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

 

 

 

Qualifying was completed a couple of hours ago ahead of tomorrow’s penultimate round of the British GT Championship but between then and us getting home, everything has changed as the three (faster) Ginetta’s have all been disqualified from their sessions on a technical infringement.

Having had a few hours of track time on Thursday to get in some early laps during private testing, the lower-than-normal grid of twenty-seven GT3 and GT4 cars were back in business this morning for the first of two one-hour sessions (Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying) before this afternoons all important individual qualifying runs.

 

The Grange Racing by FSR were reporting how their new BoP for the event had been challenging for them as they had to deal with additional ballast amongst others things although the #27 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 of Dan Lavery and Darren Turner were always up at the sharper end of the timing screen despite these apparent hardships.

The #97 GBR Stratton Motorsport were welcoming back their new young gun in Jordan Collard to join their full season entrant John Hartshorne for these remain two rounds of the season. He laps on Thursday were his first competitive laps within any race car for about four years he said over the circuit commentary.

 

The #21 MK Racing AMR Vantage GT4 Silver pairing of Jessica Hawkins and Will Orton gave their team an early headache after an off-track excursion during todays morning session had damaged the front splitter without another seemingly being available at the circuit. Despite this, the necessary repairs were made and that didn’t seem to affect the pairing too much over the remaining sessions.

The #40 Townsend Motorsport AMR of James Townsend and Joe Wheeler appeared to have an uneventful morning – although the pairing were slowest by the end of both sessions. That was a similar tail for the #007 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn who also finished their morning runs at the lower end of the GT3 class.

 

Despite the skies clouding over a bit more over lunch, the sun was back out in force in time for the four qualifying sessions where each driver per car was required to set a time with the aggregate of such setting their position upon the grid for tomorrows two-hour race and with qualifying having been run on track at least, the performances of all five Aston Martins had seen them left within their respective midfield.

Then comes the announcement of problems with all three Ginetta’s. Whilst the #007 Beechdean GT3 is unaffected by this and will start from P7 on the grid, the four Vantage GT4 crews all move up three places with the #27 Grange Racing car now grabbing GT4 Pro-Am pole position again for another front row start in GT4 with the #21 MK Racing crew just behind in third. The #97 GBR Stratton pips their more established rivals within the #40 Townsend car with each starting P7 and P8 overall within GT4 respectively.

 

But of course, two hours around Donington Park usually turns all of the above upon its head at least once or twice during the race so the race result is still a blank canvas.

 

 

 

 

It’s time for the British GT Championship to start ramping up the temperatures within all of its available classes as this weekend sees the penultimate round of the season from Donington Park. Not quite the infamous #doningtondecider this time around but again, results from this two-hour race will prove pivotable for some going into the final round from Brands Hatch later this month.

One thing the teams and crew will not be missing this time around will be the recent repressive heat of summer of late with more seasonable temperatures and track conditions now expected for this weekend.

 

Today’s provisional entry list confirms all of the usual full season Aston Martin Racing powered entries but this time with a caveat over the #97 GBR Stratton Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 crew as (at the moment) just John Hartshorne is being listed. Last time out at Snetterton, it was Jonny Adam who filled the gap in lieu of Ronan Pearson who we understand to have come across some budgetary issues but this time around – Adam is already committed to his Heart of Racing duties within the FIA World Endurance Championship in America.

Looking back two weeks to those two races in Norfolk, it was a perfect performance from the #27 Grange Racing with FSR Vantage GT4 team of Dan Lavery and Darren Turner as they scooped two class wins for their efforts to lead their Pro-Am class and be in close contention with the GT4 Drivers overall championship as well.

 

For the #21 MK Racing Vantage GT4 duo of Will Orton and Jessica Hawkins, consistency again proved its worth as a class P2 finish in race one and then a P3 class finish in race two sees them retain a now slender lead within the GT4 Overall Drivers standing as well as maintain the same points difference to their closest rivals within both their GT4 Silver class and GT4 Teams championship stakes.

The #40 Townsend Racing by Fox Motorsport AMR crew of James Townsend and Joe Wheeler celebrated something of a better performance in the heat of Norfolk after a P6 Pro-Am finish in race one was backed up with a deserved P3 podium finish in race two to now be just a handful of points behind Hartshorne. A double P5 finish for him in both races sees him lose a bit of ground to his rivals with the top three crews more than thirteen points ahead.

 

Finally in GT3, we have recently seen the confirmation from Beechdean AMR’s boss Andrew Howard of his intention to step back from high level competitive racing at the end of the season as he and co-driver Ross Gunn look to notch up another class championship win for themselves by the end of the Brands Hatch finale.

A P4 finish in race one but dropping valuable points through errors in race two saw the pairing having to make do with a P3 result in that race sees the #007 crew drop twenty-five points to the new GT3 Pro-Am class leaders as well as dropping to fifth within the Overall championship so for this crew – a decent result at Donington Park will be key to their final race campaign but the team will have an additional ten second stop at their designated driver change in lieu of their podium finish last time out. The #27 and #21 Vantage GT4 crews will also have an additional fifteen seconds of stop time added for Donington for the same reason.

 

Track action will begin on Thursday with private testing before Free Practice, Pre-Qualifying and combined Qualifying on Saturday before the start to this penultimate two hour affair starting at 13:30hrs local on Sunday.

 

The fifth round ninety-minute adventure of the Britcar Endurance Championship earlier today proved itself to be an unfortunately short one for the Addison Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4.

With the father and son combo of Bill and Martin Addison again behind the wheel of their #189 GT class entry, yesterday’s testing results looked favourable for the pairing as most of today’s twenty-five strong, multi-classed entry enjoyed a day’s testing around the arid looking Donington Park circuit ahead of today’s qualifying and race.

Bucking the trend of their usual performance, it was Bill Addison who qualified the car P22 overall and P12 in class ahead of this afternoons ninety-minute round around the shorter National circuit layout.

 

Despite a clean start by all, the #189 race ended abruptly at the start of only the third lap when the camera panned across to see the red and white liveried car side on to the tyre wall on the outside of Redgate’s. Having evidently made its way through the gravel before impacting nose on to the barrier before losing its bonnet and its part within the race. The causation of this event wasn’t seen by the cameras but there were other cars behind them on track at the time.

 

After some very busy race weekends recently, it’s nice to know that this weekend coming sees just one Aston Martin Racing powered entry compete any recognisable championship that we are aware about from Donington Park on Saturday.

Having placed our resident proof-reading expert under some pressure since the busyness of last weekend’s track action, that news will come as some relief to them after they corrected with non-deliberate error or two into just one ninety-minute race this time around.

That attention will be featured onto father and son duo, Bill and Martin Addison who will again be competing with their 17A AMR Vantage GT4 within the Britcar Endurance Championship’s fifth round.

 

This time featuring as a solo ninety-minute race around the shorter national layout of the circuit, their #189 Addison Racing entry will again compete within their GT class entry amongst thirteen other entries in class and a total expected race entry of twenty-eight multi-classed cars.

It will be straight into action for the Britcar entry as a twenty-minute qualifying session in the morning will lead into the start of the race just after lunch. We believe that these races are usually streamed via YouTube if you’re interested.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

 

Another Aston Martin Racing powered team will be competing at Spa Francorchamps this weekend as the Britcar Championship hosts its third round of the season from the Belgian circuit.

Representing the brand this time around will be father and son duo Martin and Bill Addison who will be competing within their #189 AMR Vantage GT4 within the Championships GT class for this weekend’s two sixty-minute races within the Supercar Challenge powered by Hankook events with an expected entry of twenty multi-classed cars.

 

After two races apiece at the season’s opening rounds at both Donington and Oulton Parks, the #189 crew presently stand sixth overall in the Driver’s Championship – third in class with plenty more racing opportunity still to come with a season that concludes at their “Into the Night Race” from Brands Hatch in early November.

Photo credits – Social Media

 

 

 

 

Anyone in the UK and fancy’s a liitle bit of old school, then there is always the GT3 Legends races at Donington Park as they help to form part of the Donington Historic Festival from the circuit this weekend.

Although the adverts for the event have said more but twenty-nine iconic GT3 chariots of just a few years ago take to the 1.97mile National Circuit layout as part of this weekend’s festival.

 

Scrolling down the entry list and you will see BMW Z4’s, McLaren MP4 12C’s, Lamborghini Gallardo’s, Nissan GTRs and of course some V12 Aston Martin Vantage GT3s amongst others.

From what we can see, there will be at least four such Aston Martin Racing powered beasts on track with the likes of Shaun Lynn, Graham Davidson and Jonathon Mitchell all taking their steads out for a stretch.

 

Today saw both Qualifying sessions take place before the series will host one fifty-minute race on both Saturday and Sunday – with the pit lane garages having the benefit of the GT3 teams within them should you fancy an amble down the paddock side of them.

From what we can tell – one will be in the former TRG-AMR racing colours, another from the Oman Racing era plus one apiece from the TF Sport and Massive Motorsport teams back in the day.

 

Photo credits – Series / social media

 

 

 

With just over a week to go before Media Day, their first pair of drivers have today been confirmed by the GBR Stratton Aston Martin Racing team ahead of this season’s British GT Championship.

Having announced a potential two car AMR Vantage GT4 entry way back at the turn of the year, the pairing of John Hartsorne and Ronan Pearson is the first driver announcement from the partnership between the Graham Brunton Racing and Stratton Motorsport team and comes some weeks after at least one tested with the team at Donington Park.

 

Whilst Hartshorne will be a very familiar name within the Aston Martin Racing Partner team fraternity after his racing comeback with the TF Sport team within most of the current ACO rules series, this is his first recent adventure within a GT4 platform within current regulations.

Pearson meanwhile, comes from the UK TOCA package of race series including the Renault Clio Cup and British Touring Car Championship but this will be his first adventure into GT racing.

“I am absolutely ecstatic to be making my debut in the British GT Championship with GBR Stratton
Motorsport. This change of career path has me incredibly motivated for success and I feel extremely lucky to be working with some great people who have really been in my corner through every step so far. My first season in rear-wheel-drive machinery is going to be a big learner but one that has been in my sights for some time now and this welcome change couldn’t come at a better time with the opportunity that I now have” he said.

With potentially seven Aston Martin Racing powered crews being entered into this season, this news still leaves the second GBR Stratton Motorsport crew to be declared plus the second Full Send Racing GT4 crew after that of Darren Turner and Dan Lavery.

From what we understand from British GT, all further announcements between now and Media Day (at Silverstone on the 31st March) will be on short notice.

Photo credits – Team

 

 

 

 

It appears that we all get a weekend off early season motor racing this time around as we look forward to the next batch of IMSA Series racing due to take place over the final weekend in February.

Until then, and to a point where we will find out if we will have any Aston Martin Racing powered runners within the VP Racing Sportscar Challenge Series visit to CoTA, we can take a quick look back at the snippets of news that have come out from other AMR powered runners over the last week or so. (UPDATE - unfortunately there are none being listed!)

 

The Japanese D’Station Racing team where out this week in a pre-season Super GT Series test from their home circuit of Fuji Speedway.

The team have already confirmed the return of both Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg within the team’s #777 Vantage GT3 entry but it was just the team manager on hand this week as they clocked up some valuable laps as the event was curtailed to just a single day due to track conditions in the bitter cold. The team will now look forward to two official test dates before the opening round to the season from Okayama in April.

 

 

The Spanish based E2P Racing team have had their 24H Series European Series entry confirmed with a four-man driver line up and their Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 that they have already raced this year within the GT Winter Series 6 Hours of Portimao a couple of weeks ago.

This will be the team’s second season with the Aston but their fourth within the Creventic lead series.

 

 

Within the ranks of the British GT Championship, the GBR Stratton Motorsport team have again bee out pre-season testing – this time at Donington Park where a familiar face in John Hartshorne having his name above one of the doors of one of the team’s two Vantage GT4 cars that they have entered.

The team is due out again next week at Snetterton and then at Silverstone before we hopefully hear of some definitive names within their GT4 entries ahead of Media Day at Silverstone at the end of March.

 

 

Within Britcar, the Addison Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of father and son namesakes Martin and Bill Addison have also been confirmed earlier the month with the crew moving up to the 17A variant of the car late last season with some immediate class success.

 

It was a bitter/sweat result for the two full season Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 crews at last weekend’s concluding round of the British GT Championship as one crew was able to lift their ultimate class crown whilst the other sadly fell just short at the line at Donington Park.

Going into another classic #DoningtonDecider seasonal finale, the #7 Blackthorn AMR crew of Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam had most to do but the points available by the end of Sunday’s two hour race still gave them both a mathematical chance of lifting the overall and Pro-Am class drivers titles whilst the #97 Beechdean AMR crew of Andrew Howard and Tom Wood only needed to finish and be classified within the results to do the same within their Silver-Am class.

 

Some welcome additional runners will add to the spectacle of another British GT Championship #DoningtonDecider finale from (yes, that’s right) Donington Park this weekend with two Aston Martin Racing powered crews still firmly in the hunt.

Starting with the additional entries, we welcome back the #31 MKH Racing AMR Vantage GT4 that Peter Montague and Stuart Hall used for most of their GT4 Endurance Cup rounds this season. For this season finale however, the black and purple liveried car will be driven by their two Ginetta and GT Cup Championship graduates Michael Orant and Owen Hizzy.

The Feathers Motorsport crew came out fighting this weekend at Donington as they looked to protect their reducing class lead going into that penultimate round of the GT Cup Championship.

Having lead their GTH class for so long, recent strong results from two of the new Ginetta GT4’s had seen the #82 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 of Archie Clark and Tom Canning’s points margin reduce to just twenty-nine points going into this weekend’s four race round.

 

The #82 Feathers Motorsport crew of Archie Clark and Tom Canning will have their work cut out if they want to hang onto the class lead within the GT Cup Championship as two Ginetta crews are coming through strong as the Championship reaches its penultimate round of the year from Donington Park this weekend.

Originally dominating the GTH class at the start of the season despite Clark’s lack of GT4 competition up until that point, the #82 crew have seen both the #99 and #30 Ginetta GT4 crews start to knock them off the podium over recent rounds to where the #82 crew has seen its class lead reduced to just twenty-nine points going into this round.