“Birthday boy” Ross scores another two class wins in Lamborghini at Donington
Ross Wylie celebrated his birthday and the wedding anniversary of his parents in style with a further two GT Cup GTO class wins to extend his lead in the overall and category standings.
Thornhill’s Wylie turned 32-years-old the day before the event began (15 Sep), the same day his parents, Veronica and Brian, celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary, and were present to join in with Ross’s celebrations at Donington Park last weekend (16-17 Sep).
Bailey handed the Lamborghini over to Wylie with 23mins remaining in the 50mins Race 1 under Safety Car conditions, having ran seventh overall, second in class, for much of his stint.
With all pit-stops completed in the 19-car field, Wylie lay 10th overall, third in class, with 18mins of racing remaining, almost 30secs behind the class leader. But incredibly, Ross snatched the GTO class lead with less than five minutes remaining, taking fifth place overall at the chequered flag after 31-laps.
In the second 50mins pit-stop race, Bailey pitted to wet-weather “treaded” tyres approaching mid-distance as rain started falling around the 2.5-mile Leicestershire circuit, then stopped again for Wylie to take over the Huracan with just 18mins to go.
Ross actually took the chequered flag fourth overall but a pit-stop infringement resulted in a post-race 36secs time penalty dropping the Lamborghini to fifth – not enough for the Flying Scotsman to miss out on a sixth consecutive GTO class win from 10 race starts.
Wylie and Bailey lead the outright title race by 55.5-points and a massive 144.5pts in the GTO standings with just one event, two pit-stop races remaining. Ross contests the penultimate Porsche Carrera Cup GB event of the season at Silverstone next weekend (23-24 Sep) in his Glenturret 911.
* Credit to Egghead Media for use of Editorial Copyright Free photographs
Ross Wylie (GB):
Age 32. Born & Lives Thornhill nr Dumfries, Scotland:
“In Race 1, it was cool racing as the sun started to go down then in Race 2, the conditions were a complete contrast with a wet track.
“It was a case of hard charging in both but Paul and I were rewarded with our sixth class win of the season. It was good to mix it up against fierce competition and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
“I can’t thank the Kendall Developments team enough and of course my team-mate Paul for having me in the team.”