Martin Plowman was relieved to achieve a strong GT4 Pro/Am result with Kelvin Fletcher on Sunday afternoon after admitting there is more to come from the Beechdean Aston Martin GT4 package.
Speaking before it was announced that the Steller Motorsport Audi Pro/Am entry of Richard Williams and Sennan Fielding was disqualified, Plowman felt that the team had struggled for raw speed and had to rely on brain instead.
“The result was fantastic as we really have struggled this weekend on set-up, trying to get the front end working and we are still down on top speed as a brand, but compared to the other Aston out there we need to find more time. It is fantastic to come away with a podium and some good points, we got everything we could out of the race. In the race it was apparent that once the tyres go off we lose out.
“We were just a sitting duck, I would fight my way to the front, make some moves and after that they were queuing up to pass me on the straight. The Mustangs were passing me on the straight like I was standing still. I defended as best as I could, but you need to give the car to Kelvin in one piece, which I just about did. We expect more from ourselves, but if we can come away with podiums on a bad weekend then we’ll take that. I trust totally that we and the guys at Beechdean will figure this out, but we need to hit the reset button.”
Plowman admitted that he had planned to get most of his activity done early in the face of faster entries in Race Two.
From there on in, it was all hands to the pump before handing over to Fletcher for the second stint, before stating that some of the British Gt series’ young chargers have lessons to learn.
“The start in Race Two was messy, very congested as people just stuck to the inside. I had very little room around the outside and I knew that was my time to make a move because afterwards, I was going backwards. I was in full “send it” mode, finding gaps, braking late. I don’t know how many places I made up but it must have been two or three. After that, I looked in the mirror and they were queuing behind me, all in vain!
“I think this year hasn’t been as good (clean) as last year. There’s a lot of young kids in the series and they’re out to make a point and prove themselves, they’re probably a bit too aggressive and making moves that aren’t there. Hopefully they’ll settle down, but if not we’ll just have to stay out of their way.”
Adam Balon led home team-mate Sam De Haan to claim a Barwell Motorsport one-two in British GT’s second race at Snetterton, in addition to Balon and Phil Keen’s victory early on Sunday morning.
Keen’s back-to-back wins saw him become the championship’s most successful driver with 17 wins, while he also takes the GT3 record with 15 wins.
Barwell’s Huracans led Balfe Motorsport’s McLaren, the new 720s faring better than at Oulton Park over the Easter weekend, where an electrical issue curtailed their entire weekend.
Mark Farmer in the TF Sport Aston Martin was a distant fourth having previously lead with Nicki Thiim, while Graham Davidson and Jonny Adam were fifth to consolidate a solid weekend for the new Aston Martin V8 Vantage.
Richard Neary and Adam Christodoulou recovered from a grid penalty and a Race One retirement
There was further silverware for McLaren in the GT4 class where Team Parker Racing suffered heartbreak on the last lap as Nick Jones suffered a puncture in the Mercedes he shares with Scott Malvern.
That retirement gifted the win to Tolman Motorsport’s #5 570S shared by Jordan Collard and Lewis Proctor ahead of TF Sport’s polesitters Ash Hand and Tom Canning, who started on pole, while HHC’s McLaren shared by Callum Pointon and Dean Macdonald completed the podium.
Team Parker’s pain would have been Steller Performance’s Richard Williams and Sennan Fielding’s gain. The duo crossed the line first in Race Two GT4 Pro/Am, but were later disqualified for a technical infringement on their new Audi.
Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher fought their way up to second on the road and eventual Pro/Am victory despite suffering with set-up issues in the Imagine Cruising Beachdeen Aston Martin, Vantage GT4, ahead of Michael Broadhurst and Mark Murfitt, who themselves completed a double Pro/Am podium for this weekend.
Racing Invictus Jaguar were the belated final podium finishers in the Pro/Am category, Matt George and Paul Vice recovering from late contact with a McLaren.
Rain was forecast for Sunday, but the Moto3 World Championship race at Le Mans took place before it arrived, instead enjoying dry, if overcast, conditions for the fifth round of the 2019 series.
John McPhee (Petronas SRT) started from pole but it was Tony Arbolino (VNE Snipers) who took the holeshot, although Tatsuki Suzuki (Sic58 Squadra Corse) took the lead at turn six on the opening lap.
The pack was split on lap one, as Ai Ogura (Honda Team Asia) high-sided on the exit of turn ten. His bike came back onto the track, but somehow the entire field managed to avoid it.
That left four riders out front, although they were soon joined by three more to make it a seven-way scrap. It was Suzuki, McPhee, Gabriel Rodrigo (Kommerling Gresini Moto3), Aron Canet (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team), Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Leopard Racing) and Andrea Migno (Bester Capital Dubai) who were fighting for the lead, and it stayed this way for the majority of the race.
Aron Canet, during the 2019 Le Mans Moto3 race. Image courtesy of Gold and Goose/KTM
The change came in the closing stages, when Suzuki crashed in turn three, and collected Arbolino. This split the group, and allowed McPhee and Dalla Porta a break at the front, although it was not long before Migno arrived back with the two leaders. In fact, on the penultimate lap, the group expanded to its largest, with twelve riders now fighting for the win.
However, onto the final lap, it was clear that the win would be contested between four riders: McPhee, Dalla Porta, Canet and Kaito Toba (Honda Team Asia) who had benefitted from his compatriot’s crash a few laps previous.
Canet and Toba were taken out of contention on the final lap in turn eleven, when the Spaniard nearly crashed, and nearly took Toba with him, when he passed the #27 for third place. It was a move that Toba was clearly unhappy with after the race, and it was certainly on the limit from Canet, but it was fair enough on the last lap.
That left Dalla Porta and McPhee to fight for the win with three corners to go, but Dalla Porta was unable to out-brake the Scot into the final complex, and so McPhee emerged the winner.
John McPhee at the 2019 Le Mans Moto3 race. Image courtesy of PETRONAS SRT
McPhee’s triumph was the second of his career, and the first victory for a pole sitter at Le Mans in the lightweight class since Maverick Vinales bested Nico Terol in 2011. It was a classy race from McPhee, not getting involved in too much in the first part of the race, but when the race moved towards the closing stages, he was always able to put himself in the right place.
Dalla Porta finally returned to the podium after a trio of disappointing results since his rostrum in Qatar. Perhaps this result will see the start of a retaliation in the championship from the Tuscan, whose return to form has arrived just in time for his home Grand Prix in a couple of weeks.
Rounding out the podium was Canet. Unpopular with at least one of his rivals post-race, but the Spaniard’s third podium of the season came at an important moment, as the results of some of his rivals have allowed him to significantly extend his championship advantage. It was also an important result for the Max Racing Team, as Pietro Biaggi, Max’s father, died earlier in the weekend.
Gabriel Rodrigo took fourth place, having taken advantage of Canet’s move on Toba. Andrea Migno did the same, to finish fifth, whilst Toba dropped from third to sixth in the final sector of the lap. A poor qualifying and anonymous race led to a seventh place for Celestino Vietti (Sky Racing Team VR46), who is beginning to make a habit of finding the top ten on Sundays. Kazuki Masaki (BOE Skull Rider Mugen Race) took eighth place after a decent weekend for the Japanese, ahead of Jakub Kornfeil (Redox PruestelGP) and Raul Fernandez (Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team) who completed the top ten.
Albert Arenas (Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team) finished eleventh, ahead of Jaume Masia (Bester Capital Dubai), who incurred a 2.2 second penalty for cutting turn four and finished twelfth.
Makar Yurchenko (BOE Skull Rider Mugen Race) was the first rider home outside of the front group, finishing thirteenth, ahead of Ayumu Sasaki (Petronas SRT) and Filip Salac (Redox PruestelGP) who scored the first point of his Grand Prix career with fifteenth.
A plethora of retirements befell the Moto3 race: Sergio Garcia (Estrella Galicia 0,0) and Ai Ogura were both down on lap one. Then, Darryn Binder (CIP Green Power) ended a miserable weekend in the gravel trap of turn three, before Riccardo Rossi (Kommerling Gresini Moto3) also crashed out. Marcos Ramirez (Leopard Racing) spent his race riding around on his own, unable to catch the front group, and crashed on his own at turn three with fifteen laps to go.
Romano Fenati (VNE Snipers) was slow throughout the race until he retired two laps after Ramirez, possibly suffering with the after-effects of his Saturday crash. The big news for the championship was Niccolo Antonelli (Sic58 Squadra Corse) crashing, as he missed only one point compared to Aron Canet coming into this weekend. Vicente Perez (Reale Avintia Arizona 77) was the next to go, before Arbolino fell at the hand of Suzuki. Alonso Lopez (Estrella Galicia 0,0) joined his teammate in retirement with five to go at turn seven, whilst Dennis Foggia (Sky Racing Team VR46) crashed out at turn nine on the same lap, five tours from the end of the 2019 French Moto3 Grand Prix.
Hampus Ericsson took a hard-fought Race Three victory to kick-start his British F3 season in a tightly contested final outing of the weekend.
Ericsson led home Clement Novalak, who himself completed a solid weekend for Carlin Motorsport while teammate Kaylen Frederick completed the podium, holding off the hard charging Ayrton Simmons as the top four cars were covered by two seconds on the road.
Early Championship contender Johnathan Hoggard’s race ended early with a crash at the start of the race, with the man from Lincolnshire having started from pole position and previously targeting the Championship lead pre-race.
For Hoggard however, a great weekend was soured somewhat on the first lap when he and Verhagen battled into the Wilson’s hairpin to collide and in the process take Jewiss out of the race with them.
All three retired on the spot, with the drivers appearing to disagree as to the cause of the incident.
Manuel Maldonado was a solid fifth place to finish his weekend with some form of a flourish ahead of Nazim Azman, with Ulysse De Pauw seventh to turn around a previously wretched weekend.
Benjamin Pedersen had to make yet another recovery drive to finish eight, Josh Mason picked up his best finish of the season with ninth place and Kris Wright completed the top ten for the first time this season.
The incident between Verhagen, Hoggard and Jewiss is being investigated after the race.
Barwell Motorsport’s Phil Keen and Adam Balon took the chequered flag from the first race of the British GT weekend at Snetterton.
Keen oversaw a calm finish at the wheel of his Lamborghini to a hectic end to the race as those behind him swapped paintwork and bodywork in a scrap to the end.
Ryan Ratcliffe in the Team Parker Racing Bentley took a hard-earned second place after holding off the challenges of Jonny Adam, Seb Morris and Jonny Cocker as they all appeared to take the shackles off with ten minutes to go.
Adam would claim third for TF Sport Aston Martin ahead of a recovering Cocker in the second Barwell Lamborghini, with Morris and Rick Parfitt Junior ending up fifth with damage.
Michael Igoe and Adam Wilcox were sixth in the third Lamborghini, Ollie Wilkinson and Bradley Ellis took seventh after a pitstop penalty dropped them from the leading battle ahead of Mark Farmer and Nicki Thiim.
While Keen eventually won by over 15s, that is not to say that his stint was without incident.
Keen emerged from the pits after a solid stint from Am driver Adam Balon right behind Jack Mitchell in the #9 Century Motorsport BMW, and the two went into battle shortly after.
Keen ducked and dived his way around Snetterton with little initial success, as despite the two spending over a lap side-by-side, Mitchell, who had taken over from Tom Gamble, would not back down.
Mitchell eventually had an electrical issue that would cost nearly 90s to allow Keen to break away from the chasing back and leave Ratcliffe to create a buffer.
Ratcliffe would do so, and defend stoutly in the process. Adam spent the entire stint stuck behind the Welshman, and things came to a head with five minutes left as Adam attempted to pass around the outside and the tricky Oggies corner only to be forced wide and see Seb Morris emerge third.
Cocker almost got in on the act but Adam was never going to give in and instead set about re-taking third.
Morris initially held on until Ratcliffe ran wide at the penultimate corner and came back onto the circuit in front of the Welsh winner from last time out at Oulton Park, who couldn’t avoid his fellow Bentley driver.
Ratcliffe would recover to second, while Adam and Cocker outdragged the stricken Morris to the line.
In GT4, a much more serene race saw Richard Williams and Sennan Fielding take both the overall and the GT4 Pro/AM spoils on Audi’s debut in the British GT series, with Steller Performance having missed Oulton Park due to scheduling issues.
They led home GT4 Silver Cup winners Jordan Smith and James Dorlin in the Tolman Motorsport McLaren, with Lewis Proctor and Jordan Collard third in the sister Tolman McLaren.
Callum Pointon and Dean MacDonald continued a fine start to the season for both McLaren and HHC Motorsport, while Michael Broadhurst and Mark Murfitt in the Fox Motorsport Mercedes AMG took fifth overall and second in the Pro/Am category.
Graham Johnson and Michael O’Brien in the Balfe Motorsport McLaren completed the GT4 Pro/Am podium.
Carlin’s Lucas Petersson took a lights to flag victory in an eventful Race Two on Sunday morning.
Petersson led home Benjamin Pedersen by three-seconds ahead of the impressive Neil Verhagen, who made up eight places from 11th on the grid to finish third in a race where overtaking means more points.
Verhagen led home fellow American Kaylen Frederick, with Nadim Azman a strong fifth in the midst of stiff competition around him.
Clement Novalak was sixth after starting 15th in the fully reversed grid ahead of another strong performance from Hampus Ericsson, with Johnathan Hoggard eighth after his last-place start.
Manuel Maldonado and Pavan Ravishankar completed the top ten, with Ayrton Simmons 11th after two offs and Kiern Jewiss losing his front wing attempting to pass Azman to fall to 13th.
Kris Wright dropped from second on the grid to 12th, while Sassakorn Chaimongkol and Ulysse De Pauw came to blows and ended up with damage and Josh Mason retiring after bouncing off the wall following a spin.
Petersson made the most of starting among slower drivers and quickly scampered off into the distance as Wright in particular proved a useful road block until he allowed fellow American Pedersen through midway around the first lap.
Verhagen got a lot of his work done early on to be third by the time the Safety Car was deployed, having disposed of Wright at the end of the first lap.
Mason found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time as he tried to tuck back in after a stream of cars had passed him down the inside, making contact with Nadim Azman and skating towards the barrier.
Once the Safety Car period was done, Petersson was able to hold off Pedersen, while Novalak, Ericsson and Hoggard carefully picked their way through some backmarkers with minimal fuss or bother.
Clement Novalak felt that he extracted the maximum from his Carlin British F3 package after finishing second in the first race of the weekend at Snetterton on Saturday.
Novalak had started pole but wasn’t entirely happy with the feel of his car and lost the lead to Johnathan Hoggard midway through the race.
“I am still pretty happy with P2 considering the pace we had. Obviously it is a little disappointing to lose the lead on a mistake rather than a normal overtake.
“I’ve been struggling with the brakes, but I’d rather finish P2 than have a crash or an off. The more points we can take, the better and P2 is the best we could have done today on the pace we had.”
Despite not being comfortable on Saturday, Novalak insists that there are positives to be had from the result in Race One.
“It’s a definite positive that there’s more to come and it shows how much potential we have and that when we maximise our potential we’ll be a force.”
“It’s about consistency, Johnathan has been really consistent as well but that’s what will make you a winner at the end of the year, if you’re consistent every race. We were P2 today and if we can salvage some points in the reverse grid race tomorrow and then from P5 we can get a podium in Race Three.”
For Sunday morning’s Race Two, where the entire finishing order from Race One is reversed with points awarded for overtaking, the young Brit is confident that he can gain places, and points.
“You can definitely overtake easier here a lot easier than Oulton Park, there’s a lot of long straights even if there tends to be fast corners just before braking points so that makes it slightly harder. You probably have to come from a longer way back, all in all it should be fun tomorrow.”
The dry weather of Friday was replaced by rain in Le Mans come Saturday morning for the fifth round of the 2019 Moto3 World Championship.
By the end of the FP3 session in the morning, the track had begun to dry, and almost the entirety of Moto3’s Q1 session was run on slick tyres. A late lap from John McPhee (Petronas SRT) took him through to Q2 as the fastest rider in Q1. The Scot was joined by Marcos Ramirez (Leopard Racing), Makar Yurchenko (BOE Skull Rider Mugen Race) and Sergio Garcia (Estrella Galicia 0,0).
John McPhee, Moto3, French MotoGP 2019. Image courtesy of SIC Racing Team/Petronas SRT
It was expected that, because of the sketchy conditions, those riders who advanced through Q1 would have an advantage over the other fourteen Q2 runners in the second session.
This proved to be the case for John McPhee, who took pole position with his penultimate lap of the session. It will be important for McPhee – who has mostly disappointed in the opening four races of the season – to turn this good Saturday result into a good position in the race.
The Scot will be joined on the front row by Tony Arbolino (VNE Snipers), who has been fast all weekend, and the rookie Ai Ogura (Honda Team Asia).
Fresh from his first World Championship podium two weeks ago in Spain, Tatsuki Suzuki (Sic58 Squadra Corse) took fourth on the grid for the French Moto3 Grand Prix, with Gabriel Rodrigo (Kommerling Gresini Moto3) and Marcos Ramirez (Leopard Racing) joining him on the second row.
The Spanish Grand Prix winner, Niccolo Antonelli (Sic58 Squadra Corse) crashed for the second time this weekend at turn three which limited the Italian to seventh.
Eighth fastest in Q2 was Raul Fernandez (Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team), but a penalty for irresponsible riding in FP2 will see the Spaniard start twentieth. Instead, Kaito Toba (Honda Team Asia) will start from the middle of row three. This should have put Sergio Garcia (Estrella Galicia 0,0) in ninth, but the Spanish rookie also took a twelve-place penalty and will start twenty-second. Because of this, Andrea Migno (Bester Capital Dubai) who will start from the back of the third row.
Makar Yurchenko will start Sunday’s race from tenth, with Romano Fenati (VNE Snipers) and championship leader Aron Canet (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team) who completes row four.
Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Leopard Racing) crashed at turn three on his final flying lap in Q2, and will start thirteenth, ahead of Albert Arenas (Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team) and Kazuki Masaki (BOE Skull Rider Mugen Race) who also crashed in Q2; whilst Dennis Foggia (Sky Racing Team VR46), Alonso Lopez (Estrella Galicia 0,0) and Filip Salac (Redox Pruestel GP) comprise row six.
Spanish GP podium finisher Celestino Vietti (Sky Racing Team VR46) could only manage nineteenth on the grid, and will start alongside the penalised Fernandez, and Jakub Kornfeil (Redox Pruestel GP) who will be hoping for fewer motocross memes after this year’s French Moto3 Grand Prix.
Can Oncu, Moto3, French MotoGP 2019. Image courtesy of Gold and Goose/KTM
The penalised Garcia will have former joint championship leader Jaume Masia (Bester Capital Dubai) and Ayumu Sasaki (Petronas SRT) alongside him on row eight; whilst behind on row nine will be Vicente Perez (Reale Avintia Arizona 77), Riccardo Rossi (Kommerling Gresini Moto3) and Can Oncu (Red Bull KTM Ajo). Tom Booth-Amos (CIP Green Power) was the slowest qualifier, but will start second-last as his teammate Darryn Binder (CIP Green Power) was also penalised twelve positions, which puts him last on Sunday’s grid.
After another blistering lap in qualifying which landed her on pole position for a second time, Jamie Chadwick lined up at the front of the pack at Zolder this afternoon, with Beitske Visser in P2, and fellow Brit Alice Powell in P3.
Reserve drivers Vivien Keszthelyi and home-girl Sarah Bovy both made their debut appearances in Belgium today. Keszthelyi had to step in for Finn Emma Kimiläinen after she was taken ill and was advised not to race.
The race got off to a rather confusing start as yellow flags, caused by smoke pluming from the back of Sarah Bovy’s car as the rest of the pack darted away from their grid slots. The safety car was brought out to clear the stricken car.
W Series
Amid the confusion, Dutchwoman Beitske Visser ran into turn one and took the lead from championship leader Jamie Chadwick.
With 24 minutes remaining, Emsee Hawkey and Keszthelyi made contact, resulting in both spinning off-track. Gosia Rdest also got caught up in the incident, and the safety car was deployed once again. All three were investigated for the incident, with Rdest was also sent to the stewards for an alleged jump start.
Racing got underway again with 17 minutes remaining, with Visser quickly making a gap to second-placed Chadwick.
Miki Koyama made an excellent move at the restart whilst overtaking Caitlin Wood for P8, the Australian struggling to keep position over the Japanese driver.
With 12 minutes remaining, Visser led by 1.5 seconds. Marta Garcia was put under a lot of pressure from Sarah Moore behind in P4, with Pepper and Fabienne Wohlwent fighting hard for P5. American Sabre Cook was given a drive through penalty for causing a collision, slotting into last place once she had rejoined the field.
W Series
With two minutes remaining in the second round of the W Series championship, Alice Powell touched Jamie Chadwick whilst attempting an overtake, but managed to make the move stick and snatched P2 from her fellow Brit. Chadwick didn’t give up though, and gave Alice Powell a tough fight for the second spot on the podium. She eventually managed to snatch the position back on the final lap. The duo were 4.5 seconds behind leader Visser, who was having an impeccable race.
24-year-old Beitske Visser took an impressive victory in Zolder during a race filled with wheel-to-wheel action. Round three of the championship will commence in Italy at the Misano World Circuit on 8th June.
Tom Gamble says that he only knew he was driving for Century Motorsport in the British GT series this weekend on Friday morning, before then sticking the BMW on pole position for Race One tomorrow.
Gamble, who won the 2018 McLAren Autosport BRDC Award for his performances in British F3 last year, was even disappointed not to get more out of the M6 GT3, despite the lack of preparation time for this weekend.
“It was good, as a racing driver you can always get more out of the car on the lap, with the Pirellis it is often one flying lap that you get and then it drops off. I didn’t get as much as I could out as I got caught and held up behind another car but we got the job done, hopefully at the start of Race One we can build a bit of a gap before Jack gets in.
“I got the call Friday morning. I’ve had no time to prepare at all! The car was good, the Audi that I race in Blancpain is a more of an oversteer based car whereas the BMW is more of an understeer-based car so I’ve had to change my driving style a little and adapt to the car.”
And despite his stellar performance on Saturday, the 17-year-old was quick to manage expectations for Sunday.
His arrival for the injured Adrian Wilmott means that his and Jack Mitchell’s pairing is now a Silver pairing, ensuring extra weight and extra time in the pit lane.
“It’s tough for us because of the extra 60 kgs of weight that we have makes it very difficult. The other guys have a much lighter car and a lot more performance but we’ll see. Hopefully we’ll have a good race tomorrow. But you never know.
“Gradually we’ve been getting better with the set up too over the weekend and tomorrow should be a fun two races.”
While he wishes Wilmott well in his recovery, Gamble would like further appearances for Century this season if needed
“Adrian has hurt his neck but hopefully it’s as soon as possible. I don’t know whether I’ll be needed for any more rounds yet but I’d love to get back out there and have another outing in the BMW, the more seat time the better for me. Fingers crossed I get a few more runs.”
