Photo credits - Team / social media

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

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

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

So we will have to wait and see!

Photo credit – Teams / series / social media

Taking the start from third overall (and in class) was Jamie Day whilst Marc Warren would be starting from slightly further back eighth overall in GT4 and third again in class.

The only problem for the #47 car was that their final race of the race wouldn’t extend to more than the opening lap as having already avoided a GT3 spinning off into the gravel outside Paddock Hill Bend, the clumping pack caught Warren off guard as he impacted into the rear of Mustang causing not just front wing damage but also terminal damage to the radiator.

It was their championship charge over in a flash unless the chasing #31 Mercedes and the #29 BMW crews failed to score – possible, but not really probable given there was still two hours fifty-eight minutes to run as the Safety Car came out for the first time.

Despite an overnight Balance of Performance adjustment with the title contending Aston Martin Vantage and the McLaren Altura GT4’s where the Aston lost 10kg of ballast and the McLaren gained it, it was still hard to tell that apart as the race finally went back to green with Day trying to fend off the #90 McLaren for the lead in GT4.

Race Control warning and penalties were already being issued as first Day got a warning about his driving standards in defending his race lead whilst the #29 BMW was given a Drive through penalty for contact which only helped the cause of the #47 Forsetti crew now consigned to watching the race from the pit lane.

Whilst it remained somewhat feisty at the head of GT4, Andrew Howard was quietly keeping out of trouble within his #97 AMR Vantage GT3 that he would be sharing with GT3 debutant Tom Wood later in the race. Having started P9 overall (and P2 in GT3 Silver-Am), the green AMR was holding off the silver-Am championship winning McLaren behind them OK.

Just after thirty minutes of race clock time, the #90 Optimum McLaren finally got passed the #7 Aston Martin of Day and immediately gapped them to the tune of a second or two. With little over ten minutes to go before the start of the staggered pit stop windows, a Full Course Yellow was called for another GT3 off into the tyre wall at Stirling’s. Initially looking not that bad, that caution period was then notified to all as being a lengthy period as the tyre wall and barriers would need attention and the race wouldn’t be released again until that and all the mandatory pit stops had been completed.

Losing nearly forty minutes to that damage, the race finally got back to green with just over forty minutes remaining but in between all of that, the leading #90 McLaren had managed to get out of pit land ahead of the overall GT3 leader meaning that with the Safety Car restart – they would get waved towards the rear of the GT4 pack and technically nearly a whole lap ahead of the #7 car.

Getting back to green and it was swiftly back under yellows again as three more (this time GT4 cars) exited the race together after contact at Stirling’s to bring out another length FCY and Safety Car restart. The best news from the AMR powered paddock was that Tom Wood was already making an impression aboard the #97 with both the fastest lap of the race so far and having elevated the #97 car up to seventh overall.

Getting back to green with just ten minutes remaining, there was absolutely nothing that Mikey Porter could do about his position within the race as the #90 was literally miles in front but at least he was defending their Silver Cup position at the head of the pile.

After another eventful race, the chequered flag finally dropped to give the Beechdean AMR crew of Howard and Wood a P6 overall finish and another visit to the GT3 Silver-Am podium in P2 whilst (more importantly) the #7 Forsetti Vantage GT4 of Day and Porter finished P2 overall within GT4 to claim the Silver Cup Drivers Championship but not the Overall GT Drivers Champiosnhip as that went to the #90 Optimum crew.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad season for the championship debuting Forsetti team as they added the Silver Cup Championship to their GT4 Teams title alongside P2 finishes within the GT4 Pro-Am class (for the #47), P2 and P4 finishes within the Overall GT4 Championship for both the #7 and #47 cars respectively.

It’s absolutely been another cracking British GT Championship season.

Photo credits – Teams / series / social media

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

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

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

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

Photo credit – GT Cup

For a change, both classes of Aston Martin Racing powered teams featured well during Saturdays Qualifying period as the #10 Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 crew of Matt Topham and Josh Rowledge secured the GT3 Pro-Am Pole position, whilst the two Forsetti Motorsport Vantage GT4 crews of both Mikey Porter/Jamie Day (#7 Silver) and Marc Warren/Will Orton (#47 Pro-Am) secured Pole positions of their respective classes, so it was game on right from the off as Forsetti had more to gain than most.

Unfortunately, that hope was very short lived for the #47 car of Warren as first, he was muscled off the track by the #90 McLaren to run through the gravel and down the order to last on the opening lap before further side to side contact with another car saw an unscheduled visit to pit lane for repairs. That lost the crew many laps and descended the rest of the race into something of a live testing session for the championship contending crew.

In a similar thread, the #10 Blackthorn car of Topham also found themselves being spun around from an unsuccessful overtaking move from behind at the final corner just fifteen minutes in that would drop them down to near the rear of the GT3 field. Having started sixth overall, this incident and a following puncture would ruin all of their hard work going into this event as the Silver-Am scraps was all that they could hope for.

Then on a positive note, the #87 Blackthorn car of Giacomo Petrobelli (with Jonny Adam) had moved up from P7 on the grid to be running third overall on pace before moving up another notch after one of the two Barwell Lamborghini’s had to pit with a puncture whilst the pole setting #7 Forsetti GT4 of Porter was also looking comfortable at the head of the GT4 field. 

The #97 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard (with Jessica Hawkins) had already had an off in the wet of morning warmup but was slowly moving up the field as opportunities arose.

By the halfway stage, Petrobelli had run a cracking opening stint to hand his car over to recent birthday boy Adam from second overall – as did Porter to Day in GT4 whilst the #97 Beechdean car was now up to P4 in class with the #10 Blackthorn car (now with Rowledge) just behind.

Whilst the #47 Forsetti car of Orton was still cycling around, the #7 car’s hope of a race win was severely hampered with both their mandatory additional twenty-four seconds hold time for being a silver/silver crew plus the extra fifteen seconds form finishing second last time out. By the time that that was all over, Day had dropped to P7 overall in class but with another hour to go.

Just over half an hour remaining and a very wide course through the gravel at Redgate’s for Day saw further chins hit the floor within the team garage as it appeared that Aston upon Aston contact may have been the course of that excursion for Day and with the #97 Beechdean of Hawkins looking quite sheepish to that effect.

Then the race took its final set of twists as a Full Course Yellow was called for after the #55 Ginetta nose-dived into the tyre bales at the Melbourne hairpin after apparent brake issues. Thankfully, the driver was otherwise OK, but the caution took the remaining grid to just two racing laps at the end to decide matters.

Thankfully, Adam got to enjoy a much deserved belated birthday present after he brough the #87 Blackthorn car home in second overall after some great progress from Petrobelli in the opening laps whilst the #97 Beechdean GT3 of Howard and Hawkins also benefitted from a late off (puncture) from the Abba Racing Mercedes to move up onto the final step of the GT3 Silver -Am podium again (despite a post-race time penalty affecting their finishing time/not their finishing position) whilst the #7 Forsetti car of Porter and Day scrapped out another Silver class P3 finish at the end to help keep their title hopes alive. The #10 Blackthorn car eventually finished a respectable P9 overall and P4 in class despite what had happened to them on track with the #47 Forsetti car listed as P29/P11, nine laps down.

Championship wise – it’s still all about the two Forsetti GT4 crews as Porter and Day still lead the overall GT4 Drivers Championship by 3.5 points, the same within their Silver Cup class but by 15 points whilst Warren and Orton see their GT4 Pro-Am class lead drop to 6.5 points all with just the Championship’s visit to Brands Hatch.

Photo credits – Team / Series / social media

Already having received their GT4 Team’s Championship winning silverware ahead of today, the Norfolk based Forsetti Motorsport hold all the aces as far as further Aston Martin Racing powered championship win is concerned with their #7 Vantage GT4 crew of Mikey Porter and Jamie Day heading the overall and GT4 Silver classes whilst their #47 Vantage GT4 crew of Marc Warren and Will Orton do within their own GT4 Pro-Am class.

With testing and Free Practice results always hard to judge pace wise, it were the two Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 crews that pushed the pace during their two Qualifying sessions as first Giacomo Petrobelli and then Matt Topham pushed the GT3 Am leaders all the way to finish their ten-minute qualifying time P6 and P5 respectively. The #97 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard seemed never to get going within the greasy offline conditions to eventually finish P16 overall.

Next up were the higher graded GT3 drivers with Jonny Adam taking over the #87 Blackthorn car with both Josh Rowledge within the #10 car and Jessica Hawkins within the #97 Beechdean AMR car as their silver graded drivers.

Again, the Blackthorn cars performed well with their best lap times coming at the fourth time of asking, presenting the #10 with a cracking P6 overall and P1 in Silver-Am starting position with the #87 Pro-Am car of Petrobelli/Adam just behind in P7 overall (P6 in class) and with the #97 Beechdean car P16 overall and P6 in class.

Just ahead of the rains returning to the circuit, the GT4 class were able to run their two allotted ten-minute sessions with first Mikey Porter and Marc Warren out within their #7 Silver and #47 Pro-Am classed entries. Whilst Porter was only able to improve upon his previous lap times the once, Warren saw a succession of laps improve for time (time wise) for them to finish third and eighth respectively.

Then out came Jamie Day and with his first lap time secured the provisional pole position for the #7 car (bettered it again with his next lap) before saving their tyres ready for the race happy with his days work at the front of the GT4 queue. Orton was only marginally off Day’s times, but this time ran a four-lap session before timing out with an aggregated starting position of P4 overall but P1 in Pro-Am.

Sunday’s weather looks like there could be a lot more rainfall at the circuit before the race tomorrow but dryer from midday onwards for the race itself.

Wet or dry – it may not quite be the #DoningtonDecider that we all know but it might confirm who can control their nerves and who can’t!!

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

Starting with them, the first year of operations of the Snetterton based Forsetti team has been something of a deserved minor miracle as drivers Mikey Porter and Jamie Day joined forces again (having raced together within the earlier GT4 Winter Series) within the #7 Silver class entry whilst Marc Warren and Will Orton changed chassis and series to pair up within their #47 Pro-Am entry.

Since that point, their combined results have been nothing short of remarkable considering two of those were racing within the GT4 level for the first time and rightly take the top slot within their respective class championship table going into this weekend’s two-hour penultimate race although the points margins to the chasing pack make things far from certain.

In addition to the usual event and championship aspirational pressures, both Forsetti crews will also have the additional issue of an extended pit stop minimum time to contend with in addition to their already stated minimums having finished on the podium last time out at Snetterton in mid-July.

Within the GT3 classes, however, there are unfortunately no such championship potential for any of the three Vantage GT3 entries from either the Blackthorn AMR or Beechdean AMR teams.

Swapping over to the new 2024 variant at the start of the season, the #97 Beechdean AMR team took a change in tack as Andrew Howard decided upon a Silver-Am entry alongside GT3 debutant Jessica Hawkins but then had to miss out the two available races at Snetterton to put paid to anything more than event success, just like they did last time out at Donington Park with a class third in race two.

That leaves the two Blackthorn AMR crews of the #10 Silver-Am car of Matt Topham and Josh Rowledge alongside the #87 Pro-Am entry of Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam.

Things started badly for the #10 crew after off’s at both the media day at Donington Park and then at the first day from Oulton Park saw them with little mileage under their belts (with car parts in short supply) and two DNS for the opening round. Things have thankfully improved for the crew with a steady stream of championship points that now sees them P4 in class albeit over a hundred points behind the already declared Silver-Am winners.

Finally, there is the #87 Vantage GT3 car of Petrobelli and Adam who have been struck down with a mixture of car underperformance and misfortune on track to never really threaten the GT3 podium (except for at Spa before a technical issue sidelined the car just before the end) to languish down in P8 in just a third of the points value of the present championship leader.

Will all pressures now removed from the GT3 crews; things will hopefully be a little more relaxed ahead of Sunday’s two-hour race.

Photo credits – Teams / Jacob Ebrey / social media