Reigning British GT4 Champion Rick Parfitt Jnr came to Snetterton for rounds five and six of the 2014 Avon Tyres British GT Championship hoping to finally make his first visit to the podium this season. Having lead a significant part of the Silverstone 500 race at the beginning of June, Parfitt was clearly disappointed not to have taken the spoils.
Despite a mixed start to the weekend in Saturday morning’s free practice sessions, Qualifying came good for the RPJ Band musician securing second on the grid for Sunday’s first of two one-hour races. Teammate Tom Oliphant also put in an impressive display in Qualifying two with the pro-graded drivers lining his car up on the second row of the GT4 grid for Sunday afternoon’s final race.
After a clean Sunday morning warm-up session, Parfitt got his Ginetta G55 off to a good start when race one got underway just after 11.45. By the end of the third lap, Rick was now in the lead having passed the GT4 pace setting Lotus. Knowing he needed to open a healthy class leading advantage before the pitstop window, Parfitt put in a sequence of superb laps and as he pulled into the pitlane for his stop, had managed to open a 5.6 second lead. However some of that poor luck that has plagued the champions bid to retain his title would return and despite a superb driver change from the Century Motorsport team, a restart issue leaving the pitlane lost the class lead. Tom Oliphant now in the car for the second stint got his head down and went about chasing down the leaders again. By lap 21 he was now up to third and locked in battle with the Aston Martin of Jake Giddings. Despite hassling the Aston driver for the majority of the following laps, Tom brought the #42 Ginetta G55 GT4 across the line to take the flag in third position, a superb reward for the effort and heartache endured so far this season.
Having qualified in fourth on Saturday afternoon, Tom Oliphant was first in the car to start race two, the final race of the weekend and round six of the 2014 Avon Tyres British GT Championship. However despite fitting a new gearbox before the race, Oliphant encountered gear selection issues on the opening lap of the race and was forced to pit to the garage for repairs. Amidst all the poor luck, a significant crash at the first corner in the GT3 class necessitating some lengthy barrier repair would be a silver lining for the #42 crew as the race was red flagged. This valuable time allowed the Century Motorsport crew to work their magic and repair the fault. Finishing the repairs just seconds before the race was about to restart, Oliphant left the pitlane and started the race at the back of the field. Once the Safety Car pulled in, the race was on and quickly Tom set about working his way back up the order. Now just a 45 minute race, Oliphant had made his way back up to fifth in GT4 before pitting the car for Rick’s stint. Returning to the circuit in sixth, Rick got his head down and put on a fine display over the remaining laps of the race. With just 10 minutes to go, Parfitt was up to second in GT4 and closing on the Twisted Team Parker Ginetta. A superb drive allowed Rick to get the gap to the leader down to within three seconds as he crossed the line to take his second podium of the weekend.
Rick Parfitt Jnr – #42 Ginetta G55 GT4:
“This weekend has been quite emotional to say the least for me. I’ve been in quite a lot of pain with my Crohns, but unfortunately its just one of those things I’ve got to work through. In both races it looked like our poor run of luck was going to ruin yet another pair of podiums for us, but the team did an amazing job this weekend and good stints from both myself and Tom earned us some silverware at last! Next it’s off to the iconic Spa-Francorchamps and hopefully this is now the turning point of our season!”