Although the outcome of last weekend’s round five of the 2016 Litchfield GT-R Sprint Series may have been the same as last month’s round four, the circumstances in which the event took place could not have been more different. For the second time in succession, Iain Litchfield won Class N2 - the category for cars fitted with modified turbos - and in doing so, set the fastest time of the day. Whilst in Class N1 - for cars with standard specification turbos - Nick Goss made it five wins out of five!
Located a few miles south of Darlington, Croft is the most northern of this season’s six venues and provides competitors with almost a full 2.1-mile lap of its fast and flat circuit. Competitors were greeted on Saturday morning by cloudy North Yorkshire skies that were, at the time, holding fast.
But it wasn’t to last and as the three practice runs were taking place, the rain started to fall - and from then on it hardly stopped. Ever hopeful for a change in conditions, organisers opted for a full-hour’s lunch break, but inevitably the competitive runs started in the rain with ever increasing amounts of standing water making each run different than the last.
While this might have posed a challenge to the drivers, for the organisers the main challenge was that of noise, when the microphone that measured sound levels picked up the ambient noise that was created by the rain and cars splashing through the water. Consequently, the usual 30-second interval starts had to be extended to over a minute, so that only one car was on the course at any one time and therefore, noise levels were kept to a minimum.
The strategy worked in terms of keeping good local relations, but it meant there was only time for three competitive runs in the afternoon - about half that of a normal event. But that didn’t effect the level enjoyment for the drivers, as it meant the competition became even more intense and many of them commented on how much they enjoyed the day.
Quickest in the practice sessions was Luke Krassiemenou. But when it came to the competitive runs, Litchfield turned up the wick and topped the time sheets on his first two outings, his second run enough to see him claim FTD and the N2 Class win. Once again, his closest rival was Goss and another excellent drive saw him retain his 100% N1 Class winning record this season.
Krassisenou was third-fastest driver overall and second in Class N2, with Stuart Gold and Das Kizas finishing fourth and fifth overall respectively. For the first time in the history of the series, all drivers were in R35 Nissan GT-
Competitors now have an eight-week break before the sixth and final round, which takes place at the challenging Cadwell Park circuit in Lincolnshire on 29th October.
The 2016 Litchfield GT-R Sprint Series is sponsored by: Litchfield, Bilstein and Turbo Dynamics. Increasing the series’ profile this year is the addition of live commentary and video filming at every round that will be broadcast throughout the season on social media.
Round 5 Class WinnersClass Class sponsor Driver Car TimeN1 Bilstein Nick Goss R35 GT-R 1:44.75N2 Turbo Dynamics Iain Litchfield R35 GT-R 1:41.69 (FTD)
