British GT Championship - Season Review
Updated: Jan 27, 2023
The 2022 season was full of twists and turns in which ultimately went the way of RAM Racing's Ian Loggie in GT3. While in GT4 Richard Williams and Sennan Fielding claimed top honours.
GT3
Loggie didn't have it all his own way and was made to fight for it all season long. The season started at Oulton Park with 2x 1 hour races and a great first race for the RAM with Loggie and team mate Jules Gounon finishing P2 after a great battle with the Balfe Motorsport Audi. The result from days second race however would only be provisional due to the appeal by RAM Racing over the outcome.
A mid race stoppage to recover stranded cars caused by a sudden heavy downpour meant that the second half of the race would be a 25 min sprint. The red flag fell during the GT3 pitstop window and this meant that the teams couldn't complete their stops. The race restarted with the teams installing the new driver and fitting fresh tyres and lined up in the order they were running one lap prior to to the pit stop window opening. With this, the top three from the previous race would have their pit stop success penalties time added post race. This meant that RAM Racing despite finishing P1 on the road dropped back to P5. RAM appealed this decision, the Stewards rejected the appeal so RAM took it to the National Court.
The showcase Silverstone 500 only lasted one lap after contact and an early retirement for Loggie. However, a few days later the National Court overturned the result from Oulton Park so now Loggie are sharing the top of the table.
A third at Donington and a straight forward victory at Snetterton saw Loggie still maintain the advantage. Spa-Francorchamps result of P3 was provisional as the race winning Fox Motorsport McLaren was racing under appeal which was later upheld just before the Brands Hatch meeting. Going into the event, Loggie by now had a very healthy 39 point lead. An eventful race for Loggie saw his advantage cut to 24.5 points and now was involved in a 4-way championship fight.
That final #doningtondecider saw the championship outcome swing one way to the next several times during the race. Loggie was in the gravel at the exit of the first corner, then spun the next lap at Goddards but safety cars and others having bad luck, accidents and success penalties meant that despite finishing P2 on the road Loggie was Champion.
Loggie was pushed hard by various others, notably Enduro Motorsport Marcus Clutton and Morgan Tillbrook who were in with a shout at the final race. Despite a rocky start to the season and a disqualification in the first 3 rounds, they finally got their season started with a race win at Donington. An unfortunate away round a Spa-Francorchamps but a fortuitous win at Brands Hatch put the pairing back in with a shout at the overall title for the #doningtondecider. After a great drive from Clutton after taking over from Millbrook they couldn't find a way past Loggie and finished the race a mere 1.8s behind the new champion and third overall in the championship.
Along with Enduro, Championship stalwarts Barwell Motorsport too challenged hard. Adam Balon again missing out on top honours despite all his best efforts driving with Sandy Mitchell finishing second overall. A slightly poor start to the season and only one victory they turned the season round at the latter part and made it an interesting and exciting finale.
Elsewhere, perhaps one of the seasons heart breaking moments happened at Brands Hatch. The family-run Team ABBA racing of father-son duo Richard and Sam Neary were on the brink of a very well deserved outright win but a fuel pump failure as their Mercedes-AMG started the penultimate lap put a cruel end to that. Neary Jnr kept Clutton at bay since they emerged from a slick pitstop which saw the team emerge out in front and kept his composure until that pump failed.
GT4
A strong start to the season with victory in the opening round at Oulton Park and after the National Court's judgement over the outcome of the second race and the post race penalties a second victory of the day. The Court ruled that the post race penalty that was applied should not have been implemented. This also had a knock-on affect at Silverstone as they were bumped down to third after finishing second at the flag.
A poor result at Donington did nothing to deter and a second at Snetterton kept their title hopes alive. A second place at Brands Hatch meant that going into the final meeting there was only 12.5 points between Williams / Fielding and Matt Topham / Darren Turner. R Racing were also within a shout of claiming the title so this made it a race of checking the calculator throughout the race as to who was leading the championship. As it was a great drive by Fielding saw them finish the race P2 and enough to claim the title by a mere 5.5 points over Topham / Turner.
Newbridge Motorsport's Topham / Turner pushed the Steller Motorsport pairing hard all season. A couple of wins at Silverstone and Brands Hatch kept their championship alive going into that final meeting. A drive-through and bad traffic meant that they could only finish P7 but so close to clinching the overall title.
R Racing's young pairing of Josh Miller and Jamie Day were also there or there abouts in the season long battle and a win at Spa-Francorchamps kept them within a shout at the overall title. They were at one point during the #doniongtondecider champions on the live results during the race but due to Fielding getting past Moh Ritson and then past Day they had to settle for P3 on the road and P3 in the Championship but only by 12.5 points.
The 2023 seasons starts again with Donington Park hosting the returning Media Day on March 14th and the action starts at Oulton Park over the Easter Weekend 8th - 10th April.
