downpours on Friday, TF Sport finished the hour-long test session in P1 with the #95 Vantage. Patrick Kibble's fastest lap was 0.5s quicker than the rest of the field. Both Free Practice sessions ended in a TF 1-2, with Jamie Caroline in the #97 being the fastest man by at least three tenths each time.

Fast forward to qualifying on Saturday afternoon and a storming lap from Connor O'Brien placed the #95 0.7s ahead of the field, before Patrick Kibble had the chance to step into the Vantage. Not one to take it easy, Kibble also set the fastest time in his session, comfortably placing the #95 on pole position, 0.73s ahead of the sister car and their second top spot start of the season. Both Jamie Caroline and Dan Vaughan were second fastest in their individual sessions, placing the #97 in P2 for the two-hour endurance race. Caroline joined Kibble in being the only two drivers within the GT4 pack to set a time within the 1:31s.

A great start was made by both Vaughan and O’Brien, with the latter pulling a six-second lead within the first few minutes of Sunday’s race and this left Vaughan to battle with Smelt in the Speedworks Toyota behind. As the GT3 traffic started to come through the pack, both the #95 and #97 V8s were hit by lapping cars. O’Brien came off worse as he was tapped into a spin at the exit of Druids, by the Team ABBA Racing Mercedes of Richard Neary, but thankfully managed to get back into the running without prolonged delay.

As the pit-window approached, the TF crew had prepared their stop strategy, this was thrown aside when a safety car was suddenly called to retrieve the Team Parker Bentley from the gravel trap. A superb call from both engineers saw the sister Vantages dive into the pit lane, and the crew performed a faultless double-stack stop. Due to the precision from the team, both cars rejoined the circuit with less than a second over their minimum stop time and Caroline was then leading the race in #97, with Kibble close behind in third.

Between the TF Astons, the #61 Academy Motorsport Mustang and the #42 Century Motorsport BMW, there was a nail-biting battle for the top four positions. This continued until the final lap where Kibble and Caroline were running P2 and P3, however contact between the two left Kibble spinning into the gravel at Paddock Hill Bend and Caroline was handed a penalty, despite finishing second on the road.

With the points accrued from the race, #97 and #95 now sit second and third in the drivers’ standings, with TF Sport holding on to the teams’ championship lead. Half of the season is now complete and the championship honours are still all to play for.

Next up for the British GT crew is the second trip to Donington, in three weeks time, 19/20 September. With no pit stop penalties to serve, and having proven their pace at the Derby circuit, TF Sport’s eyes are set on another 1-2 finish.

Tom Ferrier, Team Owner
“Firstly, I’d like to sing the praises of our crew. Any last minute changes to pit stop plans, due to the safety car being called, can sometimes lead to mistakes being made. However, our boys were faultless and they deserve full recognition for that. It is certainly a weekend to learn from and build upon. We were successful at Donington a few weeks back and we plan on repeating our performance from last time around.”

Patrick Kibble, #95
“I was really looking forward to racing at my home circuit and I took to the track quite quickly, being fastest in practice on Friday. The team really perfected the car set-up before qualifying and it showed with Connor and I topping our individual sessions, it couldn’t have gone any better. I think we’ve become a great driver pairing and still have lots of potential. Another Donington win is the aim!”

Dan Vaughan, #97
“I had some good battles in my stint and I think we had good race pace. I’m still getting used to the car and how the feel of the Pirelli tyre changes during the race. I feel like the more I relax, the better my driving style becomes, so I need to work on getting settled into that earlier on in my stint. Hopefully we can go to Donington and be just as fast and consistent as we were before.”