Next stop Donington Park for British GT

Friday, June 21, 2019


With the multitude of GT racing racing events that are taking place this month, this weekend also sees a swift return to the British GT Championship from Donington Park for their fourth round of their 2019 season.

Having competed at their blue ribband Silverstone 500 event just two weeks ago, forty one cars across the GT3 and GT4 classes are entered into this weekends first of the Championships usual two hour races having so had two rounds of four one hour sprint races and the three hour enduro at Silverstone.


We have obviously had the 24 hours of Le Mans take place between these two events and as a result of a terrifying high speed accident for Marco Sorensen aboard his #95 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE during the night last Saturday, he has been medically advised to sit this race out at Donington as a precautionary measure. His place in the #99 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 will be taken by AMR factory reserve driver Ross Gunn.


At least Gunn and team boss/co driver Andrew Howard will be well versed with each other and the car as their both competed in the Michelin Road to Le Mans races from the Circuit de La Sarthe last weekend where they secured a P2 finish in race two on Sunday morning.

Other than that, there are no visible changes to the #TeamAMR line up with many of the drivers having just returned from France having raced or invited to attend the spectacular that is the LM24 as guests of Aston Martin Racing


Silverstone last time out was something of a bitter/sweet experience, especially for the TF Sport team with two class podiums turning into something of a nightmare for both of these GT3/GT4 crews with Jonny Adam/Graham Davidson's GT3 getting taken out off the lead of the race by a dilly-dallying Ford GT4 on the last lap of the race whilst the GT4 pole setting #95 car of Patrick Kibble and Josh Price ended up with a multitude of drive through penalties for self inflicted errors during the compulsory pit stop schedule. Hopefully lessons have been learned there?!?!

Whereas the #47 and #95 TF Sport cars lost out - sister #2 car of Mark Farmer and Nicki Thiim rekindled their love driving alliance together by securing their first podium of the season with a P2 finish whilst the #97 GT4 of Tom Canning and Ash Hand secured a P2 Silver Cup placing for their troubles.


Optimum Motorsport will arrive looking for some more of the same having had a good run out at Silverstone with two of their three cars where the #96 GT3 car of Ollie Wilkinson and Bradley Ellis extended their lead in the GT3 Silver Cup class with another class win whilst the #75 GT4 of Patrik Matthiesen and Mike Robinson had their best race so far this season with a P3 finish in GT4 after their underlying technical issues earlier this season.

The remaining car of Jack Butel and Connor O'Brien had something of a bruising affair last time out as did both of the Academy Motorsport cars where the #61 car of Ben Hurst was unceremoniously dumped into the gravel trap at Luffield with damage that would ultimately see their retirement from the race with few laps completed. Alex Both-Jones and Will Moore would again have their own issues with contact incurring additional stops to repair the damage that would ultimately cost them any chance of some points this year.


That leaves the #11 car of Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher who are both having an incredible season so far in their new AMR Vantage GT4 that they only saw for the first time at BGT Media Day at Donington Park in late March. Since then they have had Pro-Am podiums at Oulton Park, Snetterton and most recently at Silverstone to lead their championship at this half way stage of the season.


Qualifying for Sundays race again takes place over Saturday afternoon with times from both drivers being used to determine their aggregate time for the grid. Race starts Sunday at 13:10 and will be streamed live via the BGT social media channels.

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey / Steve Jackman



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