British GT - Brands Hatch Round-up
With a win for Graham Davidson and Jonny Adam, the GT3 title goes to the decider at Donington Park. In GT4 a first win for James Dorlin and Josh Smith keep them in title contention with five other fellow GT4 contenders.
GT3
Starting from pole the McLaren of Shaun Balfe was overtaken by Ollie Wilkinson on the short run to Paddock Hill bend, but a great start by Davidson saw the TF-Sport Aston already ahead of Sam De Haan by going round the outside of the Lamborghini at Paddock Hill and then take second from Balfe around the outside of Druids.
Out front Wilkinson was slowly pulling away from Davidson as he was keeping an eye on Balfe who was constantly filling the mirrors of the Aston Martin driver. Around twenty minutes into the two hour race, the Optimum Motorsport Aston suffered a spin and rejoined back in fourth place. Fortunately for Wilkinson, the race was soon running behind the safety car following an accident for Glynn Geddie in the #7 Team Parker Bentley as he was getting past the GT4 traffic.
At the restart Davidson led the field away again being pursued and hassled by Balfe, but he was soon able to get clear of the McLaren. Davidson was also able to make his way through the GT4 traffic with such ease that it meant when his driving time was over and had to hand over to Jonny Adam it left Adam in a decent position.
With Adam now behind the wheel and into his rhythm the gap back to the Balfe Motorsport, now with Rob Bell behind the wheel, was five seconds not long after all the changes had panned out. Adam continued where Davidson had left off with the ease of getting through the GT4 traffic.
At the end of the two hours of racing, Adam took the flag ahead of the Balfe McLaren 720s. Completing the podium was the #9 Century Motorsport BMW M6 of Jack Mitchell and Angus Fender. Fender stepped up from the M4 GT4 to pilot the M6 for the first time and drove a very decent stint. Taking over, Mitchell had to resist the charging Phil Keen.
Keen had taken the wheel after team mate Adam Balon had made progress from back in ninth to sixth. Once the pit stops had taken place this meant that Keen was challenging title rival and fellow Barwell Motorsport team mate Jonny Cocker. This battle raged for the next hour, both cutting through the GT4 traffic with Keen glued to the bumper of Cocker. Cocker defended with all his might, but with Keen eager to gain more points than fellow title rival, made a brave move around the outside of Hawthorns. The resulting move meant that the #69 Lamborghini lost its rhythm and was overhauled by fellow GT3's and ended up back in eighth and the flag.
The result of the #69 Lamborghini finishing down in P8 means that in the championship the #72 Lamborghini of Balon/Keen is now 6 points clear of now second in the title race of Davidson/Adam, but who will have a 20s success penalty to serve at Donington.
GT4
Pole sitter Callum Pointon in the #57 HHC Motorsport lost out to the #97 TF-Sport Aston Martin as soon as the race started. Second soon became third for the HHC Motorsport McLaren as the #4 Tolman McLaren made a move.
Further back from the front battle, the #62 Academy Motorsport Aston Martin was deemed to have had a false start and penalised, but as this stage of the race didn't really impact on the main proceedings up at the front of the GT4 battle.
This though was soon about to change. The Safety Car was deployed due to debris out on track. The #62 Aston Martin having served their penalty decided to stay out as long as possible during the opening stint. The deployment of the Safety Car fell at the prime time for the GT4 crews as this was their pit stop window. The Aston Martin stopped and came out into a comfortable lead, a 30s gap back nonetheless!
Just as victory looked on the cards for Will Moore and the Academy Motorsport squad, unlikely at the start of the race, brake failure of the Aston Martin meant that the race ended in the Druids gravel trap with just 20 minutes left on the clock.
This meant that the #4 Tolman McLaren now inherited the lead. The McLaren duo secured their first win of the season after being running at the front before the pit stops. Finishing second went to the #57 HHC Motorsport, who had slipped back to third at the start of the race. Dean Macdonald who had taken over the wheel just missed out on the win by a mere half a second.
Third was the #15 Multimatic Ford Mustang of Scott Maxwell and Seb Priaulx. However, post race it was discovered that a pitstop safety regulation had been broken. Normally a 10s stop/go penalty would have been served during the race, but a 40s time penalty was added to the time of the #15 Mustang and dropped the pairing back down to P9.
Inheriting the final spot and the points that went with it was the #97 TF Sport Aston Martin. This also meant that the #97 pairing now lead the GT4 Drivers Championship as the title race heads to Donington for the decider, not bad considering the pairing also had to serve and additional 20s success penalty.
As the title race head to the final race, #97 TF Sport Aston Martin of Tom Canning and Ash Hand lead by 6.5 points over Pointon/Macdonald. In total there are 5 pairings who could take that top spot away from the TF-Sport pairing.
The title decider is at Donington Park in September over the weekend of 14/15 on the GP circuit.
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