On a bright crisp October morning 35 GT cars took to the track fro qualifying. By the end of the session in Class 1 Mike Gardiner was second only to the Porsche of Michael Donovan - by 1/10th of a second and 2/10ths ahead of the Ferrari of Jeff Leadley. With the usual host of Ferraris and Porsches lined up behind. Importantly the very rapid Aston Martin of Barrie Whight had performed poorly down in 17th place.

In race 1 as the lights went green the drag to the first corner showed that the Dodge Viper prepared by Moore Racing is now equal in power terms to the Porsche Cup S of Michael Donovan. Mike got the best of the start, but the Porsche stayed in close contact until a water leak caused the Porsche to spin on its own water. With the other Class 1 cars racing each other and the Aston Martin slowed by being in the pack, this gave Mike his opportunity to make a clear break and secure an unrepresentative victory of 30 seconds.

In race two again the lead cars were equal to the first corner with Mike holding the inside line this time. A banzai first two laps on cold tyres saw Mike open up a 4 second gap, which from lap 3 onwards the Porsche stabalised. Through the early traffic encounters Mike was able to keep Michael Donovan at the same gap, but was having to work extremely hard to do so. All seemed stable until a Ferrari being lapped, span as Mike approached, avoiding action was called for which still lead to slight contact as the Ferrari span across in front of the Viper. Although only a slight delay, this was all that Michael Donovan required to get alongside the Dodge Viper. At the next corner Mike held the inside line and forced the Porsche wide, opening up a small gap in the process. The battle ebbed and flowed through the traffic with Mike managing to hang on to win by 3.3 seconds at the end. The equalisation process is leading to very clsoe racing at the front of GT Cup!

All photos by Mick Herring