In the Avon Tyres British GT Championship the Oman Air Motorbase had another solid weekend at Rockingham on Sunday.
The Porsche 911 GT3R driven by Ahmad Al Harthy and Michael Caine finished in sixth place on an entertaining race weekend.
The team did well to finish in sixth place as they had to carry a 75kg success ballast due to the grading system that is operated in the British GT Championship.
The pair had an eventful weekend as they had a first lap incident, a drive-through penalty and a late puncture, ensuring that the team had a great weekend.
Having qualified in 15th place, the first lap was eventful as Al Harthy was knocked off the track and then they got a drive through penalty for not returning to the track safely.
Speaking about the drive through Team Manager David Bartrum didn’t agree with the decision, he said: “Then he was adjudged to have re-joined in an unsafe manner. He didn’t do that, but that was one for the clerk of the course. We obviously tried to appeal that through the proper channels, but we were told we had to take it. So he then got a drive-through penalty and dropped to dead last.”
Despite these early setbacks Al Harthy really put the Porsche through its paces in the first hour and from dead last to 15th place. Caine then took over the car at the end of the first hour and took on the challenge.
It was going well until a coming together then caused a puncture with just 15 minutes left to go in the race as Caine explains.
He said: “The car felt good to me. I had a slight coming together with Benji Hetherington when I was going past him and that knocked the dive planes off the front right of the car.”
“Going through Turn One the car didn’t feel great, and half way around the lap it started trying to change ends. Coming down to the hairpin, I knew it was a puncture so I dived into the pits and the guys changed the wheel.”
Having had to make the enforced pit stop Caine was down in ninth place and had to take on the challenge of overtaking cars that he had already passed. He managed to overtake to cars coming over the line in seventh place, before being promoted to sixth when one of the Aston Martins in front of them was penalised.
Giving his reaction to the day that had it all for his team, Bartrum said: “It was a tough day but also an interesting day, both drivers gave it their all and the team was absolutely brilliant on the pit stop.
“Our stop was two minutes and two seconds, and the minimum stop is two minutes. I think that around Rockingham on a hot day with 29 cars on the grid and starting from P15, it was an impressive performance. It was a sterling effort from team Oman Air Motorbase and I’m very much looking forward to the next race at Silverstone.”