One will be for their already declared GTH Class champions in Mikey Porter as he again pairs up with Sam Nesser within the #9 car having debuted together last time out at Donington Park, before which Porter was paired alongside Matthew Higgins.

Whilst their GTH class is already in the bag, there is still a remote chance that the crew could secure the Overall Drivers Championship as well if results go in the favour across the weekends pairs of sprint and pit stop races over Saturday and Sunday as they remain just fifty points behind the Topcats Racing Lamborghini GTC classed car.

The provisional entry list also details an as yet unidentified driver line up within their #10 car for this final round as well as you see today on social media of a possible return of a previous GT Cup stalwart team with something rather new – but that is rather their news to release than ours.

So we will have to wait and see!

Photo credit – Teams / series / social media

Starting the season with two such cars with Mikey Porter racing the #9 car alongside Matthew Higgins whilst Rianna O’Meara-Hunt partnered Jodie Sloss with the sister #10 entry.

Since Oulton Park in June when the team elected not to take part due to other GT4 commitments abroad, the #10 entry has since dropped by the wayside as their drivers seek challenges new elsewhere, but the #9 car did return with Porter and Higgins with an all-new crew aboard the #10 car last time out at Silverstone.

This weekend’s entry list, however, lists just the solo #9 Forsetti with Porter being joined by an as yet undefined co-driver within the expected sixteen strong field for this weekend two sprint and two pit stop races.

Championship wise, Porter and Higgins have now dropped to third within the overall Championship table (now forty-six points behind) whilst they remain 118 points clear in their GTH class from their teammates in the #10 car.

Photo credit – GT Cup

Having skipped the previous round of this championship at Oulton Park due to clashing commitments in Europe, the Norfolk based team again fielded a slightly differing crew within their second car alongside that of Mikey Porter and Matthew Higgins aboard the #9 car. Instead of the all-female crew, it was a first time run out for British Endurance Championship racer Sam Neser alongside that of their British GT GT4 racer Will Orton.

Returning to their usual format of one sprint race for the lesser qualified driver and one longer pit stop punctuated race for the driver pairing over both Saturday and Sunday, both crews could do no wrong (although Howard did suffer an early spin in one race) before recovering to claim an overall P2 (P1 in GT3) for the #97 car of Howard and a team 1-2 in the GTH class for the #9 and #10 Forsetti cars respectively.

That was backed up within the first endurance race where the #97 claimed another overall P2 (P1 in class) but the Forsetti cars swapped finishing orders to claim overall P11 and P12 finishes for another 1-2 in class.

Sunday’s opening endurance race followed a similar vein as the #97 crew again completed an overall P2 (P1 in GT3) finish ahead of another Forsetti 1-2 crews in GTH – this time with the #9 car again taking top honours.

The only fly in that ointment was an incident early in in their fourth and final race of the weekend where the #10 Forsetti car of Neser suffered front end damage (from a possible collision with another car on the opening lap) for an untimely DNF that unfortunately blotted an otherwise clean race sheet for a GT4 debut. That didn’t stop either remaining Aston Martin who each claimed another top step visit to the podium in class.

The next round of the GT Cup will be from Donington Park in mid-September whilst both teams (differing crews) will be back in action within the British GT Championship from Donington Park in the first week of September.

Photo credits – Team / series / Jacob Ebrey

Having missed the last two sprint races of the Championship around the Snetterton 300 circuit in Norfolk through ‘prior commitment’, the #97 crew of Howard and Jessica Hawkins also had a very brief racing experience of the Spa Francorchamps round having been taken out of the proceedings at the first corner.

For this weekend, Howard will again be under the dutiful tutelage of Darren Turner for the two sprint - two pit stop punctuated races.

The other news comes from within the Forsetti Motorsport camp and the #9 AMR Vantage GT4 car of Mikey Porter and Matthew Higgins reunite again having missed the previous round after their decision to compete within the GT4 European Series at Spa instead, the weekend after their British GT round.

The teams #10 car, however, is again not populated by either Jody Sloss or Rianna O’Meara-Hunt - we know that Sloss would be tied up again with her F1 duties over in Belgium, but we’re not sure about O’Meara-Hunt.

Their places will be taken by one of their #47 British GT racers in Will Orton (this time) who will share the car with team debutant and Fiesta racer Sam Nesser.

The race format to the weekend will see a return to their usual two sprint – two pit stop punctuated rounds per day preceded by Qualifying each day. Having missed the last round, the #9 crew have now lost their overall points lead but do still retain the GTH Class lead from their #10 car stablemates.

Photo credits – Teams / series / social media

That leaves Matthew Higgins and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt to pair together within the teams #9 car for this weekend’s two pit stop races on Saturday only this time.

Recent results from Donington Park, Brands Hatch and most recently Snetterton has seen both Porter and Higgins lead both the Overall and GTH Class Champiosnhip tables with both O’Meara-Hunt and Sloss close behind in fifth within the Overall table and second in class.

Track action begins with just fifteen minutes of Free Practice before descending into two Qualifying runs ahead of the later forty-minute races.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

Coming into the round at the head of both the Overall and GTH Class Championship tables, the #9 car of Mikey Porter and Matthew Higgins certainly didn’t appear to show any effects of pressure being exerted onto their young shoulders even as the guesting #50 MKH Racing AMR Vantage of Peter Montague and Stuart Hall tried to steal their limelight during Saturday Free Practice.

At the end of the first sprint race, the Forsetti team brought home another team 1-2 as Porter beat O’Meara-Hunt home before she and Warren took a step further up the podium for their first class win of the year at the end of the first pit stop race. Still claiming a P4 in class, race two was to be an effective DNF for the #7 car after technical issues.

Sundays opening pitstop race was of a similar vein as the #7 car had been fixed overnight sufficiently to allow Porter and Higgins to power home to another class win with the #10 car again in hot pursuit in second. Roles were reversed in the final sprint race of the weekend as the experienced Warren out foxed the much young Higgins to claim his first class win aboard the older 17A version of the Vantage GT4.

Having faltered just a little bit over the weekend, Porter and Higgins still lead both the Overall and GTH class lead (just in the case of the former) as the Championship now looks to Oulton Park at the end of the month.

Photo credits – Teams / Championship

Brands Hatch saw the #9 pairing of Mikey Porter and Matthew Higgins pull off a new perfect four class wins out of the four available races, but the young duo did have to make do with just three wins and a class third for their efforts within their GTH class.

Those results kept the pairing at the head of both the Overall Championship table as well as their GTH Class.

Meanwhile, the teams all female driver line of Jodie Sloss and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt did lose ground to their team-mates within the class as they had to make do with just the one class podium at the end of Sundays sprint race alongside a P5 and P6 finishes in class before that. What really hurt them was being cut from the results of the final race after they were adjudged to have been responsible for an earlier inter-car collision that took the other vehicle out of the race.

Unlike Brands Hatch, the ‘home’ track of Snetterton should also come as no surprise for Kiwi O’Meara-Hunt as she has already tested at the circuit this year during a team/sponsor day a few weeks ago.

Photo credits – GT Cup / Team

For the all-female crew of Jodie Sloss and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt and their #10 car entry, things were a little more difficult – particularly for Kiwi racer O’Meara-Hunt having never seen the Grand Prix circuit until the opening sessions on Saturday.

Despite her naivety, two solid finishes on Saturday (P5 and P6 in class) for the opening sprint and endurance races improved to another Forsetti 1-2 in class after the first race of Sunday although the car was excluded from the final race of the day having been given responsibility for a mid-race collision.

Despite that, the #9 car still retains a healthy class lead within the GTH Champiosnhip with the #10 in third as the Championship looks towards the third round at Snetterton in just under two weeks time.

In the meantime, the team are back in action this weekend at the third round of the British GT Championship from Donington Park.

Photo credits – Team / Social media

This weekend’s second round will see the two older 17A versions of the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 again do battle over the two solo and two pit stop/driver change punctuated races amongst a class of eight GT4 (GTH) class cars around the full Grand Prix loop.

Officially opening their new Snetterton based workshops to their sponsors and partners earlier this week, both cars got in some last minute on track testing whilst the likes of O’Meara-Hunt also needing some intensive simulator training having never raced at Brands Hatch before.

Photo credits – Team / series / social media

This time they would be running with drivers Mikey Porter and Matthew Higgins within their #9 AMR Vantage GT4 and Jodie Sloss and Rianna O’Meara-Hunt within the sister #10 car.

Again racing to a four-race format, it was three podiums out of four after the first two races of Saturday as the #10 scooped a double P2 finish within their GTH class whilst the #9 claimed a class win in race 1 before a P5 finish in race 2.

Sunday would prove equally profitable for the Snetterton based team running the older 17A version of the Vantage GT4 as this time the #9 crew delivered a double class win result whilst the #10 crew finished P4 in race 3 before ending their first weekend together in third.

These results place the #9 car at the head of both the class and overall GT Cup championship tables with the #10 car also third in class as the Championship moves onto Brands Hatch in mid-May.

Photo credits – Team / GT Cup

As previously announced by the Snetterton based team, their #9 entry will be made up of karter and GT4 novice Matthew Higgins racing alongside former Ginetta and now upcoming GT4 star Mikey Porter who's already made his mark within both the GT4 Winter Series and British GT Championship. 

The team’s #10 car will be an all-female affair with Jodie Sloss returning to the Championship for a second season from her McLaren exploits of last season whilst we all welcome Kiwi racer and former Heart of Racing GT4 America racer Rianna O’Meara-Hunt to the UK for the first time.

Both crews will be competing within the teams two older 17A iteration of the AMR Vantage GT4 as all crews look forward to another seven-round season with four races over each weekend.

Photo credits – Team / social media

 

Whilst the team had confirmed that Mikey Porter would be teaming up with young karter Matthew Higgins a while back, news from the Championships Media Day at Donington Park last week confirmed that former Heart of Racing GT4 America driver, Rianna O’Meara-Hunt will be making her way to the UK this year for a season of GT Cup racing alongside Jodie Sloss.

Whilst we know that Kiwi O’Meara-Hunt made her way into GT4 racing that’s to a talent contest for a race seat that she and Hannah Grisham eventually won and drove together within the SRO series last year, Scottish racer Sloss is no stranger to the GT Cup paddock after she won the Formula Woman Competition with a prize within a McLaren 570s in the Championship last season.

The first round of the Championship is at Donington Park towards the end of April and will run over seven events with multiple races per event.

Photo credits – social media / Forsetti

Confirming a very young partnership of both Mikey Porter and Matthew Higgins, this will see the former Ginetta Junior driver pair up with a former Karter to continue their collective developmental steps up into GT4 racing within the multi-classed GT Cup Championship and their seven-round season.

Apart from more pre-season testing that the duo have already started with the team, their first formality together will be at the Official Test Day at Donington Park on 21st March.

Photo credits – Team/social media/GT4 Winter Series