+ Father/son duo extend championship lead at penultimate round
+ Century’s BMW leads all-Pro-Am GT4 podium
+ Barwell crowned teams’ champions with race to spare
+ Result: Donington Park
Rob and Ricky Collard took a giant step towards clinching this year’s British GT Championship by winning from pole at Donington, while Ravi Ramyead and Charlie Robertson collected their second GT4 win in three races aboard Century’s BMW.
The father/son duo benefitted from a puncture that restricted their Barwell team-mates and primary title rivals Alex Martin and Sandy Mitchell to fourth. They now lead the standings by 24.5 points with 37.5 still available at the Brands Hatch finale later this month.
Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam scored theirs, Blackthorn AMR’s and the new Aston Martin’s best result of the campaign in second, while Shaun Balfe and Adam Smalley (Garage 59) retained their slim but mathematical championship chances by completing the podium after Team Abba’s Mercedes-AMG retired from third on the penultimate lap.
Further back, Ramyead’s excellent opening stint set up a BMW victory. Charles Dawson and Seb Morris (Team Parker Racing) boosted their title hopes by finishing second but also benefitted points-wise from the post-race penalty that cost Optimum’s Jack Brown and Zac Meakin 30 seconds, third place overall and the championship lead.
Century’s other M4 shared by Ian Gough and Tom Wrigley therefore completed the GT4 podium ahead of Paddock’s Mercedes-AMG and Academy’s #61 Ford, which won the Silver class.
Elsewhere, Barwell wrapped up the GT3 teams’ championship with a race to spare thanks to its fifth win of the season.
GT3: COLLARDS TAKE CONTROL
Cars with 15 seconds of Compensation Time seldom win British GT races. But the Collards upset the odds and grabbed the championship fight by the scruff of the neck by largely dominating from pole.
Their cause was helped by bad luck befalling the two entries that, in qualifying trim at least, looked most likely to challenge them.
The first significant moment occurred at Redgate on the opening lap when Kevin Tse’s 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG, which started alongside Collard Snr, spun and lost a lap whilst waiting to be dragged clear of the gravel trap.
Martin duly moved up to second and worked with Collard to gap Mike Price during the early stages. The combination of their pace and the Greystone GT driver’s battle with almost everyone else helped the Lamborghinis quickly break clear and largely negate #63’s extra pitstop time.
Martin slipped back a little as the pitstops approached, but he was still on course to jump his team-mate until a puncture forced an unscheduled tyre change outside of the window. The delay dropped #78 to sixth and gifted Collard a 28-second lead over Petrobelli who’d move from seventh to second during the first hour.
Blackthorn’s progress was aided by a good start, Tse’s spin, RAM’s early retirement and Price dropping back, but there was no answer for the pace of Collard whose son emerged with a 14-second lead despite serving the extra Compensation Time.
Petrobelli, meanwhile, made way for Adam who slowly but surely began to edge closer. The gap was down to nine seconds at one stage before going back out to 11, at which point a GT4 accident, lengthy Full Course Yellow period and subsequent Safety Car raised the prospect of a grandstand finish.
However, GT4 traffic between the Huracan and Vantage prevented Adam from pressurising Collard at the restart, and Ricky duly reeled off the final two laps unopposed to extend his and Rob’s championship lead from five to 24.5 points.
Blackthorn’s crew were still delighted to score their best result of the season, while Balfe and Smalley – who set fastest lap – also enjoyed a clean race to finish right on the Aston’s tail after starting eighth. They must now win at Brands, and hope the Collards fail to score, to have any hope of clinching the title.
That they remain contenders at all owes something to a brake failure that sent Sam Neary into the McLeans tyre wall on the penultimate lap. It was an unfortunate end for Abba’s Mercedes-AMG which started 14th but moved forward throughout the opening stint thanks to Richard Neary whose full-send to pass Balfe at Redgate was arguably move of the race.
Mitchell’s around-the-outside effort on Phil Keen at the Melbourne Hairpin ran Neary’s manoeuvre close. But that, and Abba’s retirement, could yet prove decisive in this year’s championship fight. Fourth place instead of sixth gained the crew five crucial points.
Keen and Ian Loggie brought their new 2 Seas Porsche home fifth, while Carl Cavers/Lewis Plato (Century BMW) and Andrew Howard/Jessica Hawkins (Beechdean AMR) completed the Silver-Am podium behind Balfe/Smalley in sixth and seventh. Paddock’s McLaren shared by Mark Smith and Martin Plowman rounded out the top eight despite a trip through the gravel trap to avoid Tse and a spin triggered by Garage 59’s 720S.
GT4: CENTURY STRIKES AGAIN
Ramyead and Robertson scored their second win in three races after a masterful performance at Donington Park where the duo led home an all-Pro-Am podium.
With the first half of the race proving a closely fought affair, Ramyead’s superb opening stint kept Century’s BMW within sight of the outright leaders before the team benefitted from their shorter mandatory pit stop to vault into a clear lead when Robertson took over. The result also marks Century’s third win in the last four races following victories at Spa-Francorchamps and Snetterton, as well as a perfect birthday present for team boss Nathan Freke.
The opening stages looked like a straight fight between Mikey Porter and Jamie Day’s Forsetti Aston Martin and DTO Motorsport’s Ginetta shared by Aston Millar and Freddie Tomlinson. But the pair’s infighting prevented either car from escaping the pack, opening the door for the Pro-Am chasers to strike. In a further twist, neither the Forsetti nor DTO cars would ultimately score strongly after separate issues later befell both.
Porter led the opening laps from pole but with Millar chasing him hard. The Ginetta made several moves for the lead, including getting alongside at Melbourne more than once, before eventually making a pass stick shortly before the pit window opened.
But once out front Millar could only open a lead of a few seconds by the time the stops began. At this point Ramyead ran fifth, just over 10 seconds off the lead. And, with Silver crews having to spend an extra 24 seconds stationary in their stops against the Pro-Ams, that was enough to hand Robertson a comfortable advantage after the swaps. He then controlled the gap and navigated the late Safety Car restart to secure a comfortable victory.
Trouble for each of the former race leaders shuffled the order further. First, Forsetti suffered a slow pitstop before Day was pushed off by a GT3 at Redgate and then clouted the chicane’s tyre stack. But things were worse for DTO when Tomlinson suffered a scary accident at Melbourne after an apparent brake failure that prompted the lengthy caution period. He thankfully walked away unscathed.
Through the drama, Dawson and Morris were elevated to second. Dawson kept things (largely) clean despite whacking the chicane’s tyre stack before handing over to Morris in seventh. He rejoined third, which then became second following Tomlinson’s accident.
Third place was only decided post-race after a penalty was applied to Optimum’s erstwhile championship-leading McLaren. Zac Meakin and Jack Brown ran within the lead pack throughout, and a late charge from Brown helped the car vault to third after the restart. However, he was later handed a 30-second penalty in lieu of a drive through for speeding under the Full Course Yellow.
That promoted Century’s second BMW of Gough and Wrigley to third overall, just ahead of the Paddock Mercedes-AMG shared by Ed McDermott and Matt Cowley.
Evans and Signoretti inherited the Silver class victory in fifth overall despite having to serve a stop-go for a short pit stop. Luca Hopkinson and Harry George completed the top six in their RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG.
Those results have had a profound effect on the overall standings heading into the final round. Porter and Day now lead Meakin and Brown by 3.5 points despite only finishing seventh, while Dawson and Morris have jumped back into serious contention four points further back. Their Pro-Am class rivals Marc Warren and Will Orton finished outside of the points for the first time this season thanks to an early puncture but remain overall as well as Pro-Am title contenders.
Brands Hatch hosts this year’s British GT finale – and championship showdown – on September 28/29.
