Margins tighten as the British GT Championship reaches its penultimate round at Brands Hatch this weekend
Tuesday, September 06, 2022
Five rounds done and just two to go - it’s all hotting up within the British GT Championship as the teams make their way to Brands Hatch for the penultimate two-hour race of the season before we find out whether the next takes on its old mantel of the #DoningtonDecider again.
The last round of the season from Spa Francorchamps way back at the end of July brought about a memorable event for the two Aston Martin Racing powered Vantage GT4 crews of Matt Topham/Darren Turner of Newbridge Motorsport and Jamie Day/Josh Miller of R-Racing as both secured race wins in class to maintain their Championship possibilities.
Whilst the #23 R-Racing crew enjoyed an emphatic overall GT4 class win at their first collective visit to the circuit and the #27 Newbridge a Pro-Am Class win, the latter had to settle for another finish behind their overall GT4 Drivers Champiosnhip contenders within the #42 Stellar Motorsport Audi.
Due to a protest within the GT3 field as to the results of Spa, the Championship results are yet to be updated by the series even though this protest will not affect the finishing order within the GT4 field, making for a battle royale at the head of the pack with two to go.
Still leading the overall class, Topham and Turner now lead Day and Miller by just one point with the Audi crew of Sennan Fielding and Richard Williams only another point further back so a good result for any of these crews will obviously have a strong impact into the possibilities of the Donington finale.
With the long period of hot and dry weather now seemingly coming to an end, it may be that track conditions will have a further impact this weekend with thundery showers now becoming a common theme over the south-east of the country.
Free Practice and Qualifying will again take place on Saturday before morning warm up early on Sunday morning ahead of a 13:30 start for the race with the race also being streamed live via the Championships social media channels.
Also joining the fray for the first time this year will be Andrew Howard who will be competing with the Sky Tempesta Racing Team with their Mercedes AMG GT3 before a much-welcomed return to the Championship next time round at Donington with his AMR Vantage GT3.
Photo credit - Jacob Ebrey (podium shot)
