British GT back in business this weekend after their summer break with two sprint races from Snetterton

 

After what feels like a lifetime since their last round, the British GT Championship is back in town this weekend as their GT3 and Gt4 based grid reconvene at the somewhat parched Snetterton circuit in Norfolk for two more fast and furious sprint races.

In reality, that last round at Spa Francorchamps back in June was still some eight weeks ago in late June where the British GT grid of twenty five cars shared the Belgian circuit with the cars from the French FFSA GT4 Series to create at best, a very interesting racing environment for many or at worst, a platform where the ‘lesser’ driver in the smallest of cars could not stand with the much faster GT3 cars thundering passed them leading to multiple yellow flag incidents on track.

 

That being said, the #27 Grange Racing AMR Vantage GT4 Pro-Am pairing of Dan Lavery and Darren Turner had nothing to fear as that duo continued their rapid rise up the class order to win at Spa.

The sole AMR Vantage GT3 entry from the Beechdean AMR squad for drivers Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn were looking well placed within that race to continue their healthy points haul in the championship so far but for some unforced errors on track that saw post-race time penalties ultimately drop them down the order to eventually finish fifth.

 

It was a similar tale for the #21 MK Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Jessica Hawkins and Will Orton which saw an off-track experience for Hawkins during qualifying leave Orton unable to run his laps leaving their car at the back of the British GT GT4 class for the start of the race. As expected, being a silver/silver pairing, they did rise up the order to also eventually finish fifth in class at the end.

That left both the Pro-Am GT4 pairing of Joe Wheeler/James Townsend in their #40 Townsend Racing by Fox Motorsport entry plus the #97 GBR Stratton AMR Vantage GT4 Evo entry of John Hartshorne and Ronan Pearson to lament upon what might have been after numerous errors (of their own and others) left them slightly lower down the class order but with both crews still securing valuable class points.

 

Going into this weekend’s two, one-hour sprint races on Sunday, the #007 Beechdean GT3 crew still lie third within the GT3 Pro-Am Drivers Championship but have now slipped to sixth within the Overall GT3 Drivers order whilst both the #21 MK Racing and #27 Grange Racing pairings remain strong contenders within the top four of the Overall GT4 Drivers Championship whilst also being 1st or 2nd within their respective classes.

Proving that consistency is the key within any championship, the #97 GBR Stratton crew presently sit fourth within their GT4 Pro-Am class, just ten and a half points behind the more race headline winning #27 crew with the #40 Townsend crew just a further eight points back behind them. The points availability this weekend will undoubtedly change all of the above at some point.

 

With an Amber weather alert for heat already in situ for this Thursday, events at Snetterton this weekend will be very hot for one reason or another with just how drivers and teams manage themselves in what will be some very uncomfortable conditions on both pit lane and the track. The same will go for their tyre allocation.

Private testing will again be available to the teams on Friday before the more formal track sessions beginning on Saturday.

Photo credits – Teams / Jacob Ebrey / social media