Another three hour enduro in store for the five Aston Martin runners in British GT at Donington Park this weekend
Tuesday, May 21, 2024
After the three-hour round of the Silverstone 500 four weeks ago, the British GT Championship is again back out on track at Donington Park this weekend for another three-hour marathon.
The enhanced forty-one car entry of last time has reduced slightly to this weekend’s thirty-eight cars with the five full season Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 and GT4 teams again being part of that.
The latest entry list confirms the presence of the two Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 cars of Matt Topham and Josh Rowledge aboard their #10 Silver-Am entry as well as the sister #87 Pro-Am entry of Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam. They will be joined by the new for 2024 Silver-Am pairing of Andrew Howards and Jessica Hawkins aboard the #97 Beechdean AMR entry within a class size of twenty cars.
Then within the GT4 class we of course have the potent combination of Mikey Porter and Jamie Day within the Silver class with their #7 car as well as Marc Warren and Will Orton aboard their #47 Pro-Am entry within the eighteen strong class entry.
Results from Silverstone didn’t go in favour of the Vantage GT3 runners with the #87 Blackthorn entry being the highest placed AMR finish in P8 overall (after post-race penalties had been adjusted for) whilst both the #10 and #97 cars finished towards the rear of the GT3 results due to various mechanical and driver related reasons. All will be looking at this weekend’s race to address those issues.
In GT4 however, things are going a lot better for both the Forsetti crews after class podium results were earned by both crews at the season opening races at Oulton Park before securing an overall P2 finish in GT4 (and in Silver) for the #7 car with an overall P5 (P3 in GT4 Pro-Am) finish for the #47 car.
These results leave the #7 Forsetti crew at the head of the overall GT4 Drivers Championship with a slender 2.5-point lead whilst the #47 crew sit just below them in P4 (22 points behind). Porter and Day also lead their Silver Class by 3.5 points whilst Warren and Orton lay third within their Pro-Am class, 18.5 point behind the present leaders. Then Snetterton based team also retain a healthy lead within the GT4 Teams Championship standings.
These results also give the #7 another additional fifteen seconds at one of their scheduled three pit stops as their success penalty for their Silverstone result.
Track action at Donington Park begins Thursday with private testing before Free Practice and individual Qualifying on Saturday ahead of a 13:00hrs (local) race start on Sunday.
