Another decent weekend for the Vantage GT3 and GT4 platform in British GT (updated)
Sunday, July 14, 2024
With the Beechdean AMR team sitting this one out, the AMR mantel was being carried by the two Vantage GT3 cars of the Blackthorn AMR team whilst the locally based Forsetti Motorsport team did likewise within GT4.
Thankfully, the rain of Friday night and Saturday morning had long since passed the Norfolk track as both of Sunday’s races took place under ideal conditions although the day did remain overcast and breezy.
Qualifying would see each driver set their respective starting positions and parity was established for race one as both the #10 and #87 Blackthorn cars would start P4 within each of their Silver-Am and Pro-Am classes respectively as would both Forsetti GT4’s would start P2 within their Silver and Pro-Am classes.
As relatively clean start would see good pace within the GT4 class whilst the #87 of Giacomo Petrobelli would move up to P4 on track whilst the #10 car of Matt Topham would drop to P10 overall just ahead of the pit stop window.
Missing their time marker by just a second was enough to destroy the chances of the #10 car as Jonny Adam would be forced to serve a drive through penalty whilst the sister #10 car moved up to P7 once the #87 pitted to serve that penalty.
The two Forsetti cars meanwhile were again running strongly, not strong enough to contend with the race leading Ginetta but with silver additional time for the #7 car of Jamie Day and Mikey Porter and success time penalties for the #47 Pro-Am car of Marc Warren and Will Orton – the running order would change by the time the pit window closed.
How it all panned out was for the #10 Vantage GT3 of Matt Topham and Josh Rowledge to win their second visit to the podium with a Silver-Am P3 finish (the #87 car would finish P12 overall (P8 in class) whilst the two Vantage GT4 runners would scope more championship points by finishing P4 overall for the #7 car (P2 in Silver Cup) with the #47 finishing P5 overall in GT4 (P3 in Pro-Am).
Just a couple of hours later, it was time to do it all again with the second driver per car this time taking the start.
Again, it was an orderly queue through the opening sequence of corners as the #10, #7 and #47 Aston Martins all started from similar grid positions of race one with the #87 car of Adam uncharacteristically down the order in P10 overall having also lost laps in Qualifying due to track limits.
There was opening drama for the Race 1 winning Ginetta and chasing BMW effectively took each other out of the race at only the end of the opening lap and that allowed each Forsetti GT4 crew to otherwise concentrate their efforts on chasing the pacey #90 McLaren Altura from their 3rd and 4th in class as both Rowledge and Adam struggled up front towards the rear of the GT3 pack.
At the start of the pit window, the #87 car of Adam was P11 overall and the #10 car of Rowledge was still P14 but the two Forsetti cars were still P3 and P4 albeit with the ‘lesser’ Pro-Am pairing within the #47 car ahead of the silver classed #7 car.
With just over a quarter of an hour remaining, a Safety Car was called to retrieve a second car stranded just off track on the infield and whilst that counted off for a lot of race time remaining it also closed the pack up again for the final five minutes.
Whilst good for the two AMR GT3 crews ahead looking to pass for position, it wasn’t so good for the two AMR GT4 crews looking to defend as there was the inevitable contact between cars at the restart.
Fortunately, not affecting the four Aston Martin Racing powered runners, the quick run to the flag saw the #87 car eventually finish P7 overall (P6 in class) with their sister #10 car finishing P12 overall (P4 in class).
It was better however in GT4 as the #78 car scooped another P2 overall (P2 in class) with the #47 crew improving to take another P3 overall finish to win their Pro-Am class again.
Fortunately, not affecting the four Aston Martin Racing powered runners, the quick run to the flag saw the #87 car eventually finish P7 overall (P6 in class) with their sister #10 car finishing P12 overall (P4 in class).
It was better however in GT4 as the #78 car scooped another P2 overall (P2 in class) with the #47 crew improving to take another P3 overall finish to win their Pro-Am class again.
The next round of the Championship takes the teams back to Donington Park at the start of September.
UPDATED
The application of several post race penalties and event disqualifications have improved the finishing positions with the #10 car moving up to P6 overall / P3 in class till in race one with the #87 car now being listed as finishing P11 overall - P7 in class. The #7 Forsetti car is now listed as P3 overall - P2 in class with the #47 now listed as finishing P5 overall - P3 in class.
Race 2 sees the #10 car now P9/P4 and the #87 now P5/P4. In GT4, the results stay the same for both the Forsetti GT4 crews.
Forsetti Motorsport were also later confirmed as 2024 GT4 Teams Champions.
Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey (podium shots)
Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey (podium shots)