Spa-Francorchamps round-up

Text: Ian Cutting

Images: SRO

Victory for Jonny Adam and Giacomo Petrobelli in their Blackthorn AMR Aston Martin making Adam the most successful driver with 20 wins, while Ravi Ramyead and Charlie Robertson claim GT4 honours in their Century Motorsport BMW as the Championship has its away day at the iconic Spa-Francorchamps.

GT3

Pole sitter Petrobelli made the most of the clear track in front of him and carried that speed from qualifying to lead the field by nearly 3s of the chasing pack. Handing the driving duties to Adam on the hour mark there was a sizeable gap to the challenges.

Simon Orange's spin at Blanchimont while in P2 helped the gap back to the rest of the field. Orange hit the barrier on the rear of his McLaren and limped back to the pits for repairs and lost time to the rest of the GT3 field.

With the demise of Orange, this meant that Morgan Tilbrook, Rob Collard, Kevin Tse in a new car after their race car was badly damaged during Friday testing and Charles Dawson in a hastily repaired car too all fighting for P2. Both the Barwell drivers though had to serve drive-throughs for track limits shuffled the order about and with Tillbrook also having to serve a drive-through and Tse having brake issues this left Dawson as the head of the chasing pack.

The only Full Course Yellow was thrown when the #14 Century BMW GT4 stopped on track. Dawson and Kiern Jewiss also suffered a drive-through for a speed infringement while running the FCY.

Back out front, Blackthorn seized this opportunity to pit while the race was reduced speed and use one of the mandatory stops with Petrobelli now heading back out in the Aston Martin for a short stint. Matt Griffin was now enjoying the lead in his Ferrari but once he pitted Petrobelli was back enjoying the lead.

As Petrobelli circulated round the iconic Spa-Francorchamps layout ticking off his driving time with great pace before handing the Aston Martin back to Adam to complete the last hour. Petrobelli had been building up a gap and by the time Adam took over, there was nearly a 30s gap to the challenges. Adam duly took the win and in doing so the record for the most succesful driver, overtaking Phil Keen.

Behind was where the action was. The Safety Car from the FCY closed the field up and negated the various drive-throughs. Hugo Cook was in the prime seat as they started the last hour but Patrick Kujala and Marvin Kirchofer were closing in fast on the Lamborghini.

Kirchofer got past Kujala as he suffered from oversteer at Double Gauche. He then passed Cook as he trying to pass Mark Smtih's Paddock Motorsport McLaren up Eau Rouge to finish P2. The final podium spot went to Cook and Rob Collard after fending off Kujala.

GT3 winner #7 Blackthorn AMR Aston Martin

GT4

Josh Miller in the Mahiki Racing Ginetta led from pole and controlled the pace out front before handing over to Jack Mitchell. The #14 BMW stopping on track while running in P2 meant the FCY was called, Mahiki decided to keep going while all those around pitted. Ed Mcdermott spun from P2 later in the race which meant that Robertson was now chasing Miller down.

The #71 Century BMW seemed all at sea during the first hour of the race with 2 drive-throughs for track limits, but thanks to the FCY and subsequent safety car and still being on the lead lap they now found themselves back in contention. With no Compensation Time for the BMW and once the last stops had taken place, they found themselves leap-frogging the Ginetta and into the lead.

Seb Morris and McDermott claimed the runners-up spot despite their spin and completing the podium was the sister Team Parker Mercedes-AMG of Phil Keen and Jon Currie.

GT4 winner #71 Century Motorsport BMW

The next race takes place in Norfolk at the Snetterton circuit for 2x 1 hour races 12th / 13th July.