Category: British GT

Jack Mitchell leads a band of five crews battling it out for the British GT4 championship going into the final round of the season at Donington Park.

Mitchell is one of two Century Motorsport BMW crews to be fighting for GT4 honours with Ben Green and Ben Tuck in the other M4 10 points behind in second, although they will serve a 15s success penalty in the pitlane.

The HHC Motorsport Ginetta crew of Callum Pointon and Patrik Matthiesen is just 13.5 points back from Mitchell and are the only crew to score in every round this season, although realistically they need to finish in the top two as Mitchell does not have a pitlane handicap.

Michael O’Brien and Charlie Fagg in the #4 Tolman McLaren are fourth and have an outside chance of stealing the title.

The duo – winless despite a consistent season – are 23 points behind the lead BMW, while Matt Nicoll-Jones and Will Moore need to win and hope a lot of things turn their way. The Academy Aston Martin crew are 31 points away from Mitchell.

The Pro/Am class battle features just two crews but is every bit as close as the overall GT4 standings.

The Team Parker Racing Mercedes pairing of Nick Jones and Scott Malvern are just three points clear of the UltraTek Nissan duo of Kelvin Fletcher and Martin Plowman, the latter two hampered by a 10s pitstop penalty after third place at Brands Hatch seven weeks ago.

Across the rest of the GT4 grid there are changes to the line-up as Oulton Park race winners Adam Balon and Ben Barnicoat are back in a Balfe Motorsport McLaren.

BTCC’s Ciceley Motorsport make their British GT debut with David Fairbrother and Adam Morgan running another Mercedes following Touring Car success in the A class, and the second UltraTek Racing Nissan is also back.

Jonny Adam was full of praise for teammate Flick Haigh after the Optimum Motorsport duo’s win at the British GT two hours of Brands Hatch.

Haigh had to contend with two Safety Car periods – one of them almost 15 minutes – during her stint as she tried to negate the 10s success penalty to be served in the pits.

Adam appreciated the job his Am teammate did for him.

“The pace was great and has been good all year, we had a 12s gap at one point and unfortunately that just went away with the first Safety Car and then obviously with the nasty crash down here.

“Really for Flick there were only four or five flying laps and she showed her pace again to eek out enough of a gap, a seven or eight second buffer, our pitstop was good and we managed just to get in front of Beechdean and Barwell.”

After emerging from the stops second, ahead of all of their Championship rivals, Adam had almost an hour-long battle with the #69 Lamborghini of Jonny Cocker.

“The Lamborghini in front looked strong and that’s their best result of the year so they were desperate for the win, but we’re desperate for the Championship as well, so we were pushing extra to get those extra 10 points.

The Scot is confident ahead of the deciding round at Donnington, where Optimum could be in the lead should an appeal against a 30s penalty from Snetterton be upheld.

“The Aston is normally a good car around Donnington, luckily enough we won there last year with TF so it’s a good package at Donnington. Qualifying is key, we’ve qualified pole for the last two races and that has really helped our momentum, we’re on a roll now with three podiums on the bounce, a second win of the year so we’re going for it at Donnington.”

1. Meanwhile, Haigh was delighted with her performance in testing circumstances after twice seeing a significant lead wiped out.

After building a gap of 12.6 seconds before the first Safety Car period, she was over six seconds clear when the second, longer caution was deployed.

When Haigh did come into the pits to hand over to Adam, she was over six seconds clear of Andrew Howard once again.

2. “I’m really pleased, you never what can happen even when you’re on pole so to build a lead and then have to do it again was really good, It was all about helping Jonny out and bringing that deficit down by any margin I could. The team, as always performed amazingly in the stops.

I just wanted to make it as easy as possible because it is hard enough with the level of the pros there anyway, and I feel like I did my bit and I am really pleased for me, for him and the whole team.”

Optimum Motorsport duo Flick Haigh and Jonny Adam will start tomorrow’s two-hour British GT race from pole position after a scorching hot qualifying session on Saturday.

Haigh had put the #75 Aston Martin in a strong fourth position behind Andrew Howard (#99 Aston Martin), Graham Davidson (47 Aston Martin) and Rick Parfitt Junior (#1 Bentley) to get ahead of championship leaders Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen (#33 Lamborghini) in AM qualifying.

And Adam set the second  fastest time of the GT3 Pro qualifying session to take overall pole position, with only Yelmer Buurman in the #116 Mercedes bettering Adam’s 1:25.182.

Darren Turner got his #99 Aston Martin to overall second in GT3, the Beechdean Aston Martin squad are just 0.4 behind Adam and Haigh, while Phil Keen rescued third for a Barwell Lamborghini #33 team that could take the title if they win and results go their way on Sunday.

Mark Farmer spun off for the #11 TF Sport Aston Martin he shares with Nicki Thiim in Am qualifying to dent their championship aspirations, and they will line up at the back of the GT3 grid. The #26 Ultimate Speed Aston Martin of Michael Brown and Matt Manderson will not start tomorrow after a heavy crash in practice severely damaged all four corners of the car.

In GT4 it was the Century Motorsport BMW show as the #42 and #43 crews frequently traded fastest laps, with Jack Mitchell and Dean MacDonald in the championship leading #43 crew eventually winning out ahead of Ben Tuck and Ben Green.

Mitchell’s final effort of a 1:32.772 was just 0.009 quicker than Tuck’s best effort in Pro qualifying, while MacDonald was ahead of Green by just 0.013 of a second, meaning the top two are split by 0.022 seconds.

The #61 Academy Motorsport of Tom Wood and Jan Jonck qualified third, just 0.3 behind the battling BMWs while the championship-challenging #4 Tolman McLaren crew of Charlie Fagg and Michael O’Brien go from fourth.

GT4 REACTION – Jack Mitchell:

“Qualifying pace is usually our strongest, race pace always strong for us so we knew we were going to be quite strong.

“It’s a bit of an unknown after the first session with Ben Tuck so close to Dean (teammate), but you always know it’s going to be close between me and Ben Tuck. To just beat them was good for me championship-wise and for the race, I have an added 20s penalty so I’m not totally expecting to win, but as we saw with Spa, you never know in motorsport. All we have to do is keep getting consistent results and my team have been amazing.

“17 points sounds like a lot but there’s a ten-point gap between first and second place, it’s a big jump. If that happened this weekend then it would be down to the wire this weekend. We’ll keep doing what we’re doing.

“I feel safer in a way because if the McLarens were all ganged up behind us then I’d be much more worried, Ben is still going to be trying as hard as possible to be getting past so it won’t be easy.”

IMAGE CREDIT: Craig Robertson, Race Photography

The British GT series rolls into Brands Hatch this weekend for a penultimate round that could see both titles wrapped up.

Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen’s #33 Barwell Lamborghini currently leads the GT3 class by 14 points while Jack Maitchell’s econd straight win last time puts his #43 Century Motorsport BMW 16.5 clear. The target is 38 points.

For Minshaw and Keen, this season has been about consistency – the #33 Lamborghini have only have one win this season but numerous other trips to the podium has left them clear while others have hit trouble.

The #11 TF Sport Aston Martin team of Mark Farmer and Nicki Thiim had more bad luck at Spa with a lap-one retirement in Race Two, and they slipped to third behind Optimum Motorsport’s Jonny Adam and Flick Haigh,

Thiim and Farmer had earlier retired at Oulton Park at the very first round and lost points at Rockingham which hampered their charge, but a good result here puts them right back in the hunt.

Haigh and Adam are the only crew in the top five to face a pit-stop success penalty, and that could prove crucial unless they build a big lead in the two-hour race on Sunday.

Meanwhile in GT4 a timely Safety Car undoubtedly helped the #43 BMW, whose full-season driver Jack Mitchell is now 16.5 points clear of HHC Motorsport’s Ginetta crew of Callum Pointon and Patrik Matthiesen, who were knocked off the championship lead for the first time since Rockingham.

Third place could be good enough for Mitchell to take the season spoils, provided that the #55 Ginetta finishes poorly and the #4 Tolman McLaren of Charlie Fagg and Michael O’Brien also hit strife.

The 2 Hours of Brands Hatch could be pivotal in deciding the destination of both British GT titles, will it be a champagne-filled Sunday night, or is are we in for a Donnington Decider in September?

Maxime Martin and Graham Davidson notched their first win of the British GT season at the one mainland European race in Spa-Francorchamps for Jetsream Motorsport Aston Martin.

Ryan Ratcliffe and Rick Parfitt Junior in the #1 Bentley held on for second ahead of Jonny Adam and Flick Haigh’s Optimum Aston Martin, who completed the GT3.

In GT4 a well timed pitstop just as the Safety Car saw Dean Macdonald and Jack Mitchell emerge in the lead, where they stayed.

Tolman Motorsport’s McLaren of Michael O’Brien and Charlie Fagg were second to continue their strong season while the podium was completed by Equipe Verschuur’s Finlay Hutchison and Daniel McKay.

It was drama right from the start when Mark Farmer’s TF Sport Aston Martin took to the grass on the run down to Eau Rouge before catching fire and dropping oil. Andrew Howard was also damaged ad the Safety Car quickly appeared.

Remon Vos was blamed for the incident and served a 60-second stop/go penalty.

After racing resumed, Jordan Witt was given a 20-second stop/go penalty for colliding with Loggie at the final chicane and that moved the Team Parker Racing Bentley of Rick Parfitt Jnr up to second behind Davidson.

The Barwell Motorsport duo of Sam De Haan in the #69 Lamborghini and Jon Minshaw in the #33 Huracan also came to blows with De Haan given a 10-second stop/go penalty while Adam Christodoulou’s Mercedes also caught fire.

Once the Ams handed over to the Pros, Martin was able to stroke the Aston Martin home ahead of Ratcliffe and Adam for his and Davidson’s first ever British GT victories.

In GT4 O’Brien led the way at the start ahead of fellow McLaren Finlay Hutchison, with Ben Tuck also in the mix and Lewis Proctor fourth.

A fire for Proctor’s McLaren saw many take to the pits, and Century Motorsport’s Jack Mitchell was the lucky man as he emerged from the pits in the lead ahead of Charlie Fagg, whose Tolman had been leading.

That was how it would stay, with McKay in the Equipe Verschuur McLaren remaining third and Ben Tuck fourth in the other Century BMW.