An uphill battle now for the three championship contending Aston Martins in British GT

After all the pre-event hype about who could win what within the outstanding classes of the British GT Championship’s final round this weekend from Brands Hatch, the reality of realising just what you have got underneath sometimes paints a differing picture as the three Aston Martin Racing powered crews with championship winning possibilities all now face an uphill battle in tomorrow’s race.

Racing around the full 2.43-mile Grand Prix circuit, the eleven GT4 powered crews and eleven GT3 powered all had two glorious days of track preparation yesterday and today with private testing, Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying before going into those two ten-minute qualifying runs per class this afternoon.

 

Earlier in the day, the sole AMR Vantage GT3 contender from the Beechdean AMR team with drivers Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn ended this morning’s Free Practice with hope, finishing fourth fastest in class but elected to make changes during the next hour-long Free Practice session. Despite being quicker than their last session, so was everyone else and the ended the morning sessions P10 in class.

The #21 MK Racing Vantage GT4 of Will Orton and Jessica Hawkins are also in the mix for both the Overall GT4 Drivers Championship title as well as their own Silver Class title going into this finale, but they finished Free Practice only sixth quickest overall, P4 in class.

Moving into Pre-Qualifying, that followed a similar vein for the duo as another frustrating session went by where they finished that one P7 overall in GT4, but this time P3 in class. Just maybe, they needed to concentrate a little bit more on the task at hand rather than all the TV cameras following them about the paddock today – just a personal observation! We realise that sponsors need their exposure to back up their investment within the team/drivers but there comes a point…………!

 

Having already scooped the GT4 Pro-Am Drivers title at the last round from Donington Park a couple of weeks ago, the #27 Grange Racing with FSR of Dan Lavery and Darren Turner are also in the hunt for the Overall GT4 Drivers Championship as well.

Operating on a completely different mantra to those at MK Racing, this team have been the silent assassins all season, quietly picking off class wins and podiums along the way (despite a poor start at the season opener from Silverstone) to be in the position now that they are. With rumour circulating around of their progression to a Vantage GT3 next season, the team were keeping their own feet firmly on the ground today to go into Qualifying after being P7 overall/P3 in class and P2 overall/P1 in class respectively over the previous two hours of running.

 

Not this time involved in any championship battles leaves us the #40 Townsend Racing and #97 GBR Stratton Motorsport Vantage GT4 entries where change was afoot within the #40 car as just James Townsend was on parade for driving duties this weekend. Not quite sure what has gone on there but the man behind the name was very much on his own today as he and his #40 struggled to stay on the track. Repeated offs through the gravel at Paddock Hill Bend were later added to with a spin at Stirling’s later in the day to further dent and already dented confidence within his car.

Then there is the #97 car of full season entrant John Hartshorne alongside Jordan Collard for only his second race of the year as he filled the gap left by the previous drivers budget enforced departure from the team. Despite looking racey at Donington Park last time out but the #40 and #97 crews struggled for pace today to end the morning at or about the foot of the table.

 

Then came Qualifying……….

GT3 first with Howard running what should be his last top flight session before taking something of a step back from headline racing series which saw him deliver a best lap time some 1.5 seconds off the pace before handing over to Gunn for the second run. Unfortunately for the AMR factory driver, an off at the Clark Curve saw the #007 car nose into the safer barrier to bring out the red flag with just over four minutes remaining.

Fortunately the damage didn’t appear to be significant so we don’t think there is any danger of the crew missing tomorrows race but they will have to chase just that little bit harder if they are to overcome their points deficit in tomorrow’s two hour race from P8 on the grid (P5 in class).

 

Whilst there was a further spin for Townsend at Paddock Hill Bend (also bringing out the red flag), the #27 crew was again the best of the Vantage GT4 qualifiers in P5 overall with the #21 MK Racing AMR on the next row back in seventh. The #40 did still outdo the #97 car to claim P10 with the Hartshorne/Collard car bringing up the rear.

 

Tomorrow’s race is waved off at 13:30hrs local.