British GT Snetterton round-up
Victories for RAM Racing's Ian Loggie and Callum Macleod in race 1 while sister car of John Ferguson and Ulysse de Pauw claim race 2 glory in GT3. In GT4 race 1 Jamie Day and Josh Miller become the youngest ever winners in race 1 while race 2 went the way of Jack Brown and Will Burns.
Race 1
GT3
Pole sitter Loggie managed to stay ahead of the chasing pack as the British GT made its trip to Norfolk in the sunshine. With a 5s Success Penalty to serve, Loggie tried to pull a gap on Flick Haigh so that Macleod could rejoin in the lead.
However, Haigh kept Loggie honest and when the pitstop window opened and with the RAM Racing stopping for that extra 5s, Jonny Adam emerged in the lead in his 2 Seas Mercedes AMG. Adam was able to build a gap back to Loggie, but when they count up with the GT4 traffic the lead gap went back and forth.
Unfortunately for Adam while enjoying the lead his Mercedes suffered a tyre failure and had to limp his way back to the pits and into retirement. The bad luck of the 2 Seas Mercedes meant that Loggie enjoyed the good luck of now inheriting the lead and had a trouble free run to the chequered flag.
Second on the podium was the WPI Motorsport Lamborghini of Michael Igoe and Phil Keen. Keen had managed to close some of the gap to Macleod but not enough to worry the Mercedes. Having starting in P4, Igoe lost places at the start, but due to others ahead having misfortunes, Mark Sansom spun out of P3 and the late retirement of Adam, or others serving Success Penalties, 2 Seas' sister car and Enduro Motorsport, they quietly moved their way up.
Completing the podium was the Team Abba Racing Mercedes-AMG of father-son Richard and Sam Neary. Starting down in P10 Richard showed the pace they had shown over the weekend and moved his way up the field to P7 before the pitstop window opened. As one of the first teams to pit and with not having to serve any Success Penalties Neary Jnr emerged in P4. Sam had to withstand the pressure of 2 Seas' Lewis Williamson for the duration of his stint and with the demise of the 2 Seas' Mercedes-AMG the final step on the podium was a just reward for the team.
GT4
Before the start drama unfolded for the Steller Motorsport who had an electric issue to iron out on their championship-leading Audi. Luckily they got it all fixed in time for Richard Williams to start from the pitlane and remain on the lead lap.
Matt Cowley made it away from pole and led the pack as he had to try and over-turn the 10s Success Penalty from the last round.
Behind Cowley they was a battle royale for second. Tom Edgar's Toyota had to endure the attention of Josh Miller and Jamie Orton in their Aston Martin and Porsche respectively. Orton muscled his way into P3 and then headed to the pits to give the Porsche to Seb Hopkins.
Cowley was enjoying the speed in the Ford Mustang so that when Marco Signoretti took over and rejoined the action he was still in the lead, only just though, of Hopkins who in turn had moved ahead of the Toyota as they had to serve their Success Penalties.
Hopkins was pushing the Porsche hard in the chase to try and get passed the Mustang that contact was made at Brundle and the Ford was spun and out of the race with suspension damage. As there was only 9 minutes of the race left to run the stewards decided that the 10s stop-go penalty would be added to the finish time of Hopkins. This left the Aston Martin of Day / Miller to inherit the win and in doing so, make them the youngest ever winners.
Further back issues galore, (a stop-go for Valluga Porsche for a pitstop infringement, a penalty and a spin for the Assetto Ginetta and Paddock Motorsport retiring on track) allowed the Steller Motorsport Audi to cross the line P2 after Sennan Fielding passed Darren Turner's Newbridge Motorsport Aston Martin who in turn finished P3.
Race 2
GT3
De Pauw managed to keep ahead of Williamson's 2 Seas' Mercedes-AMG while the sister RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG P3. With Williamson having to pit it now meant that it was a 1-2 for the team.
Adam suffered lap 1drama when he was caught in a tussle between Sandy Mitchell and Marcus Clutton which resulted in the Adam's Mercedes-AMG going across the grass and tumbling down the order.
Mitchell was soon chasing Macleod for P2, after the demise of Williamson, and made his move as they exited Wilson. With De Pauw 5s up the road Mitchell got his head down and by the time they both pitted at the end of the GT3 pitstop window he had taken 2s out of the lead gap.
Ferguson picked up from De Pauw had left off while Adam Balon took over the chase from Mitchell. Balon slowly chipped away at the lead and with 10 minutes left he had got the gap down enough to trouble and make life harder for the lead Mercedes-AMG. As the flag fell, Ferguson held off enough to claim victory by 0.3s.
Completing the podium was the 2 Seas' Mercedes-AMG of Haigh / Adam. Adam was running P5 after his lap 1 excursion and was able to watch the battle of Macleod and Euan Hankey. Before they pitted, Hankey was hassling the Mercedes-AMG for the entire stint and with a 10s Success Penalty for the RAM Racing this meant Loggie dropped further back.
Mia Flewitt was now running ahead of Haigh who had the 7TSIX McLaren in her sights and set about passing the McLaren. The 30s gap to the top 2 was a bit of a tall order to try and overturn.
GT4
After starting race 1 from the pitlane, Steller Motorsport Audi of Fielding lined up P2 and soon made a move on Jamie Day for the lead. Will Burns followed the Audi but knew that the R8 would have to serve its Success Penalty when the pitstops happened.
Day soon lost more places as Matthew Graham, Turner and Signoretti as they all made their way past the Aston Martin before the GT4 pitstop window opened.
With Turner and Topham enjoying a slightly shorter mandatory stop courtesy of being a Pro-Am pairing, emerged in the lead just ahead of Burn's BMW. Brown had set Topham in his sights and soon was over the Aston Martin. A lunge round the outside of Palmer and kept his foot in as he then followed that with passing the Aston Martin round the outside of Agostini with just 7 minutes left on the clock.
With no Success Penalties to serve, Academy were running comfortably running just outside the top 3 and with Cowley behind the wheel lighting up the timing screens was soon in the top 3. This soon became P2 on the penultimate lap when he made his move on Topham.
The Championship next event is the annual trip to Spa-Francorchamps on July 23-24.
