Another good weekend for GT Cup Championship contenders

Tuesday, July 03, 2018


Snetterton was again a very productive race meeting for the two Aston Martin Racing teams competing for  both the overall championship win and their respective classes in the fourth round of the GT Cup championship.

Hudmotorsport's Nigel Hudson and Adam Wilcox looked particularly racey after a successful round last time out at Spa Francorchamps where Hudson secured his first race win of the season. Meanwhile, Whitebridge AMR would turn up with their latest V8 Vantage GT4 acquisition for team boss Chris Murphy and No2 Adam Hatfield to help strengthen their own class position after two previous rounds aboard a Ginetta.


Being another particularly hot early summer weekend, the the scheduled races would all be about stamina both with the car and within the car itself as cockpit temperatures would soar throughout the day and with the higher track temperatures bringing the added headache of not over doing the Pirelli control tyres as well.

The meeting started well for both cars, each ending the meetings only Free Practice session on top of the timing board for the #12 Hudmotorsport car and P1 in the GTH Class for the #72 Whitebridge AMR car. In Qualifying for race one, that equated to P2 for Hudson and P1 in class for Hatfield.

Over the course of the next twenty five minutes it was a case of slowly watching the leading #7 Mosler  disappear into the distance for Hudson as the older and more powerful car was more adapt at exiting the corners than the nearly as old Vantage, but like any championship it is consistency that holds the key leaving Hudson in a comfortable P2 slot at the end of the race. It was a similar case for Hatfield who lead the GT4 type classes around the 2.9mile circuit from start to finish to claim GTH honours and fastest lap in class.


With the grid for Race 2 being formed from the prior race's finishing positions it was another front row start for the #12 Vantage GT3, and with battle plans having been made with Hudson after advice from team Pro Wilcox the gap between them was at least smaller than in Race 1. Unfortunately a late spin for Hudson again put pay to all his prior work dropping him down to third overall and second in class at the end. 

With Murphy in the #72 car for race 2 he would have a tougher race as (?) tyre degradation would see his car (know to be quick throughout the weekend until now) finish at the tail end of the field - although still P3 in class and therefore another podium!


Race 3 of their weekend on Sunday would be the longer - mandatory pit stop race involving the second (usually Pro) driver the car may have and in the case of the #12 car it would be Hudson starting before handing over to Wilcox for the run to the flag from their P2 starting position. Although having not run during the Sunday morning warm up, the #72 Murphy/Hatfield car would starting from P9 overall but P1 in class in the reduced entry of just 11 runners.

The race started with the more powerful Moser again pulling an early lead from the #12 car but this time it would be long until the #7 car hit technical issues just after the pitstops that allowed Wilcox to easily pass it and control the race to those behind him for another race win of the season as well as the fastest lap.

The honour of the top step also befell the Whitebridge AMR crew as they also claimed another class win and fastest lap - a result that would see their GTH Class lead consolidated by nearly 50 points but also start to make gains on the #12 car in the overall championship honours to just six points. For the #12 car themselves, Snetterton's race results see them stay in P2 overall (15 points behind the leader) but move to over 60 points ahead in the GTO class.


Next round of the season is from Oulton Park in two weeks time.

Photo credits - Steve Jackman









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