Rounds 9 and 10 at Mondello Park, Sunday, June 17, 2001
The Team Kaliber Sport with Barwell squad proved to be head and shoulders above the rest of the BTCC Production teams last weekend, during the series' first visit to Mondello Park in Ireland. Barwell Motorsport's drivers, James Kaye and Simon Graves (still replacing Peter Cate), between them scooped every single maximum point on offer by taking pole position, race victory and fastest lap for both races in their Honda Accords. The two wins belonged to Kaye, whose stunning performance has spring-boarded him back into the lead of the Drivers' Championship.
The BTCC's visit to Mondello Park was the first time any of the teams had been there, and it provided the best teams with a chance to show their engineering prowess, starting from a clean sheet of paper. Everyone soon discovered that they had quite a challenge on their hands, as the new Mondello International circuit includes no less than 16 corners, most of which are taken in second and third gear, and only one reasonably long straight! Braking into the corners and traction on the exit were going to be critical, and this played into our hands as our major rivals, the HTML Peugeots, could not exploit their power advantage.
Our superiority started to shine through during Saturday's Official Qualifying, when Simon was able to claim a well-timed pole position as the track dried in the dying moments of the half-hour session and many of the other cars were already pitting. James Kaye, who was carrying 45kgs of 'success weight ballast', believed he could have joined Simon on the front row of the grid, but had dumped his Accord into the gravel early in the session after posting the fifth fastest time.
At the start of the Sprint race, Simon's immediate problem was to fend off the Peugeot of Simon Harrison, which he managed to do, but a fast-starting Mat Jackson (GR Ford Focus) was also right on his tail. Graves and Jackson put on a great show as they went side-by-side through much of the opening lap, but it ended in tears as there was contacxt between the cars and Simon took to the grass. He rejoined down in 13th position after a wild ride, but had clawed his way back to seventh over the next few laps when the engine failed on lap eight. By this time, however, the sister Honda of Kaye was busy establishing a healthy lead after disposing of Harrison and the Focuses of Jackson and early leader, Gareth Howell. James then proved to be in a class of his own and drove away from the pack to a comfortable win.
Our mechanics had less than two hours to change the engine on Simon's car, and they set to work with the odds stacked against them. With half an hour to go the spare engine was only just being hoisted into the car, but quite incredibly it was fired up with 30 seconds to go before the pit lane exit was closed and Simon blasted out of the garage to take up his pole position! Although it's unofficial, we're claiming a World Record for changing a Honda Accord engine!
Graves again had to fend off the attentions of Jackson's Focus at the start of the 30-lap Feature race, but it was the Alfa Romeo 156 of Oulton Park winner, Gavin Pyper, that provided the most serious challenge to our Accord during the early stages. The Alfa also has better straightline speed than our car, and Pyper used this to nip ahead of Simon as they started the third lap. As he did so he pushed the Barwell car off the circuit, but Graves came back to re-take the lead a few corners later. Simon had re-established himself as the race leader as he approached the final hairpin, but was then harpooned by Pyper in a disgraceful piece of driving which later cost him a £200 fine and racing licence points. The Alfa driver aimed for our Honda and drove across the width of the track, before hitting it hard in the front door and wheel as Simon turned into the corner.
This impact caused Pyper himself to spin, but somehow Graves still emerged out of the hairpin with the lead and carried on as normal. Harrison ran second at this stage but the Peugeot man soon came under attack from Kaye, and James made it a Team Kaliber Sport with Barwell 1-2 after completing a great out-braking manoeuvre at the final hairpin. The positions of our cars swapped over on lap 13, when Graves started to have gear selection difficulties and then soon lost fourth and fifth gears altogether. He was able to carry on, however, and maintain his position on the twisty track ahead of the Peugeot of Harrison's team-mate, Roger Moen, that now occupied third spot. With 10 laps remaining, however, third gear also went and the gearbox clearly had a very serious problem. Simon had no choice but to retire the car, and sadly bring a potential 1-2 result to an end. During post-race inspection of the gearbox, it became clear that the casing had been shattered when Pyper had hit our car and thus it was leaking more and more gearbox oil out every lap.
James, however, was able to carry serenely on to a massive 28-second victory over the improving TechSpeed Peugeot of Paul O'Neil and Mat Jackson. Despite dropping his pace in the closing stages he was still pulling clear of the rest of the field, and he further underlined his domination of the weekend with fastest lap in both races.
