Wrotham based Oman Air Motorbase finished seventh in their home race at Brands Hatch at the weekend.
It was an impressive drive from Ahmad Al Harthy and Michael Caine as they had to come from 20th on the grid due to the weight penalties that they were carrying.
Despite carrying a massive 130kg penalty on their Porsche 911 GT3R due to the driver grading system, and struggling for outright pace in qualifying due to the weight it turned out to be a solid weekend for the local team.
Al Harthy took the opening stint of the race on Sunday and made excellent early progress to battle into the top 15 by lap 10. Inside another 10 laps, Ahmad had forged the Motorbase car into the top 10 before handing over to Caine at mid-distance. As Ahmad was approaching the mid distance of the race drama was to ensue, but it seemed he didn’t notice until he arrived in the pits.
There was drama as the pit stop arrived as a small fire had started at the left rear of the car as a result of damage sustained in contact at Druids early in the race. Some quick work by the team had the fire out and the car ready to go again within the regulation pit stop window.
After the driver-change, Caine continued the excellent work to bring the car home in seventh place to keep the perfect points’ scoring record intact and the Motorbase car in fifth place in the championship with three races left to run.
Speaking after the race a pleased Al Harthy, said: “The race was certainly a lot better than qualifying. It was a very challenging race, I couldn’t take any risks and our strategy was to overtake as much as possible without making any contact.
“Luckily, we didn’t lose any time with the small fire as it came about close to my pit window. The team did a great job in the pit-stop but then Michael had a very difficult job in his stint; the weight in the car combined with the drivers he was up against made it very tough. To finish P7 is a great result from where we started. We were very consistent and it was so important to have a strong race. After qualifying it was all about damage limitation so, overall, I’m delighted.”
Rounds eight and nine of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship will be at Zandvoort in Holland over the weekend of 7/8 September.