British GT DoningtonDecider
Updated: Jan 27, 2023
Victories for Century Motorsport and Speedworks Toyota while Ian Loggie claims Drivers' GT3 title and in GT4 Richard Williams / Sennan Fielding take top honours.
GT3
Starting from pole, the Team Abba Racing Mercedes-AMG managed to maintain that advantage over Simon Orange in Orange Racing powered by JMH McLaren while behind it all kicked off.
Three out of the four championship contenders were involved in an incident at Redgate. Morgan Tilbrook in the Enduro McLaren and Loggie's Mercedes-AMG had a coming together and the Barwell Lamborghini took avoiding action through the gravel. The stewards deceided that Tilbrook was to blame and had to serve a stop-go. Loggie re-joined but at the rear of the GT4 pack. To add further woes to Loggie's race, the following lap he spun as he exited Goddards.
James Cottingham kept out of trouble and was in line to scoop a bucketful of points as further ahead there were couple of guest entries who couldnt score points. This was until Cottingham ran wide at the Old Hairpin, through all the styrofoam branding and had to pit to get the rest removed from the front of his Mercedes.
The safety car was called for due to debris that was the result of a coming together of the Greystone and Paddock Motorsport McLarens, which negated the 6s lead Neary had built up. Shortly after racing resuemed disaster struck the Team Abba racing Mercedes again. This time no drive meant that the Neary had to park the car on the grass down the Craner Curves.
This meant that British GT newcomer Orange was now leading with Darren Leung chasing and not letting the new GT Cup Champion rest. Joining this battle was Graham Davidson in the 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG who had benifitted from the Neary retirement and an accident for Nick Halstead.
Slow pitstops and incidents for those around meant that Alexander Sims was leading the race despite themsleves having to serve 10s Success Penalty. The Safety Car also helped Loggie, who didnt have to serve any Success Penalties, as he handed the Mercedes over to Jules Gounon to emerge P2. Both Barwell and Enduro also beneiftted from the Saftey Car but had to endure Success Penalties and come out behind the RAM Mercedes-AMG.
More debris on the track meant that the Saftey CAr was again sent out and the field was bunched up with Sandy Mitchell and Marcus Clutton following Gounon and race leader Sims. The calculators were out in action tyring to work out the Championship points but fact of the matter was that Mitchell and Clutton had to win the race and hope Gounon was a non points finish to give the crown to Loggie. How the Championship fortune had changed for Loggie from the start of the race.
Sims held on to the lead and a win for the Century Motorsport BMW, their first GT3 victory, with Gounon happy to follow the BMW home to claim that title for Loggie. Completing the top 3 was Clutton who managed to get past Mitchell.
This meant that RAM Racing now could add the Overall and Pro-Am title to the Teams' Championship already secured at Brands Hatch.
GT4
Tom Edgar's Speedworks Toyota started from pole and made good his escape quickly building up a 6s lead over the chasing pack lead by Williams before the saftey car undid all of Edgar's hard work. Once the Saftey Car had pitted, Edgar got his head back down again and soon built up the advantage again before the pitstop window opened just before the hour mark.
Jordan Collard took over the Toyota but had his mirrors full of Jamie Day's R Racing Aston Marting thanks to the tidy stop of the Aston team. Day got past Collard at the Melbourne Hairpin but lost back out to Collard at Redgate.
Day kept Collard honest and even with another Saftey Car still kept the Aston Martin at bay and onto claim victory.
All the action was further back as the attention was drawn to the Championship battle. Fielding and Matt Topham were battling away for the title despite not running together.
Williams handed the seconf paced Audi over to Fielding who emerged P5 thanks to the Success Penalty the team had to serve courtesy of the P2 at Brands Hatch last time out. Fielding had it all to do if they wanted to claim the title.
Meanwhile, Topham in the Newbridge Aston Martin had emerged back in P9 following their Success Penalty, plus, a drive-through for overtaking behind the saftey car.
Fielding had got past Jack Brown's BMW and needed to gain another place to beat R Racing's live total. This came by passing Moh Ritson's Paddock Motorsport's Pro-Am McLaren for P3. He then cemented the title by passing Day for P2.
Topham was caught up in the GT4 pack and finished the race P7, losing out on the title by 5.5 points.
