Well, there was simply nothing dull or predictable about the second round of the British GT Championship yesterday from Rockingham with positions changing even after the throwing of the chequered flag in what can only be described as a classic GT race.

Thankfully for all, Sunday's stiff wind had cleared the rain of yesterday and most of the 1.9 mile track was now dry although still incredibly slippery due to its low abrasive state. During yesterdays Qualifying, all five Aston Martin teams had been blown away by the incredible pace of the  #33 Lamborghini with just the #75 Optimium and #11 TF Sport car coming anywhere close with the remaining three cars from the MAR stable starting from the lower half of the GT3 grid.


The 22 car GT4 class again fielded an incredibly challenging line up with Will Moore and Matt Nichol-Jones bouncing back from the Oulton Park disappointment to start P6 but with the teams younger guns way back in P20.

Sunday's Warm up was more about driving a track that was finally dry with all cars entering laps times 10-15 seconds quicker than yesterday however, as the clock neared the start of the GT race at just after 13:00 the clouds began to build again and light rain began to fall.


At the drop of the green flag, the #33 Lamborghini of Jon Minshaw quickly established a early lead over Flick Haigh in the Optimum car but her attentions were soon turned to the second Lamborghini close behind before soon dropping back to P3. Unfortunately for one, a heavy impact with the outside retaining wall for another GT3 brought of the first of many Safety Cars that at least allowed the field to bunch up again when the time came.

The drizzly rain had just about stopped but the wind had picked up considerably and that must have been very noticeable to the drivers at the far end of the circuit to the pit straight.


Mark Farmer's #11 TF Sport car was suffering from an unquantified electrical ailment that necessitated a quick visit to pit lane - that dropped him a lap in the process. Even from the track side it was possible to identify cars that were on the move - the main one being Graham Davidson in the #47 Jetstream car who had spent too many laps languishing behind the slower Nissan GTR GT3 - but once passed the gap to those ahead collapsed.

Another Safety Car for a beached GT4 again slowed and tightened the pack with Davidson now up to P3 with a three way AMR battle going on behind him between the Optimium, Beechdean and #17 TF cars who had had their own trackside issues up till then. A further Safety Car allowed Davidson to make stick an ambitious move on De Haan on the #69 Lambo as the cars turned into the first chiccaine off the bank circuit - P2 for the Scotsman in only his second BGT race.


Just before the pit window opening Johnston got a drive through penalty for avoidable contact with the #1 Bentley that would be compounded with the 15 second success penalty from Oulton Park when the #17 final pitted. What was bad news for them was good news for Haigh and Howard as the moved up to P4 and P5 respectively.

By virtue of the #33 cars own success penalty, AMR works driver Maxime Martin suddenly found himself leading his first British GT race before even lapping his factory co-driver Nicki Thiim (now in the #17 TF Sport) soon after!


Two more quick Safety Cars caused chaos in the ranks with GT4's again being caught in the chain amongst faster, race challenging GT3. Martin had himself a very close call coming from the infield and onto the banking when a GT4 driver lost control of his car right infant of him but soon the Belgium and Scots elation was to be turned into dejection as the #47 was themselves given a drive through for track limit violations.

Stealthily down in GT4, the #62 Moore/Nichol-Jones had been slowly moving up the order to take the final podium position with just five minutes left on the clock whilst its sister #61 car had moved up from P20 to be holding a comfortable P9 in class for youngsters Wood and Jonck.


Normally, the chequered flag is the end of the race and that may still be so but it's normally over until the results have been officially verified. The podiums showed a jubilant Derek Johnston and (nearly) smiling Marco Sorensen take second place in GT3 whilst Moore and Nichol-Jones saw out their own class to finish on the final step of the GT4 podium.

Post race however would see the #17 Johnston/Sorensen car have a 30 second penalty applied to them (for query a secondary penalty for avoidable contact), a move that would knock them down to P7 but would see the #99 Howard/Turner Beechdean car take the final step of the podium in their place and maintain their own momentum in the Championship so far this year.


Although a great racing spectacle for us watching, the levels of frustration was obvious in both the Jetstream and TF camps in a race that should have been much different for them both. For Jetstream the washout of Oulton Park and the missing of FP2 yesterday confirmed the teams resolve and ability which was rightly rewarded with Davidson being given the Blancpain Driver of the Day Award despite the visibly annoyance in their Pro driver. For Sorensen, breaking the circuit lap record still earned him the Fastest Lap trophy.


Beechdean AMR now hold top spot in the GT3 Championship for a AMR team in P3 with Optimum just behind as the BGT season moves on to Snetterton at the end of May. For many within these AMR teams next weekend presents them with a new challenge - the first round of the WEC aboard the new Vantage GTE!

Come rain or shine, the British GT Championship is never a dull place to be at and with todays incessant rainfall, that just adding to the excitement.

Thinking of all the testing, practicing and racing has so far been completed in 2018 by the teams in this championship a large percentage of that has been on a wet track so not many of them have really experienced what the new Pirelli slick tyre can offer - certainly not under full race conditions at least.


This morning's first Free Practice was very wet, with the constant rainfall continually subtracting grip from a circuit already renowned for offering little grip, making the drivers experiment with differing lines just to stay on the track.

Both the TF Sport V12 Vantage GT3's were the leading #TeamAMR cars finishing third and fourth for Mark Farmer/Marco Sorensen and Derek Johnston/Nicki Thiin respectively by the end of FP1 with the Jetstream car finishing the session in P6, Optimum P10 and Beechdean finishing just behind the leading AMR Vantage GT4 in P16 - but it was simple free practice!


Issues arose for Graham Davidson and Maxime Martin in their #47 car after prolonged snaps of understeer/oversteer caused him to brush the outside wall, no obvious damage but the team would need to sit out FP2 replacing the clutch hopefully in time for Qualifying.


Still very wet, FP2 was a much better affair for all of the Aston Martin Racing runners (except the #47 of course) with Optimum's Jonny Adam piling in a quick time to finish top of the pile again (just like at Oulton Park), the two TF Sport cars consistent in P2 and P3 and with the #99 Beechdean AMR up to P6. In GT4 Will Moore/Matt Nichol-Jones' Academy car finished the session P4 in class whilst their younger guns in the #61 car would end fourth from bottom.


This afternoon came the the four qualifying runs for the respective Pro and Am drivers in both GT3 and GT4 classes and with Jon Minshaws Lamborghini again on a charge it looked as though the Am side of the grid would take a familiar path - or at least until Flick Haigh saved her best lap till last!
Taking almost a second off Minshaw, Haigh claimed her second consecutive 'pole' although in this single race event it would be the aggregate time of both drivers that would decide Sundays running order so not quite a prize but still a job well done.

With Adam just missing out on the GT3 fastest lap by about half a second to Phil Keen, the #75 Optimum car will still be starting on the front row but will have the championship leading #33 Lamborghini just ahead - what a drag race into the first hairpin tomorrow will be with the #11 TF Sport car right behind (or infront)!!


The GT4 Qualifying was interrupted with red flags for stranded cars on track, but allowed the #62 Academy car of Moore/Nichol-Jone stop secure P6 in class albeit a whopping 4.5 seconds down to the pole setting McLaren 570S. The other Academy car of Tom Wood and Jan Jonck would continue to struggle, as had been their problem all day finishing their days work in P20.


Tomorrow sees the traditional Sunday morning warm up at 09:30 before the start of the two hour endurance race at 13:10. Again, the race will be streamed live via the SRO's social media channels.

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey / Optimum / Beechdean / Academy

Three Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4's will line up this weekend for the opening round of the 2018 Britcar Endurance Championship from Rockingham.

Latest news coming from the Championship is that former AMR Rookie driver of the Year Chris Murphy has finally sold a drive in his second Whitebridge Motorsport prepared car meaning a two car, single driver entry for both himself and new recruit Barry McMahon. For what will be McMahon's third Britcar season, his decision to join Murphy came after testing with the team at the AMR Collective test over in Portimao last month.


Joining them for what will be their first full Britcar season together will be the EDF Motorsport prepared entry of Australian Mal Sandford with his co-driver Ben Seyfried who return to the championship having 'dipped a toe' into the final two rounds last year.

The only differences between the two teams are that the EDF car (above) is entered in the Endurance class whilst the two Whitebridge cars are entered into the Sprint class. That means that all three cars will race together in the 50minute race earlier on Saturday whilst in the latter 2 hour race, the EDF car will run for the duration and the Whitebridge cars will only run for another 50minutes of that two hours!


We could also be looking at another three cars destined for the Aston Martin Racing Festival at Le Mans in June.

This weekend must surely go down as one of those 'never to be repeated again' weekends as the 2018 British GT Championship kicked off from Oulton Park.

Firstly and certainly unfortunately, we had the weather forecasters get their predications absolutely correct for the Bank Holiday weekend and secondly we had Optimum Motorsport come away with a clean sweep of honours from the weather effected race meeting.


With Qualifying already having taken place in the relative dry of Saturday, the season's opening double header already had people salivating at the prospects of some extra-ordinary racing come the Bank Holiday Monday.

Optimum Motorsport had also already stolen the headlines by claiming top spot in the first of the Free Practice sessions before Flick Haigh secured her first (and the championship's first) pole position from a lady driver. Her team mate Jonny Adam faired only slightly worse by finishing second in his qualifying session meaning their #75 Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3 would start Sunday's two races from P1 and P2 respectively.


For race 1, the other AMR GT3 cars would be starting behind the two Team Parker Bentleys with Derek Johnston and Mark Farmer sandwiching Andrew Howard's Beechdean AMR car. Championship debutants, Graham Davidson and his Jetstream Motorsport entry would be bringing up the tail of the grid after having had all of his qualifying times deleted for speeding in the pit lane.


In the GT4 class, the two Academy Motorsport V8 Vantage's of Will Moore/Matt Nichol-Jones and Jan Jonck/Ton Wood would each start from the front end of the sizeable GT4 grid in P5 and P7 respectively.

The start of Race 1 had already been delayed by fifty minutes as an incident in an earlier race caused extensive barrier damage that needed repairing before the faster GT slot on the timetable. With rain persistently falling Race Control also elected to start the race from behind the safety car for what would end up being for the first four laps.


Next time around, the race aspirations for both of the TF Sport guys would each take a turn for the worse as (firstly) the #11 Mark Farmer would not see the late lunge up the inside into turn one from Jon Minshaw to end up being spun around into the infield of the track from where he could eventually recover himself from before later into that first racing lap, Derek Johnston would appear to outbreak himself in his #17 going into the chicane and have to take to the extremely wet grass infield route back onto the racing surface.

For those cars their race was effectively run despite the prospect of two factory drivers stepping into the cars later on.


For Will Moore in his #62 Academy GT4, the first racing lap faired no better as he would find himself being muscled out of the final corner coming into the pit straight with a BMW M4 before front wheel contact wit that car speared his Vantage heavily into the outside tyre guarded crash barrier. Being able to recover himself into the pit lane at least saved the race from another Safety Car period although that car's race was over with heavy front end damage.

With all the squabbling going on behind, that at least allowed Flick Haigh to get on with what she needed to do at the front and she soon established herself a useful 6-7 second lead over the now second placed Lamborghini with Howard also then clear in third but some 14 seconds behind Minshaw. Despite the atrocious track conditions Haigh was driving like a very experienced GT3 amateur driver as all her winter (wet weather) testing was paying her dividends.


Approaching the start of the pit window, the #33 Lamborghini of Minshaw started to pile in some successively quicker laps to gain on Haigh to a point where Haigh elected to pit just two seconds ahead of the #33, who would decide to stay out for one lap longer. For Haigh - her work was done!

By the time Minshaw had completed his stop and had swapped over to Pro driver Phil Keen, Jonny Adam was now up to speed in the #75 and retook the overall lead as Keen exited the pit lane. Drama would befall the remaining Academy car of Tom Wood towards the end of the pit window as he would be forced gently off the tarmac for an erratic ride over the grass with an unceremonious kiss with the barrier to boot, damage that would need yards of gaffer tape when he handed to car over to Jonck just moments later.


Despite the conditions, the racing on track was extremely exciting to watch. Keen was now fully conversant with the track conditions and he would put in some consistently quicker times than Adam to close the gap and to necessitate some very defensive driving from the Le Mans champion just to hold him back.

Coming through some GT4 traffic with less than twenty minutes remaining however would be decisive for the race as the chasing Keen would clip the side of a Ginetta causing himself a puncture, putting himself out of contention and giving Adam some 35 seconds of breathing space to the chequered flag.


The battle for second then became the main spectacle on track as AMR factory driver Darren Turner battled to keep his #99 Beechdean car ahead of Mercedes factory driver Yelmer Buurman in his #116 AMG.

Also, but unfortunately unseen by the TV feed, the two Danish AMR factory drivers Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim had each recovered their relative cars track position to P9 and P11 after their bronze driver's earlier issues.

For the remaining AMR factory driver in this years championship, Maxime Martin had a large wake up call himself as he diced with the barrier on the outside of Island Bend coming up to the Hairpin in his #47 Jetstream Motorsport he shares with GT Cup graduate Graham Davidson. Coming away just a bit muddied was a small price compared to what it could have been for the Belgium.


Coming into the closing minutes of Race 1, Adam was merely maintaining momentum having let his race lead 'slip' to just 27 seconds whilst Turner and Buurman were both fully 'at it' just metres apart but in the end Turner would do enough to hold onto second for the team.

The race win for the #75 Flick Haigh/Jonny Adam car would in itself create yet more British GT history as Haigh would become not only the first woman to gain an overall pole position but the first woman to secure an overall win AND the first woman to be awarded Blancpain 'Gentleman Driver of the Weekend' Award - an award that may now need renamed we feel!!


Race 2 was however a completely different tale and mainly for the wrong reasons.

The rain, which had over lunch relented to a point of a definitive dry line appearing on the race track had returned, but with a vengeance! Race 2 was the turn of the professional drivers to take the start but such were the conditions that even an experienced driver such as Adam aquaplaned his #75 car into a safety barrier on the grid forming lap, damage that would require a whole new rear lefthand side quarter to be replaced and would necessitate a visit for him to the circuit medical centre for a precautionary check.


Despite the race starting behind the Safety Car, the worsening track conditions forced Race Control to red flag it after only four laps in the vain hope that things would improve. the only positive was that Optimum finished replacing the damaged rear upright, toe link and brake disk to allow for Adam's car to take position at the rear of the grid should the race be restarted.

Minutes later, race Control confirmed that the remaining British GT race and other races would in fact be abandoned due to the hazardous track conditions and due to limit of laps actually completed no points would be awarded by the championship. Considering the circumstances - that was the correct decision.


So with Optimum still leading the GT3 Championship, the British GT Championship resumes at Rockingham at the end of April by which time we hope to hear what will become of the race abandoned this afternoon.


******UPDATED - Barwell are appealing the series decision not to award any points from the abandoned race this afternoon - that has now gone to the stewards to rule on.

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey / Optimum / Beechdean / British GT / TF Sport

Two weeks after being videoed testing at Rockingham, Aston Martin Racing's new for 2018 Vantage GTE has continued along its steep development curve this week with a two day private test at Snetterton.

Using a single process of driver elimination, it appeared that just Darren Turner tested the new AMG powered car at Rockingham with the four other GTE Pro drivers all either holidaying or at home somewhere in the Americas.

This week, and using the same simple process we believe that this weeks testing duties were undertaken by Darren Turner, Jonny Adam and Marco Sorensen who visit to the Norfolk track must be his first since his early Formula Ford days?

Observing the test from a discreet distance (no spy photos attached here), all we can say is that the loss of the old throaty V8 block and been replaced with a note that will in no way be a disappointment to any AMR enthusiast and will be quite distinctive in its own way. Also, our crude lap timing and referencing back across other GT platform lap times show that the new car is no slouch either!!

The future's bright - the future's the New Vantage GTE!

News, and indeed video footage has emerged this evening of Aston Martin Racing's new for 2018 V8 Vantage GTE undergoing testing at the Rockingham circuit last week.

We know that AMR work's driver Darren Turner posted words to that effect on his social media stream prior to last weekends Goodwood Revival, so we can at least assume that he was there.


With the information flow coming out of both AMR and AML slowly building over recent weeks, we can only assume that the official launch for both the road going and racing variant is not far away together with the fact that this 'exclusively sourced video' is simply another piece of factory generated PR in preparation to the launch date just like the shots of the road car variant (above) were beforehand.

Only last week did we speak to someone who had just had a viewing of the new car in the Prodrive factory, hearing that it had also undergone a series of straight-line tests at one of the aerodromes AMR commonly use for shakedowns, etc with further testing also booked in for next week.

Anyway, the new GTE looks awesome in its lime and black camo livery and the 'music' of the new turbo charged engine isn't actually all that bad. Overall, we don't think we will be disappointed with what is eventually revealed!

Its hard to believe that in the midst of an extremely busy British GT pit lane, with thirty odd racing cars screaming past you on the banking at full pelt that the sight of a single person could be singled out for particular attention.

Well, thats what happened last weekend at the second round of the British GT Championship when a certain gentleman was observed talking in depth with the Prodrive engineers associated with the TF Sport team.

His face looked familiar but we couldn't put a name to him - well not until we heard him speak to others closer by in a very near neighbouring GT4 team garage. Its not everyday after all that you go to a race track in middle Northamptonshire and bump into Australian Endurance GT racer Andrew Miedecke!

What was he doing in old Blighty then? - shopping of course!! He didn't exactly say for what or from whom but there is a small clue (or two) in the photo!

Great to meet you and hope to see any acquisitions racing in a GT series down under soon!

Photo credit - Miedecke Stone Motorsport

The script was to have should have gone something along the lines of both TF sport cars continuing their dominance in both qualifying and Sunday morning warm up with a one-two finish come two hours after the green flag.

The trouble is that motor racing is notorious for not following the script and Sunday's two hour endure proved to be a disappointment for TF Sport but then a delight for another Aston Martin Racing squad.


The opening lap proved to be relatively uneventful of the #1 car as Johnston quickly established a lead of several seconds over the chasing pack. Farmer meanwhile had dropped a place but the best start was reserved for James Littlejohn in the #24 MacMillan GT3 who had stormed up from the fourth row of the grid and up to third by the end of the first lap. All was soon neutralised however with the first Safety Car due to a stranded Ginetta.

Littlejohn was having the best race of his short GT3 racing career hassling Minshaw in the #33 Lamborghini - allowing Johnston to pull away but damage had been sustained to the steering of the #1 car (after hitting a kerb after a brief and unseen excursion onto the infield) leading to persistent and chronic understeer. Rapidly loosing the top spot to the the #33 and #24 going into turn 1 it began to be a game of damage limitation for the #1 car as the team little understanding to the cause to his grip issues.



The understeer issue for Johnston was also the direct reason for him being awarded a 5 second penalty for persistant track limit violations. Meanwhile the fastest qualifying GT3 Am Driver, Mark Farmer would have issues of his own as he would spin out of fourth position on the infield section of the circuit before being able to continue having already lost several places.

Forty minutes in another Safety Car period for another beached Ginetta again bunched the pack behind the now leading MacMillan GT3 of Littlejohn.


Back in the highly competitive GT4 class the #62 Academy Motorsport car of Will Moore was the best placed of TeamAMR crews holding a slightly distant fifth to the then class leaders.

On the hour mark the #24 MacMillan was first to pit for Littlejohn to hand over to Jack Mitchell before almost the entire grid followed suit. The lack of any success time penalty for the #24 from previous races allowed Mitchell to exit the pit lane with effectively an extended lead.

With three quarters of an hour to go the race to the flag really began in earnest as Mitchell fought to maintain a lead over the chasing Bentley of Seb Morris and the Ferrari of Matt Griffin but a mistake from Mitchell gaining through the chicane and onto the finish straight allowed both followers to force they way. All was not lost however as the Spirit of Race Ferrari also had a 5 second penalty to add on to his finishing time.


Twenty five minutes remained when another Ginetta made it a full house of stranded cars in the gravel forcing a very confusing Safety Car period when it picked up the track leading Ferrari and not the actual race leading Bentley. Upon release Griffin was able to make his distance as the others were forced to battle for position. Mitchell (still P3) was having to defend his position but at least the two TF Sport cars were able to mix it again with those ahead as both Adam and Barnes looked to recover their individual situations.

Entering the final laps Mitchell had mirrors full of the two Barwell Lamborghini's but managed to hang on and secure his team first GT3 podium position by less than 1/10th of a second. Behind then and despite the #1 car finishing ahead of its sister #11 car Johnston's penalty would swap the cars around in the amended classification.


The same penalty was of course added to the time of the 'winning' #21 Spirit of Race Ferrari plus an additional 23 seconds for an apparent incident of avoidable contact with the #31 Bentley but that only reduced their position to second, fractionally ahead of the #24 car.

Whilst MacMillan Racing enjoyed their best performance yet from their GT3 crew the fortunes of its sister GT4 car (Jan Jonck and Will Phillips) was not so memorable. A change to the cars BoP made the car lighter but then had any advantage removed with a longer pit stop and despite some very determined driving from the duo, together with some understeer issues arising from a damaged front splitter and floor only managed to finish P11 in class.


Academy's Will Moore and Matt Nichol Jones faired better in their Vantage GT4 by continuing to show that they have a driver line up and car with pace (elbows kept well and truly in this time) to finish P5 in class a they now prepare themselves for round two of the European GT4 Northern Cup at Brands Hatch this weekend.


For some there is now a break as the Championship now moves onto Snetterton and two - one hour races at the end of May. Others may have International or European duties to fulfil in between.

#24 AMR V12 Vantage GT3 Mitchell/Littlejohn

Sunday’s first long-format race of the Championship was a great one for Macmillan AMR, James Littlejohn and Jack Mitchell underlining their true speed, leading half of the race and claiming an eventual third-place podium finish – the team’s first in the marquee GT3 class. Just three races into their GT3 adventure, drivers and team proved they have what it takes to run with the very best.

Set-up issues and driving errors in qualifying - caused in part by the ballast weight the duo is forced to carry as an all-Silver line-up - masked the true pace of the Macmillan AMR Aston Martin GT3 but James and Jack were able to unlock their machine’s potential during the two-hour encounter that formed Round 3 at Rockingham Speedway.

James started the race from 8th on the packed grid, leaping up the order to run third at the end of Lap 1. A dozen laps later, he claimed second spot, before taking the lead of the race on Lap 22.

“I had a really good start and got up to third by the chicane,” smiled James, “and although there were a couple of half-chances before the early Safety Car, I knew my best chance would come when we hit GT4 traffic. Playing a waiting game worked, as the guys in front made mistakes that allowed me to move up to 2nd and then finally grab the lead, with a really nice move.”

James then set about building up an advantage and was almost 10 seconds clear of his pursuers before the appearance of a Safety Car but he still led the field once racing resumed and was working his way clear once more, as he peeled off into the pits for the mandatory driver-change.

With a full tank of fuel for the second half of the race, Jack headed back out into the fray. Once the pit-stops had worked themselves out, the no24 V12 Vantage still had a lead over its rivals but it became clear that the fastest of the cars behind were closing in.

“Initially, it was the Bentley that was our closest rival,” said Jack. “I had a small gap over him but they weren’t the only quick car behind us and soon there were two Bentleys, both Lamborghinis and a Ferrari hounding me!

Despite stalwart defending, Jack was unable to prevent a Bentley and a Ferrari slipping past. A late-race Safety Car again bunched the field, bringing more attackers onto the Aston’s tail but Jack defiantly held them off for almost half an hour, claiming a delighted third place, as the chequered flag came out.

“I made a mistake under braking, which allowed one of the Bentleys past and the Ferrari also slipped through the gap. The final Safety Car closed everyone right up and once we went back to green, it was very hard work, keeping the others behind me. Fortunately, by that stage, the GT4 cars were battling pretty hard and I was able to use those squabbles, to help me keep the door closed. Seeing that chequered flag was a big relief, I can tell you – that was a tough race!”

#42 AMR V8 Vantage GT4 Jonck/Phillips

Will Phillips started the race in the no.42 GT4 car, using a revised set-up to try and preserve the Aston’s rear tyres, which struggle on the abrasive Rockingham asphalt. The changes that the team had made were clearly beneficial, as Will began picking off his rivals. That progress was dramatically halted by the intervention of the Safety Car for a second time in the race, midway through his stint:

“Our race was really completely undone by the Safety Car,” said Will. “I was up to 8th and we’d just been passed by the leader – our GT3 sister car – when it came out. That meant that we lost touch with the GT4 leaders, as they were ahead of the no.24 car on the road and were free to race around to join the back of the queue that we were near the front of, effectively costing us a lap.

“We had made a decision to sacrifice a little pace, to preserve the tyres, which worked superbly and my tyres were only starting to give up 5 laps before the pit-stops, which was ideal...

Driving partner Jan Jønck took over the car, knowing he faced an uphill struggle to make much headway, being a lap down on most of their class rivals.

“My stint was pretty tough,” said Jan, “but we had decent pace. Most of the cars that were a lap ahead were around me on track and we could match their speed, so our car clearly has the potential… our race was just completely compromised by that misfortune with the Safety Car.”

When the chequered flag came out, the no.42 car was classified in 11th place, sixth of the Silver pairings – scant reward for all the team’s hard work and not indicative of the car’s pace and the drivers’ potential.

“Rockingham dealt us two very different hands,” said Team Principal David Macmillan. “Naturally, we are thrilled to have claimed out first podium in GT3, in only our third race. Had James not had his lead slashed by the Safety Car, who knows what might have happened...

“The other side of that particular coin left our GT4 drivers in a position where they had no realistic hope of catching the cars ahead.

“That’s racing, I suppose, but we’ll bounce back in Snetterton. We know both teams are fast enough and good enough. Now we just need some luck to prove it!”

Both TF Sport's Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3's form the front row for tomorrows two hour race after a dramatic turn around in events during todays Free Practice and Qualifying.

The #33 Barwell Lamborghini of Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen continued this morning from where they had left off at the end of the first two races of the year at Oulton Park two weeks ago being fastest in FP1 by nearly half a second. Then came news that said car would have to change their engine (didn't catch why) prior to Qualifying this afternoon forcing them to miss the second Free Practice session!

During the Am drivers part of GT3 Qualifying it was Mark Farmer in the TF Sport #11 car who stole the honours beating Jack Mitchell in his MacMillan Racing Vantage by just 0.022 seconds. Minshaw did clock two faster laps during his stint but was adjudged to have exceeded track limits on both occasions and had those times selected.

Minutes later the Pro drivers were out for their ten minute session and it was Phil Keen grabbing the honours ahead of Jonny Adam by just 0.094 seconds but the combined driver 1/driver 2 times set the starting order as Adam/Johnston on pole, the #11 Barnes/Farmer car in second and the #33 Minshaw/Keen car in third.

The #24 MacMillan ended up P9 in class for tomorrows race.

Certainly all to race for!

Photo credit - Jacob Ebrey

Just two weeks after the opening races of the 2017 season, cars from the British GT Championship will this weekend compete at the first two hour enduro of the season as well as supporting a young man facing new life challenges.

The 30 car grid, made up of 12 GT3's and a whopping 18 GT4's will again be populated by just five cars from the Aston Martin Racing stable with a pair of GT3's from TF Sport, another from MacMillan Racing and a single GT4 from each of MacMillan Racing and Academy Motorsport.

Like many other individuals and organisations around the world, this event is being used by the series as a fundraising exercise for Billy Monger, the seventeen year old who lost both of his lower legs after a horrifying F4 crash at Donington on the same weekend as the BGT season opener.


The cars will adorn #BillyWhizz windscreen banners for the event as well as donations being sought from those attending - £1.00 as a pit walk donation is after all not much to ask.

Perhaps, we may even get to have some of the funds raised to help another member of the motorsport family, Craig Walker who also suffered life changing injuries at a tin top meeting at Castle Comb just 24 hours after Billy's accident. His fundraising page can be found HERE

Please help as much both as you can.

Getting back to the race, defending GT3 champions TF Sport will certainly be looking to halt the race winning progress of that #33 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini after they ran away at Oulton Park to secure two commanding race wins and despite securing 50% of the GT3 podiums you can bet that Jonny Adam/Derek Johnston and Mark Farmer/Jon Barnes will all be looking to improve.


The two cars from MacMillan Racing will each be looking for a bit more from Lady Luck after the GT3 of James Littlejohn and Mitchell boiled over on the grid for race 1 for a DNF and the GT4 of Jonck and Will Phillips was involved in some bumping and grinding in the chaotic GT4 pack in both races.

The remaining AMR car of Academy Motorsport's Matt Nichol-Jones and Will Moore will have to smarten up their driving after they were excluded from the results of Race 1 despite crossing the line third in class. They were then involved in a further first corner incident in Race 2 that ended their efforts there an then.

The two hour race starts after the customary lunch time pit walk at 13.10hrs but for those unable to attend don't forget to tune into Freeview Channel #91 or Sky #468 for live coverage on Frontrunner TV

Photo credits - British GT