British GT Brands Hatch round-up
Updated: Jan 27, 2023
Last gasp victory for Enduro Motorsport in GT3 and Newbridge Motorsport claim GT4 honours.
GT3
Starting from pole, James Cottingham in his 2 Seas Mercedes AMG maintained that advantage over Enduro Motorsports Marcus Tilbrook as the lights went out for the penultimate race of the season. A fast starting Richard Neary was able to be within touching distance after another great start in his Team ABBA Racing Mercedes AMG.
The first hour was punctuated with three safety cars which meant Cottingham was unable to build a gap to off-set their 15s Success Penalty. Instead, Tilbrook and Neary were keeping him honest ready to capitalise on any errors from the Mercedes driver.
When the pitstop window just after the hour mark they all dived into the pits and the respective teams set to work. The quick work of Team ABBA Racing managed to get their driver back out ahead of Marcus Clutton and once all the stops had taken place Sam Neary, who had taken over driving duties, was enjoying the lead of the race.
For the next 50 minutes, Clutton did all he could to try and force a mistake from Neary, try and use the back markers to his advantage but to no avail. Even a couple of squabbling GT4 cars couldn't help Clutton when Neary came up to them. There was the smallest of gaps, just about the width of his Mercedes and Neary exploited that and put those 2 cars between them to give himself a bit of breathing space.
With a win in sight for the Team ABBA Racing disaster struck on the penultimate lap. Fuel pump failure saw Neary slow over the start line and Clutton blast past and onto victory.
Second went to the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini which earlier in the race seemed unlikely after contact was made between Adam Balon and Ian Loggie which sent the Lamborghini into a spin and damage the RAM Racing, but not enough to force it into retirement. The unlucky victim was Nick Halstead who in avoidance ended up stuck in the Surtees gravel trap and triggered the second safety car.
Claiming that final spot was the Century Motorsport BMW. Starting from P7 Henry Dawes kept out of trouble keeping his sights on the top three throughout his stint. A 5s penalty for the team due to new drivers meant that Alexander Sims couldn't rejoin the action in P3. Instead, another solid drive and setting fastest lap kept them within a shout of the podium if there was any trouble. With the demise of the Abba Mercedes-AMG this gave this new driver pairing their deserved podium.
Ian Loggie continues to lead the championship by 24.5 points over Balon / Mitchell with Cottingham / Willamson 8.5 points behind the Lamborghini pair. With 37.5 points left to play for, Tillbrook / Clutton are still in the fight, but 34 points adrift from Loggie, a lot of luck needs to go their way.
GT4
Richard Williams lead the field in his pole sitting Steller Motorsport Audi and tried to build up his lead over the chasing GT4 pack which was led by Jamie Orton in the Porsche.
The gap was soon neutralised by the first appearance of the Safety Car caused by Ed McDermott's Motus One Mercedes-AMG which was stuck at the exit of Druids. It was indeed a huge testament to the team to get the car to the grid after a huge crash 15 minutes into FP1. Mechanics were working all night and even a trip to Spa-Francorchamps and back to get parts.
Once racing resumed, Williams got his head down and started to build up his lead again only for another appearance of the Safety Car to clear the stricken GT3 McLaren bunched the pack up again to the back of his Audi.
The chasing pack was one short at the restart when Marco Signoretti had to dive into the pits with a puncture and when Moh Ritson was made to run wide after contact with the Toyota of Tom Edgar. The resulting contact gave the McLaren a puncture and while Ritson tried to bring the car back to the pits it ran wide at Stirlings and beached in the gravel trap meaning the Safety Car had to be sent out again.
Racing was back up under way again just before the GT4 pit window opened. Williams was leading the way followed by Orton, Jamie Day, Edgar and Freddie Tomlinson in the Ginetta. With the pitstops underway, the Silver crews all had to serve longer stops and with no Success Penalties and being a Pro-Am pairing it was Darren Turner who emerged out front in his Newbridge Motorsport Aston Martin.
Team BRIT were now running P2 overall after Aaron Morgan was keeping the McLaren out of trouble, but the team made a slick stop and with others around them serving longer stops Bobby Trundley emerged to try and hunt Turner down.
Sennan Fielding had taken over the Audi and was chasing the McLaren hard and made his move into P2. With his head down Fielding did all he could to try and hunt Turner down who by now was 20s down the road. Fielding had managed to get that gap to 7s at the flag.
Seb Hopkins who by now had taken over from Orton in the Team Parker Racing Porsche was the next one on the move and made his way past the McLaren to claim that last podium spot.
The result now means that there are three crews all within contention of the title as the season heads towards the DoningtonDecider.
The next and last race of the season is at Donington Park October 15th / 16th.
