Another #doningtondecider in store after another barnstorming race from Brands Hatch in British GT
Having qualified their #7 Blackthorn Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 onto the front row of the grid behind just one of their 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes AMG advisories, the Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam car didn’t get off to the best of starts as despite taking the race lead out of Paddock Hill Bend for the first time, the car was served with an unwanted drive through penalty for using external devices upon the car during the formation grid.
That transgression by the team dropped their car into the midst of the GT4 field on only about the third full racing lap having been behind the Safety Car from the second lap due to an off for a GT4 car at Druids on the opening lap.
Slightly further back meanwhile, the #97 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard and Tom Wood had also gotten off to a great start from their aggregated P7 position that Wood had earned the crew on Saturday by topping the Pro drivers qualifying session. After the earlier Safety Car restart, Howard had progressed up to P6 and distanced their class rivalling #86 Bridger Motorsport Honda who were then down in nineth.
Thwarting the Blackthorn’s progression through the lower order of the GT3 class was an on-track fire for one of the Ginetta GT4’s but fortunately for them, the driver was able to vacate the vehicle quickly for the trackside staff to bring things to a swift and safe conclusion although that did lose nearly eighteen minutes on the race clock.
Later after that restart, Petrobelli found himself being baulked by the #86 Honda which, whilst it was bad for them, that delay only helped their Beechdean AMR counterparts further ahead in the pack. Only just before the opening of the GT3 pit stop window did the #7 Aston pass the Honda before all bar the race leading Mercedes pitted for service at the first availability.
Pit stops done and Adam had come out in fourth thanks to the success time penalties affecting three cars out front in class whilst Wood was now P6 overall, still with a healthy lead of his own from the Honda in the silver-am class as Adam even got a warning for track limits such was his degree of determination for a decent finish this time around.
Further track drama was soon to follow as contact between a McLaren and a Porsche GT3 cars saw debris left upon track and one of those cars stranded in a gravel track – all of which necessitated a further Full Course Yellow and later Safety Car restart to sort out the mess.
With ten minutes to go, Wood put a lap onto the Honda so all he had to do was to finish to secure another class win but Adam had more problems upon his hands as he soon had other, faster cars upon him looking for track position as he became the head of a five car train with Wood immediately behind the Scot doing what he could to defend the #7 cars position.
Eventually the chequered flag came with the #7 Blackthorn car taking P4 with the #97 Beechdean car just one place behind in P5 – also taking the class win. With 37.5 points on offer at the final round from Donington Park in early October, both crews still need to perform if they want to have a chance at the class titles. The #7 car is now 28.5 points behind the championship leading #42 Mercedes whilst the #97 crew are still just 14 points ahead of the Honda powered crew.
Still all to race for at Donington then!!
Monday, August 25, 2025 |
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Tomorrows penultimate British GT race of the season all teed up to be another thriller
Despite just twenty cars taking to the track for today’s Free Practice, Pre-Qualifying and Qualifying sessions, like any discernible British GT Championship of the past, there are still several teams across both the GT3 and GT4 classes that could either win this weekend or take to another #DoningtonDecider those overall championship aspirations.
For the #7 Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 of Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam car – they need a better performance this weekend that the two 2 Seas Motorsport Merecedes AMG GT3 crews that they are presently chasing within their Pro-Am class and whilst they were faster than both in this morning’s Free Practice, it was not the same in Pre-Qualifying.
Then within the two-horse silver-Am class that the #97 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 car of Andrew Howard and Tom Wood fight themselves battling against the #86 Bridger Motorsport Honda NSX team this year, they were faster than the #86 in both preliminary sessions – despite having to endure a rough ride through the gravel in both sessions.
After lunch, it was time for Qualifying with each driver again taking their turn for an aggregated started position for tomorrows race. With the Am’s aboard first with Petrobelli not being able to beat both 2 Seas Mercedes crews this time around for a P4 finish whilst Howard was still faster than the #86 car as they had a lap deleted for track limits for a P9 finishing position.
Then came the Pro’s – and it wasn’t long before the #97 car of Wood had overtaken the #7 car of Adam at the top of the timing screen despite the Scot taking new tyres towards the end of the session for a final dash to the flag.
Finishing top, Wood would haul their overall starting position up to seventh – five cars ahead of their class rivals whilst the #7 car would claim a front row start in second with them and three other cars splitting the championship leading 2 Seas crews.
But like any series, Free Practice and Qualifying is one thing – the race is something completely different. That all starts at 13:00hrs local tomorrow.
It should be interesting based upon just how hard all the crews were pushing today!
Saturday, August 23, 2025 |
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Two Astons still in the championship hunt as British GT hits Brands Hatch for its penultimate round
That means that should the Blackthorn Aston Martin Racing want to continue this season’s GT3 battle into another classic #DoningtonDecider finale, drivers Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam need another top step podium finishing performance in Sunday’s two-hour race and favourable race results from others to do so.
With each of the 2 Seas Mercedes AMG GT3 based crews securing a convincing race win apiece in each of the two one-hour sprint races from Snetterton last time out, the #7 Blackthorn crew could do no more than fourth in the first and fifth in the second of the two races to now lie in third position in the drivers championship, still just nine points behind the leaders.
Results from last time out also mean that the #7 AMR Vantage GT3 crew are devoid of pit stop time penalties come Sunday’s race so track position will remain as an imperative factor going into Qualifying on Saturday.
Being another endurance round means that the #97 Beechdean AMR silver-am crew of Andrew Howard and Tom Wood are the remaining AMR powered runners out of a grid of just thirteen GT3 and eight GT4 based entries.
For the #97 crew, this season has been a persistent battle with their sole class rivals within the #86 Bridger Motorsport Honda NSX with the Honda powered crew taking top honours in class with the points margin between crews (Howard and Wood still leading) to just 3.5 points going into this penultimate race weekend. For these two crews, the 2025 result will be formed upon who fails to finish first!
Track action will begin again on Saturday with Free Practice, Pre-Qualifying and Qualifying on Saturday ahead of a 13:00hrs local start for Sundays two hour race.
Wednesday, August 20, 2025 |
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A 'difficult' weekend for both Aston Martins in the heat of Snetterton
Having seen both the Blackthorn AMR and Beechdean AMR teams almost run riot last time out at the three-hour round from Spa Francorchamps last time out, this weekend certainly saw some of that performance hauled back in as the Mercedes AMR and Lamborghini powered entries were certainly controlling the pace in the heat of Snetterton this weekend.
Despite that, Giacomo Petrobelli and his #7 Blackthorn still had a clear view into turn one of race one with his P2 Qualifying position whilst Andrew Howard had to crane his neck to see their silver-Am class rivalling #86 Bridger Motorsport Honda NSX who had qualified two rows ahead of his #97 Beechdean car.
A clean opening lap for all cars saw the #7 car maintain position, as did the #97 until we soon saw them last in class and nearly three seconds behind the car in front for reasons that are unclear but despite that, Howard was soon able to close the gap. Up front meanwhile, the #42 Mercedes and #7 Blackthorn cars were gapping the chasing pack behind as both had success time penalties to serve from their successes in Belgium and for the Blackthorn car – that would be the full ten seconds.
Despite the Bridger Honda looking very fast at times, a spin for Jonny Ip saw their car relegated to last within the GT3 on track with also two or three cars between them and the Beechdean Aston Martin but by the time the pit window had opened, both cars were very close to one another again.
Despite pitting from a comfortable P2 overall, that ten second penalty saw Jonny Adam emerge down in P4 overall as the #7 Blackthorn car emerged from pit lane but there would be worse for Tom Wood in the #97 car as he would spin off at Riches and nudge (fortunately softly) into the tyre wall. Re-runs pf the incident showed that although marginally wide, there appeared to be no obvious reason for him to spin off like he did.
This time lacking the obvious power advantage, neither Aston Martin could recover or improve upon their track position as the race entered its final stages for the #7 Blackthorn car to eventually finish P4 overall and the #97 P13 overall – but more importantly second best in silver-am to the #86 Honda.
Race two had seen the circuit cloud over slightly but ambient and track temperatures remained constant as this time Adam had a third row start in his #7 Pro-Am entry whilst Wood would be starting in front of the #86 car of Jay Bridger.
In theory, that should have helped the #7 car as both Mercedes AMG had pit stop success penalties to serve this time around and Wood is certainly no slouch with the benefit of track position.
Despite some panel bashing, it was another clean opening lap with both Astons able to make up an early place before the race went static as the Pro drivers showed their worth to their paying bronze drivers. The tightness to the Snetterton 300 circuit layout and the parity of the pro driver again showed that the circuit was a difficult place to pace.
With both Adam and Wood handing over to Petrobelli and Howard respectively, the #7 Blackthorn car was maintaining its P6 position as were the #97 with their P1 position in class with little under thirty minutes of this final sprint race remaining. That stayed the case for much of the remaining time before an incident involving the Porsche allowed the #7 to step up to P5 overall whilst the #97 of Howard was also caught and passed by the #86 Honda.
A final lap incident for the #7 Amr saw the Italian enter a last lap battle with two other cars which culminated in the #77 McLaren spinning off after apparent contact from behind by the #7 car. Despite crossing the line in P4, it was a long wait before Race Control confirmed the result.
Despite all the above, the #7 Blackthorn crew remain second within both the overall and GT3 Pro-Am class battles as the Championship moves onto it penultimate round at Brands Hatch in late August – as does the #7 Beechdean crew in Silver-Am but with both teams, they are now in slightly worse position points wise than they were before.
Sunday, July 13, 2025 |
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The temperatures keep rising at Snetterton this weekend
Two exciting races will be in store tomorrow as the British GT Championship hosts only its second sprint weekend of the season, this time from Snetterton in Norfolk for its somewhat lowly GT3 and GT4 entry.
Having already conducted a three-session private test at the circuit yesterday, the crews were welcomed back today to another sun-baked day starting with Free Practice before culminating in individual qualifying sessions to determine the grid for each of Sunday’s two, one-hour races.
This weekend sees just the two full season Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crews from the Blackthorn AMR and Beechdean AMR teams with Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam chasing the GT3 Pro-Am class within their #7 car and Andrew Howard and Tom Wood doing likewise within the Silver-Am class within their #97 car.
The #7 Blackthorn was slow out within Free Practice with the duo only setting thirteen laps between them within the hour-long session (although Adam did say that this for no significant reason) whilst the Beechdean crew were a little more studious getting some early laps in.
As both the ambient and track temperatures continued to rise, it was soon time for Pre-qualifying and this time both cars were keen to get out early but with the #97 crew showing some great pace to end that hour session seventh overall (and having lost a lap due to track limits) whilst the #7 car would end their preparative work down in tenth overall.
After lunch, it was time for each driver to set their own qualifying times with the amateur’ driver going first but for both Petrobelli and Howard, it would bring a disappointing conclusion as first the Italian lost out on another pole setting time by just 0.151 of a second to their championship rivals but Howard also struggled to eventually come home 0.8 of a second behind their Bridger Motorsport Honda NSX powered class rivals.
The next session saw Adam claim a third row start for tomorrow’s second race whilst Wood beat the #86 Bridger car to claim another class pole position for his efforts.
We will have to wait to see just what the two races will bring.
Saturday, July 12, 2025 |
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Two Aston Martins leading the way as British GT arrives at Snetterton for two more sprint races
With it being a sprint round, it’s no surprise to see just the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crews from each of the Blackthorn AMR and Beechdean AMR teams listed with the #50 MKH Racing Vantage GT4 entry still only part of the GT4 Endurance Cup package.
The last round from Spa Francorchamps at the start of the SRO Speedweek went effectively perfectly for both crews in the end as both the #7 Blackthorn car of Jonny Adam and Giacomo Petrobelli scored their first overall race win togther this year whilst the #97 Beechdean entry of Andre Howard and Tom Wood did what they simply needed to do and take another win within their own two horse silver-am entry.
Those results see the #7 Blackthorn boost their overall and Pro-Am Championship aspirations by climbing up to second place, just two points behind the 2 Seas Mercedes Benz crew in the overall table and 2.5 points behind the same pairing within the Pro-Am table going into the Snetterton round.
Within the silver-am table, the #97 Beechdean crew extend their championship lead over the Bridger Motorsport Honda NSX powered crew to lead Jonny Ip (the only one of the three drivers used within that team on 131 points) by now seventeen and a half points going into this round.
This weekend’s provisional entry list sadly still sees just fourteen GT3 entries and a smaller GT4 entry of just nine cars this time around. Track action will begin on Friday with three private test sessions before Free Practice, Pre-Qualifying and individual Qualifying sessions on Saturday before both races either side of lunch on Sunday.
After the last British GT round at Spa, the Beechdean AMR did stay on at the circuit and did rather well in class at the latter Spa 24 hour too!!
Photo Credits – Teams / Jacob Ebrey
Tuesday, July 08, 2025 |
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Another double for the two Astons at the end of todays three hour British GT race from Spa
Having both qualified at the top of their respective classes yesterday, the #7 Blackthorn AMR of Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam laid on what could nearly have been described as demonstration laps as the Italian opened the three-hour proceedings to something of a clear advantage as others were left to squabble in their wake.
The #97 Beechdean AMR of Andrew Howard and Tom Wood also started the race from top spot within their own Silver-Am class but were soon passed by their rival #86 Bridger Motorsport Honda NSX on the opening laps.
Only a Full Course Yellow and latter Safety Car thwarted the efforts of the Blackthorn crew as that bunched the pack back up togther again. With three mandatory pit stops required this time around and with no driver able to race for more than one hundred minutes, that gave the teams plenty of scope to juggle their strategy as and when needed or as they saw fit.
With both Am’s starting within their respective cars, both crews chopped and changed drivers back and forth to allow each of their faster drivers somewhere near their maximum drive time towards the end of the race. That was at about the hour remaining mark when Adam returned to the track (then down to third overall) as he soon caught and passed the Paddock Motorsport McLaren and the Spirit of Race Ferrari to retake the lead of the race again from which they would never look back.
For the Beechdean pair, it wasn’t a case of just winning their class but also of seeing just what could be achieved as silver graded driver Wood slowly but surely climbed the timing screen to eventually finish fifth overall.
These points not only place Adam as a clear best performer in the history of the championship with his now twenty race wins to date but also to lift the crew up to second in the Overall and Pro-Am Cup table with the Beechdean crew again stretching their lead over the Bridger crew in silver-am as the Championship now looks to the two sprint races around Snetterton in mid-July.
For the Beechdean crew, however, this will be an elongated stay in Belgium as they now prepare for the Spa 24 just next weekend.
Photo credits – Jacob Ebrey
Photo credits – Jacob Ebrey
Sunday, June 22, 2025 |
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Double pole for the two Aston Martins at British GTs visit to Spa Francorchamps
Despite this obviously being another endurance round of the Championship, there is no MKH Racing AMR Vantage GT4 so all eyes will be upon these two easily identifiable cars competing within this twenty-two strong grid.
The day officially kicked off earlier with the usual Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying sessions where the #97 Beechdean car of Andrew Howard and Toim Wood stole the thunder from many of their GT3 opponents by finishing second quickest whilst the #7 Blackthorn Aston of Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam had to make do with fourth quickest.
It was a similar vein within Pre-Qualifying with the #97 Beechdean again beating the #7 car going into Qualifying as the Blackthorn crew looked to change the balance of the car ahead of the two individual qualifying sessions.
Petrobelli and Howard respectively were out first with the Italian pushing straight from the off the maximise impact with the new tyres whilst others built up to the faster laps but this time, Petrobelli was by far the fastest with a time nearly three quarters of a second above their nearest rival whilst Howard (importantly) beat his fellow silver-am competitor within the #86 Honda.
Adam and Wood were next out and whilst the Scot had to build up to his quickest lap, the buffer that Petrobelli has established within his earlier run was enough for the pairing to gain their first pole position of the season. Whilst the #86 Honda NSX obviously struggled with balance around the circuit, that was enough for Wood to also finish P1 in class to gain the #97 car a further class pole position ahead of tomorrow’s race.
Then the racing will really start!
Photo credits – Jacob Ebrey
Saturday, June 21, 2025 |
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Just two Astons to tango at the start of Speedweek from Spa Francorchamps this weekend
It’s the start of the SRO Speedweek this weekend and that means its again time for the British GT Championship to kicks things off with their fourth round of the season from Spa Francorchamps.
Two endurance rounds from both Donington Park and Silverstone before the first of two sprint races that made up the third round from Oulton Park just over three weeks ago where the Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crews from the Blackthorn AMR and Beechdean AMR teams featured upon their respective Pro-Am or Silver-Am podiums at least once over that weekend.
Despite this weekend’s Spa round also being another three-hour endurance round, we again only see the two AMR Vantage GT3’s of Jonny Adam/Giacomo Petrobelli and Andrew Howard/Tom Wood with the #50 MKH Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Peter Montague and Stuart Hall missing from their GT4 Endurance Cup obligations. We suspect that Hall is again double booked with his RoFGO driver coaching duties in Austria this weekend.
A P3 and a P4 results from Oulton Park gets the #7 Blackthorn crews GT3 Championship hopes back on track after the disaster of the opening round as they now climb up to fifth within the overall and Pro-Am GT3 Drivers Championship whist the Silver-Am pairing within the #97 Beechdean car lost some of their advantage to their only class advisory after they finished second fiddle to the #86 Bridger Motorsport Honda NSX GT3 crew at the end of those two sprint races.
Having already tested at the Belgian circuit just after the Spa 24 Official test two weeks before Oulton Park, these two cars join another (lowly) twelve GT3 cars spread across the Pro-Am and Silver-Am classes as well as just eight GT4 crews with a further two cars joining them from the Endurance Cup only entrants.
As usual, the British GT track action begins on Friday with paid testing before the start of Free Practice, Pre -Qualifying and Qualifying on Saturday before a 12:30hrs local start on Sunday to this three-hour affair.
Monday, June 16, 2025 |
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Oulton Park again excites with the two Aston Martin GT3s again in thick of the action
This year delayed within the season from its more traditional Easter weekend to that of the late May Bank Holiday weekend, saw the GT3 and Gt4 teams that did make the journey up the M6 tested to the maximum as blustery but dry conditions within the first hour long sprint race were soon replaced with a wet-drying-wet format within the second.
Having set the respective grids way back on a warmer and sunnier Saturday afternoon, the Blackthorn AMR and Beechdean AMR Aston Martin Racing powered crews were welcomed back to much cooler track conditions with the possibility of rain very much upon the cards.
Giacomo Petrobelli had qualified his #7 Blackthorn car onto the front row of the grid whilst Andrew Howard was further back in twelfth overall but more importantly P2 within his two-horse silver-am battle with the Honda.
Disaster would unfortunately suffer further class pain as opening corner contact saw his #97 consigned to the side of the track, nursing a rear puncture and whilst he would later return to the track and complete the race alongside co-driver Tom Wood – they would ultimately finish second in class to the #86 Bridger Motorsport Honda.
Meanwhile, the #7 Aston Martin of Petrobelli and Jonny Adam would have the pace to maintain their P2 position overall and was quickly approaching the end of his minimum drive time when the leading GT4 car spun out and hard into the barrier at Deer Leap to bring out the Safety Car.
Circulating under yellows, the GT3 pack pitted next time around but it was another fifteen minutes before the race got back to green after the #7 had served its five second success penalty awarded to it after its Silverstone result – something that dropped the car down to P4 upon exiting pit lane.
Going into the final minutes of the race, and with Adam setting the then fastest laps of the race in P3, it was all too close to call as 1-2-3-4 placed cars were all within a couple of cars lengths to one another as the #7 car eventually grabbed P3 overall at the end for another visit to the podium.
Race two later in the afternoon was, however, a different matter as rain was now falling, the track was distinctly wet but the selection over wets or slicks wasn’t exactly clear cut. With Adam this time taking the start from P5 and Wood again on class pole position in P10, it was surprisingly another clean start for the opening laps.
Conditions on track were quickly changing as many elected to stop and remove their wet tyres although both Aston Martins resisted the temptation in doing the same. As the laps passed by, those on slicks were initially quicker than those on wets but that was soon reverted as more rain came which forced those on slicks to seriously reconsider.
As the pit window opened, both Aston Martin’s were running within the top five with Adam in P3 and Wood in P5 but after their respective stops (which the #7 again had an additional five seconds to serve from its race 1 results) saw them emerge in P4 and the Beechdean of Howard now in sixth.
This time, there was no second leg push from the #7 Blackthorn car as they eventually had to settle for P4 overall but for the Beechdean crew, they had to watch an increasingly faster #86 Honda not just take another class win but also simply drive past others, like the #7 Blackthorn to score its first P3 finish overall – a worrying trend for the AMR crew as the season moves forward onto Spa Francorchamps in just over three weeks’ time.
Photo credits – Jacob Ebrey
Monday, May 26, 2025 |
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Both Astons looking racey ahead of Monday British GT sprint races from Oulton Park
The third round of the British GT Championship is warming up nicely up at Oulton Park after Free Practice, Pre-Qualifying and then individual Qualifying sessions set the grids for Bank Holiday Mondays first two sprint races of the season.
As previously listed, this sprint round sees just the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3’s from both the Blackthorn AMR and Beechdean AMR teams take part as both Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam look to continue their fast pace within their #7 Pro-Am entry whilst Andrew Howard and Tom Wood seek to consolidate their position within their Silver-Am entered #97 car.
Starting upon something of a damp but drying track, both Aston crews showed immediate intent with the first track session of the day in Free Practice with both cars running second quickest in each class before the #97 car went sixth quickest overall in Pre-Qualifying.
The event then moved onto individual Qualifying sessions where each driver would run the car to determine their cars starting position in each of Monday’s two, one hour races with both Petrobelli and Howard (P12 overall) earning themselves a P2 start in class for race one.
Next it was the turn of both Adam and Wood to do likewise as Adam earned himself a third row start in P5 but with Wood scooping another Silver-Am Pole Position P10 overall.
With a day of twiddling their thumbs tomorrow, the two races start at 10:45 and 15:45hrs local on Monday.
Photo credits – Jacob Ebrey
Saturday, May 24, 2025 |
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