06.06.06 RPM tie both drivers and team championships lead Round 3 of the British GT championship saw the team make the long trip to the Pau street circuit in the south of France. Early practice saw the team looking very strong with car 96 of Alex Mortimer and Bradley Ellis 2nd in test 1 and 3rd in test 2 with just 0.15 of a second covering the top 3 at this point. By the time qualifying came round the team were optimistic for a good result and they weren't dissapointed with Bradley Ellis in car 96 putting the car in to third position on the grid. The revalation of the session however came from Hunter Abbott in car 17 who over the course of the weekend had really been getting to grips with the Porsche. He ran as high as second in the qualifying session but had to settle for 4th in the end close behind Ellis. This put both cars at the sharp end of the grid for race 1. Both Abbott and Ellis drove excellent opening stints demonstrating great pace and consistency in the sweltering 30 degree heat, holding position and staying in close contact with the lead cars before the driver change. Unfortunatly for Ellis however a clutch issue had hampered him from the start of the race so his true pace was never seen during his stint. This problem was reflected in the pairs pit stop with Mortimer struggling to get away from the pits and loosing track position to the sister RPM car of Abbott and Glew. With Glew now behind the wheel he started a hard charge to the cars infront dragging Mortimer who was now directly behind with him. With many of the cars struggling in the heat in the latter stages of the race the RPM cars were making dramatic progress toward the 3rd and and second place cars of Danny Watts in the Trackspeed Porsche and Keith Ahlers in the Morgan started by Oliver Bryant. With 15 minutes of the race to run the blistering pace set by Glew and following Mortimer had paid off as they had caught the cars in front. A bold move by Glew saw him pass Danny Watts and move himslef into 3rd whcih was soon to become 2nd as he made quick work of disposing of the Morgan. Unfortunatly contact between Watts and Mortimer saw the hopes of another podium finish for car 96 fade as damage to the car limited car 96 to a fifth place finish. Car 17 however romped home to a second place finish netting Glew and abbotts first podium of the year, a result well deserved by the pairing. Qualifying 2 on the Sunday Morning saw a solid effort by Glew ending up in 4th position but dissappointment once more for Mortimer and Ellis who were plagued with a gearbox problem which meant they could only muster a time good enough for 5th place on the grid. With little time to spare before the race the RPM mechanics worked flat out to fit to the spare gearbox to car 96 for race 2 finishing with just minutes to spare before the race. There efforts were however not to go unrewarded with car 96 netting its maiden victory of 2006 allowing it to tie the drivers championship with the Team Tiger Marcos. Another determined and fast stint by Glew saw him climb his car upto to third and begin to close the gap to the Trackspeed car of Matt Allison in second place. This was a position to be held by Abbott until the final minutes of the race where he lost out to the Morgan in an overtaking move made under yellow flags. The strong drives put in by car 17 saw it jump to 6th in the championship having its biggest points haul of the year so far. Both driver pairings now travel to Mondello Park for the 4th round with high expectations looking only to improve their championship positions. << back to news