Podiums won and champions made in British Gas visit to Donington Park

 

Donington Park in the British GT Championship this weekend was never quite the old #doningtondecider that it has become renowned for in recent rounds as this weekend was just the penultimate round to the season, but class championships were still there to be won.

With Qualifying having been ran yesterday, the #007 Beechdean Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn had had a challenging time against their peers to secure their P7 overall/ P5 in Pro-Am starting position but all four Vantage GT4 crews had benefitted from the disqualification of the three Ginetta cars for their ride height technical infringement.

 

That elevated the #27 Grange Racing AMR of Dan Lavery and Darren Turner up to the head of the AMR pack in their P2 overall start with the #21 MK Racing AMR of Will Orton and Jessica Hawkins just behind. The #97 GBR Stratton AMR of John Hartsorne and a season debuting appearance of Jordan Collard next P7 in class with the #40 Townsend entry of James Townsend and Joe Wheeler just behind them in eighth out of a combined grid size of just twenty-three cars.

Just before the start of this penultimate two-hour race, Mother Nature threw in her curved ball with a short but torrential downpour, particularly around the second half of the lap that forced many to opt for the full wet tyre over that of the slick as a choice of being between a rock and a hard place considering the track conditions.

 

Miraculously, the opening laps were without major incident or accident beyond that of the expected first few corners panel bashing between cars as Howard retained his starting position but both Lavery and Orton dropped a couple of places upon that opening lap. The first spinner wasn’t too far away as the Ferrari GT3 dropped a wheel off the track but was fortunately able to recover itself to the track without the need of further intervention.

Ten minutes in and the wet shod cars were already looking for the wetter sections of the track as a distinctive dry line was rapidly forming as the rain had now long since passed as the GT3 leaders were soon upon the heels of the GT4 class. The first significant incident on track came at the half hour mark when the delayed Ferrari founds itself in the way of the leading GT3 cars who were also lapping other GT4 cars which saw both the Ferrari and a Lamborghini spinning off into the gravel after the Lambo had hist the Ferrari into a spin. Again – both cars were able to recover themselves onto track without race interrupting intervention.

 

The #27 car of Lavery was an early pit visitor to change from wets and onto slicks, still just half-way through his opening hour-long stint as the transition between wets or slicks being quickest on the rapidly drying track had been reached as the slick runners were now six seconds per lap quicker. The #007 and #40 AMR’s of Howard and Townsend had similar ideas too.

Just ahead of the start to the pit window, the first (and thankfully only significant) incident took place at the hairpin when the GT3 Pro-Am Championship leading McLaren lost the back end of his car going into the braking zone to then turn and knock into the pole setting BMW GT3 to take both cars out of the race. What followed was an equally scary moment for Howard who spun around at the same position to thankfully pass the #77 McLaren by through the gravel. No contact made and Howard was able to rejoin and complete his stint before handing over to Gunn whilst fifth overall – P3 in class.

 

That allowed the four AMR Vantage GT4 crews to complete their compulsory stops where their faster drivers would now be aboard. Lavery had done his stuff as he handed over to AMR factory driver Turner whilst importantly holding onto their Pro-Am class lead thanks to their early change from wets. On the flip side, the #21 MK Racing AMR crew would see their silver class championship aspirations take a knock as Orton was served with a drive through penalty for speeding in pit lane during their stop – who was liable for that was inconsequential.

After the GT4 stops, the race action on track kind of died down a bit as gaps became insurmountable on track but errors on track still came with a consequence as the #42 Pro-Am contending Ginetta was first given a DTP of their own for track limits before having to visit pit lane again with unknown issues – that all fell in favour of the #27 crew and their championship hopes.

 

Going into the final minutes of the race, the #007 Beechdean was still looking good for another podium finish in class at least as they would come home fourth overall – P3 in class whilst the GT4 field would see two of the four cars finish in similar positions.

Whilst the #27 crew would win the Pro-Am class and clinch the class championship win as a result of the issues with the #42 car, the #40 AMR of Townsend/Wheeler would finish P3 within GT4 Pro-Am but a post-race check would see the car disqualified from the results for a technical infringement where the #97 GBR Stratton car of Hartshorne and Collard would benefit.

 

The final race of the season will be from Brands Hatch in two weeks’ time and will be where the final championship titles will be decided.

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey