• Bavarian brand holds sizeable advantage over chasing pack
• Porsche leads Toyota, Aston Martin and Mercedes-AMG in close fight for second
• Global standings after 35 races
A sustained run of strong showings from its customer teams around the world has helped BMW to establish a commanding lead at the top of the GT4 Manufacturer Ranking table.
The Bavarian brand clinched the inaugural title last year and already appears to be on course to defend its crown. With 35 of 100 races in the books its closest challenger Porsche is down by 193 points, a gap that has more than doubled since the middle of May. There have been plenty of opportunities to score of late, none more so than the weekend of 26/27 April, which saw a quartet of GT4 series in action.
The foundation of BMW’s success is consistency: it has scored well on a metronomic basis, whereas its rivals’ results have been more variable. For instance, when ADAC GT4 Germany staged its season opener at Oschersleben, Mercedes-AMG was the form brand. Enrico Förderer and Jay Mo Härtling marked themselves out as early championship favourites, taking both race wins aboard their SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm entry. BMW, meanwhile, earned best finishes of sixth and seventh across the two races.
It faired considerably better in British GT as Century Motorsport claimed victory in the championship's blue riband Silverstone 500. Double global points are available for all three-hour races and BMW made the most of this one thanks to Ravi Ramyead and Charlie Robertson who prevailed over the Optimum Motorsport McLaren and sister BMW M4 GT4 EVO. With the best of the Porsche contingent coming home fifth, there was a significant points swing towards BMW.
GT America powered by AWS and Pirelli GT4 America were both at Circuit of the Americas on the packed 26/27 April weekend. In the former, Anthony McIntosh (JTR) and Max Hewitt (Van der Steur) shared the wins for Toyota and Aston Martin respectively, while BMW banked a pair of P3 finishes thanks to Denny Stripling (Fast Track).
Pirelli GT4 America completed the weekend with its longest race of the season, the three-hour Lone Star Enduro. RAFA Racing Team emerged as the overall winners after a stellar showing from its Toyota pairing of Gresham Wagner and Tyler Gonzalez, who beat the BimmerWorld BMW and Archangel Motorsports' Aston Martin.
With the quadruple-header complete, the next two weekends featured one meeting a piece. The Monochrome GT4 Australia grid is booming this year, with 28 cars on the entry list for its 3/4 May round at Sydney Motorsports Park. Max Geoghegan and Tom Hayman won the opening contest in Method Motorsport's McLaren, beating Mercedes-AMG entries from Triple Eight and Gomersall Motorsport respectively.
Race 2 produced an entirely different podium. Miedecke Motorsport prevailed with its Ford Mustang, driven by Rylan Gray and George Miedecke, who emerged ahead of an Ashley Seward Motorsport BMW and the TekworkX Porsche. Mercedes-AMG topped the weekend scoring charts, with McLaren and Ford not far behind.
The FFSA French GT Championship visited Dijon on 10/11 May for its second round of the season. In the opening contest, Stanislav Safronov and Aleksandr Vaintrub claimed victory in their Mirage Racing Aston Martin. The weekend’s second outing marked the 100th FFSA GT race run to GT4 rules, and so it was fitting that the win went to Olivier Jouffret and Éric Trémoulet in their Vic’Team Porsche. Jouffret and Trémoulet are the only pairing on this season’s grid that also competed in the first French GT4 race more than eight years ago.
The weekend stoked hopes of a challenge to BMW’s dominance. With no M4 entries on the French grid, Porsche was able to reduce the deficit at the top to 81 points, while Aston Martin and Mercedes-AMG also closed the gap and bolstered their own hopes of a fightback. But the BMW juggernaut moved through the gears on the triple-header weekend of 17/18 May, when the GT4 European Series powered by RAFA Racing Club travelled to Zandvoort and Sebring played host to GT America and Pirelli GT4 America.
The Pirelli GT4 America meeting was a BMW whitewash as Random Vandals scored a brace of one-two finishes, Kevin Boehm and Kenton Koch prevailing in both 60-minute races. Toyota was the second-best scorer, followed by Aston Martin and then Porsche. Anthony McIntosh swept the GT America weekend in his JTR-run Toyota, beating Michael Fitzpatrick's 89x Aston Martin in both races.
Audi continues to perform extremely well on the European stage. Team Speedcar duo Benjamin Lariche and Robert Consani were runners-up in Race 1 and claimed victory in Race 2 to ensure that the Ingolstadt marque bagged the biggest haul of points at the Dutch track. Ford also scored well by winning the opener with Academy Motorsport’s Erik Evans and Marco Signoretti. A pair of fourth place finishes ensured BMW made gains over Porsche, which was the lowest scoring of the eight brands.
British GT staged its third meeting of the season at Oulton Park on 25/26 May, and its first to feature a pair of sprint races. Nevertheless, there was only one winner: McLaren secured a double victory thanks to the Optimum Motorsport duo of Marc Warren and Jack Brown, while the sister Hopkinson/George car made it a one-two in the second outing.
Porsche regained a little ground when Monochrome GT4 Australia staged its third event of the season at Queensland Raceway on 31 May/1 June. A dramatic opening contest was brought to a premature end by a spectacular crash, handing victory to Cody Burcher and Tim Leahey in their Seward-run BMW. Rylan Gray and George Miedecke took the second race in their Miedecke Mustang, surviving multiple safety car restarts to secure top spot.
Despite surrendering a handful of points in Australia, BMW retains a substantial advantage at the head of the standings. Its tally of 714 puts the Bavarian brand 193 clear of Porsche (521), which is chased by Toyota (442), Aston Martin (425), Mercedes-AMG (409), and McLaren (396). Audi (242) and Ford (207) complete the table after 35 of 100 races.
Japan Cup becomes the ninth and final series to launch when it goes racing at Sugo on 7/8 June. This will be followed by the first off weekend of the season on 14/15 June, after which Spa-Francorchamps takes centre stage by hosting British GT and FFSA GT during Spa Speedweek (21/22 June), and then GT4 Europe as part of the 77th CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa (28/29 June). July is even busier, with seven of the nine series in action across the globe. If BMW can retain its advantage to this juncture, its march to the title may be unstoppable.
