Former British GT champion Jon Barnes found his winning mojo again yesterday as he and his co driver Mark Farmer dominated round six of the British GT Championship at the Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium with their TF Sport prepared Aston Martin Racing V12 Vantage GT3.

Having had the benefit of a couple of days testing at the circuit earlier this week (under the guise of the Spa24H Official Test) the duo were able to get the car fully dialled into the circuit giving the Am driver (Farmer) the confidence to push straight from the off from where the #11 lead the majority of the race before ultimately taking the chequered flag by just over half a second to the chasing Team Parker Racing Bentley. It was only for a handful of laps either side of the compulsory pit stop at around the half way mark that the #11 car did not lead the race.


Whilst TF Sport were having a mixed 'day at the office' with having to rebuild its sister #17 car following a significant accident during FP1and then winning the event with their other car it was unfortunately all downhill for the Beechdean team and their three entries.

Despite qualifying sixth Andrew Howard's Vantage GT3 would not make it any further around the circuit than T3 after having to take avoiding action for the "stupidity of others" in front of him, for when he tried to return to the track his car was in collision with a European GT4 BMW that ripped a wheel of each car putting them both into immediate retirement.


With last years GT4 Champion Jamie Chadwick also returning to the series with celebrity chef Paul Hollywood in the #408 V8 Vantage GT4 their race would only last for seven laps before Hollywood pitted with obvious damage sustained by contact with a tyre wall that had also damaged the front off side quarter of the car.

In the sister #407 GT4 car Jack Bartholomew would suffer multiple incidences of third party contact during the very busy first half of the race so with that and their success ballast incurred from their podium finish last time out at Silverstone they would also endure a very difficult race finishing down in P8 in class.

The #71 Stratton Motorsport car of David Tinns and Andrew Jarman also had difficulty on lap 7 where they also incurred barrier impact damage whilst Tinns was at the wheel but at least they were able to continue after some repairs and allow the series returning car to continue although many laps down. It is not known if any of these incidents were connected.


The JWB and Generation AMR SuperRacing Aston's cars both unfortunately had races to forget, never being able to break free from the lower regions of the European GT4 Series cars that made track navigation very difficult for many. SuperRacings James Holder would have been there in his first competitive meeting (although having tested at the circuit previously) and his inexperience was obvious. The same could be said for the #47 JWB car as they would also become one of the many who would fall foul of track limits and would incur time and track penalties as a result.

The best result from a British GT4 entry came from the #42 MacMillan Racing entry of Matty Graham and Jack Mitchell who would ultimately finish P3 having endured a thoroughly eventful race.

The series will now move on to its penultimate round of the 2016 season at Snetterton in four weeks time. TF Sports Johnston and Adam still retain an overall championship lead despite their accident affected race yesterday with yesterdays result lifting Barnes/Farmer up to fifth in the drivers championship.

In the GT4 class its very much a catch-up required in the team/driver championship with Beechdean's Jordan Albert and Jack Bartholomew the closest to challenge the leaders although both do lead the GT4 Silver Drivers table.

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey

We all know that the circuit at Spa Francorchamps can be extremely challenging and with that combined with the tracks own micro-climate and an extended grid, drama was always going to be on the cards for todays Free Practice and qualifying for Round 6 of the British GT Championship.

With the organisers parallel series, the European GT4 Series again joining the British GT field the grid had swollen to a colossal 61 cars so it was sort of unsurprising that both the Free Practice sessions were interrupted with various track incidents and accidents.


Indeed during FP1 the session had only just been restarted from an earlier red flag when one of the European GT4 entries blew an engine going into Les Combes depositing enough oil on track to catch out an unwary Derek Johnston in his #17 TF Sport Vantage as well as the #24 Bentley. Haevy contact with the armco was the result and damage was significant to both cars - drivers were OK but unfortunately for the Bentley that was it for the weekend.

With TF Sport feverishly working away to replace the front end of the Aston the teams sister #11 car driven by Jon Barnes and Mark farmer claimed top honours with a time 1.5 seconds quicker than those chasing.


Fortunately, by the time the delayed four session qualifying format eventually started TF Sport had completed the required repairs that would at least allow the championship leaders to participate and with GT3 Ams out first their handiwork would be immediately put to the test. Early showings were from Andrew Howard in the Beechdean GT3 who placed his car in Prov P2 before Mark Farmer suit with a P3.

With the GT3 Pro drivers the Beechdean and TF Sport drivers certainly followed their Am counterparts with Jon Barnes claiming P2 from Ross Gunn in the early stages of the session but it would still be an aggregate time that would count towards the grid.


By the time GT4 Ams got to go out parts of the circuit were experiencing the first rain of the day and it was enough to effect the mindset of the drivers. MacMillan Racing's Matty Graham was the pick of the AMR bunch in these early stages battling for the provisional class pole with Graham Johnson's Ginetta before a late flurry saw him drop down the order.

By the time the aggregated times had been calculated (after a significant time delay) the #11 TF Sport of Jon Barnes and Mark Farmer would be the highest placed AMR in P3 for TOMORROW's race. Howard and Gunn would be a couple of rows behind in P6 whilst the recovering #17 TF Sport car of Jonny Adam and Derek Johnston will start a magnificent P7.


In GT4 the highest placed BGT car will be the MacMillan Racing car of Matty Graham and Jack Mitchell who will start P15 in class but P6 out of the BGT runners. Full qualifying positions can be found here -


Don't forget that the two hour race shall start tomorrow at 12:35hrs local.

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey

Following the devastating fire at V8 Racing International's workshop three weeks ago where several racing cars were lost things looked bleak for European GT4 team Las Moras Racing.

Having lost both of their Chevrolet Camaro's and BMW M3 GT4 in the fire it would have appeared that the remainder of their 2016 season was already at an end had it not been for the help of German VLN racing team Mathol Racing.


As a direct result of their help Las Moras Racing and V8 Racing International are this week able to enter and race two competitive Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4's at this weekends joint British GT/European GT4 race at Spa Francorchamps.

Another fine example of the family of motor racing!

Photo credits - Las Moras Racing