British GT Donington Decider
GT3 crowned Darren Leung and Dan Harper as Champions while Erik Evans and Matt Cowley sealed GT4 honours. Race victories went to the way of Shaun Balfe and Sandy Mitchell while not only securing GT4 Championship, Evans / Cowley also topped off the weekend with a win.
GT3
Starting from pole Andrew Howard in his Aston Martin held off a fast starting Leung but the move for the lead was soon made down the Craner Curves and by the end of lap 1 the Century BMW was off out in front. Leung got his head down to build a gap but that soon came to nothing due to the intervention of the first safety car.
Toro Verde GT team-mates James Townsend and Ian Duggan crashed as they turned into Redgrave and once the barriers had been repaired there was still 30 minutes of the race before the pitstop window opened.
Once again Leung made good his escape while behind Howard was busy defending from Ian Loggie, James Cottingham, Morgan Tilbrook, Miguel Ramos and Richard Neary all fighting amongst themselves.
Tilbrook manganed to muscle his way to P2 but all the squabbling meant that Leung was 20s up the road. However, all that time was about to be lost due to incidents and accidents that meant the Safety Car was sent out again.
Iain Campbell and Mike Price were fighting over the same piece of tarmac at the Melbourne Hairpin, Ron Johnson was stranded on the grass and John Searle took an interesting line down the Craner Curves and ended in the tyre barriers at the Old Hairpin.
Nearly the entiere GT3 field all pitted at once but the pits were already full of the GT4 cars and admist all the frenzy pit stops it was Jules Gounon who was in the lead. This lead didn't last long as he turned into Goddards his Mercedes-AMG slithered wide. Marcus Clutton took over the lead ahead of Mitchell and Raffaele Marciello.
Following the early stint of Leung, Harper was down in P13 but out of contention for the title as he was also behind Philip Ellis. Harper though had other ideas.
The BMW factory driver had the bit between his teeth and moved through the field passing Ellis en-route and was on the way to P5, enough to claim the title. That place was soon gained at Redgate, passing Michael O'Brien but Harper was eager for more. He soon passed Gounon, Marciello and Clutton.
Clutton wasn't in the lead for long before Mitchell made a move down the Craner Curves and by the time the pair exited the Old Hairpin the Barwell driver was in front. Mitchell took the chequered flag only 9s ahead of Harper after an inspired drive from P13.
With finishing P2 this meant that the Century Motorsport duo claimed the title 12.5 points ahead of James Cottingham who's team mate finished P10 in the race.
GT4
Pole sitter R Racing Aston Martin Josh Miller lead the pack of Aston Millar and Zac Meakin who had past Jack Brown and the rest of the chasing GT4 field. This then settled into steady race.
Behind though Evans was on a charge and after starting P7 soon worked his Mustang up to the rear of Brown. He was soon into P3 before the second Safety Car slowed his progress just as the GT4 pit-stop window opened.
Having to serve extra time at the pitstop Cowley emerged down in P10 but soon made that P7. The RACE LAB McLaren managed to gain the most with Ian Gough and Tom Wrigely now in overall title contention thanks to serving less time in the pits after running in P9.
Wrigley emerged in the lead of the race and now also leading the Championship standings as it stood with DTO's Josh Rowledge behind. Both drivers knew that a race win would seal the Championship and lap after lap were mere tenths apart. But then emerged Cowley.
Cowley had made his way to P4 and quickly passed the Century Motorsport BMW of Lewis Plato and off in the chase of the leading duo. P2 was claimed at the Melbourne Hairpin and the lead was his at the Esses and cue the cheers from the Academy garage as the title was their's along with the race win.
The 2024 seson begins at Oulton Park 29 March / 1 April.
