2012 saw Ecurie
Ecosse return to international sportscar racing for a full season. This time,
the weapon of choice was the potent BMW Z4 GT3 in the British GT Championship
and Blancpain Endurance Series. Alasdair McCaig and Oliver Bryant contested the
UK Championship, whilst Joe Twyman and Andrew Smith were joined by former BMW
Scholarship driver Ollie Millroy to contest the European Series.
Barwell
Motorsport were again chosen to run the Z4 and they turned out a faultless car
all year. The season got off to an excellent start with Ecurie Ecosse winning
at Oulton Park in their first race in the British GT Championship. Bryant and
McCaig followed this up with podiums at Brands Hatch and Silverstone (where
Ollie Hancock stood in for Bryant).
The Ecurie Ecosse
BMW scored points in every round of the championship and this left McCaig just
half a point behind the leaders going into the final round at Donington Park in
September. The championship was so competitive that 6 different drivers could
leave Donington as Champion. McCaig was re-united with regular driving partner
Bryant after a 2-month injury forced lay-off. With ten minutes to go in
the two-hour race, it looked as though the pairing had done enough to secure
the championship for Ecurie Ecosse and Alasdair at the first time of asking.
Oliver was running 3rd on the road out of the points-scoring
runners. Disaster then struck as Oliver was handed a 1-minute stop-go
penalty for accidental contact with the championship rival Ferrari. This
dropped McCaig to 5th in the drivers standings much to the disappointment
of the huge crowd of sponsors, friends and supporters in the Ecurie Ecosse
garage.
In the highly
competitive Blancpain Endurance Series Ecurie Ecosse had some very promising
showings against more up to date machinery. The season kicked off in
miserable conditions at Monza, where Smith, Twyman and Millroy brought the car
home an impressive 11th in class and 21st overall on the massive
55-car grid. At Paul Ricard, Oliver Bryant joined Twyman and Millroy. The
trio were enjoying a very strong run, running 8th in class and
12th overall until fuel pick-up issues on the final lap dropped the car
several places. Even so, the Ecurie Ecosse machine came home an impressive 13th in
class and 20th overall.At the Nurburgring, Smith was back in the car
alongside Twyman and Millroy and the trio enjoyed an excellent run in dry
conditions. Unfortunately the smaller fuel tank in the 2011-spec BMW meant that
they could not take advantage of a safety car period to re-fuel the car and
therefore lost some positions. Despite this, all three drivers did an
excellent job and the result netted a points finish of 10th in class and
20th overall. For the final round at Navarra, Smith, Twyman and Millroy were
together once again and had their best run of the season. A podium finish was
on the cards when the heavens opened and the safety car dropped the team a lap
behind the rest of the pack. The team’s qualifying pace was outstanding
with Millroy putting in a time confirmed by the factory which was quicker than
a 2011-spec Z4 has ever lapped on the circuit and would have been good enough
for pole position in the 2011 FIA GT3 Championship. The team made a big
impression, surprising many of the bigger well funded teams by running at the
front on a fraction of the budget in older specification machinery, proving
that with a brand new 2013 car Ecurie Ecosse can challenge for overall class
honours in what is now the world’s most competitive GT Series.
JT
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