British GT Brands Hatch 29th September 2024
COLLARDS CLINCH THE CHAMPIONSHIP CROWN
The closing event of the 2024 British GT season took place on the sweeping GP layout at Brands Hatch over the weekend of the 28th and 29th of September, with both of the overall GT3 and GT4 championship crowns there for the taking.
GT3
Qualifying: McLarens dominated the front row with the RJN Motorsport car of Josh Caygill/Alex Buncombe snaring pole position from the similar Garage 59 example of Morgan Tilbrook/Marcus Clutton, Caygill was fastest in his section of qualifying and Buncombe backed that up with second fastest in his turn to grab the prime starting spot by just 0.080 seconds. The first of the overall championship hopefuls headed the second row as Alex Martin/Sandy Mitchell started their Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini from third after the Huracan topped the second portion of qualifying and were joined by the 2Seas Mercedes of Kevin Tse/Maxi Götz. Mark Radcliffe/Tom Gamble’s Optimum Motorsport McLaren qualified fifth ahead of the Rob Collard/Ricky Collard duo which headed the standings by 24.5 points arriving in Kent, the father-and-son pairing needed to finish fifth if their stablemates Martin/Mitchell won overall to wrap up the title and their cause wasn't helped when the Barwell Lamborghini required an engine change after Free Practice. Richard and Sean Neary's Team ABBA Mercedes headed the fourth row from the Simon Orange/Benjamin Goethe McLaren. Andrew Howard was joined by youngster Tom Wood for the weekend and the pair placed the sole Aston Martin in the field on the fifth row ahead of the Mike Price/Callum MacLeod Mercedes in tenth. The sixth row comprised the McLaren of Mark Smith/Martin Plowman and the lone BMW of Carl Cavers/Lewis Plato. The third pairing with a mathematical chance of the crown wound up near the bottom of the GT3 entry in thirteenth and Shaun Balfe/Adam Smalley's Garage 59 McLaren would need a good slice of fortune to take the crown from there after failing to set a time along with the Sacha Kakad/Hugo Cook Audi R8. The Silver Cup champions needed to win the race, the Collards not to score and the Martin/Mitchell pairing to finish no higher than seventh to claim the overall GT3 crown.
The closing event of the 2024 British GT season took place on the sweeping GP layout at Brands Hatch over the weekend of the 28th and 29th of September, with both of the overall GT3 and GT4 championship crowns there for the taking.
GT3
Qualifying: McLarens dominated the front row with the RJN Motorsport car of Josh Caygill/Alex Buncombe snaring pole position from the similar Garage 59 example of Morgan Tilbrook/Marcus Clutton, Caygill was fastest in his section of qualifying and Buncombe backed that up with second fastest in his turn to grab the prime starting spot by just 0.080 seconds. The first of the overall championship hopefuls headed the second row as Alex Martin/Sandy Mitchell started their Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini from third after the Huracan topped the second portion of qualifying and were joined by the 2Seas Mercedes of Kevin Tse/Maxi Götz. Mark Radcliffe/Tom Gamble’s Optimum Motorsport McLaren qualified fifth ahead of the Rob Collard/Ricky Collard duo which headed the standings by 24.5 points arriving in Kent, the father-and-son pairing needed to finish fifth if their stablemates Martin/Mitchell won overall to wrap up the title and their cause wasn't helped when the Barwell Lamborghini required an engine change after Free Practice. Richard and Sean Neary's Team ABBA Mercedes headed the fourth row from the Simon Orange/Benjamin Goethe McLaren. Andrew Howard was joined by youngster Tom Wood for the weekend and the pair placed the sole Aston Martin in the field on the fifth row ahead of the Mike Price/Callum MacLeod Mercedes in tenth. The sixth row comprised the McLaren of Mark Smith/Martin Plowman and the lone BMW of Carl Cavers/Lewis Plato. The third pairing with a mathematical chance of the crown wound up near the bottom of the GT3 entry in thirteenth and Shaun Balfe/Adam Smalley's Garage 59 McLaren would need a good slice of fortune to take the crown from there after failing to set a time along with the Sacha Kakad/Hugo Cook Audi R8. The Silver Cup champions needed to win the race, the Collards not to score and the Martin/Mitchell pairing to finish no higher than seventh to claim the overall GT3 crown.
Race: The field was granted two green flag laps in the cool conditions but the two hours would begin when the second circulation commenced. Josh Caygill held his nerve at the rolling start to lead into Paddock Hill Bend from pole position, heading Alex Martin and Morgan Tillbrook after the Lamborghini went ahead on the inside. However, Kevin Tse's Mercedes was tipped into the gravel at the first corner for the second race in a row, this time after contact with Mark Radcliffe's McLaren. The Optimum Motorsport car had got a long way up the inside of Tse but was forced up the inside kerb before contact was made at the apex. The Safety Car was quickly deployed to extract the 2Seas Motorsport car, which toured into the pits to retire once freed. Radcliffe held onto fourth despite the early contact, whilst Rob Collard staved off Richard Neary's Mercedes to be fifth in the queue. The Safety Car would return to the pitlane after two laps and Caygill and Martin leapt away from Tillbrook at the resumption but the Garage 59 McLaren was soon back with the Lamborghini as the top three edged away from the Radcliffe, Collard and Neary group. Caygill eked out his lead to over one and a half seconds after twenty minutes as the top six cars spread out a little as they tried not to overheat their mounts but the fourth, fifth and sixth battle concertinaed when they got among the lapped GT4 traffic. Collard got a run on the Optimum McLaren out of Clearways for the fourteenth time and eased up the inside into Paddock Hill Bend to snare fourth position, with Neary's Mercedes following the Huracan past up to Druids. Soon after, the GT4 lappery brought Martin back onto the rear of Caygill after 24 minutes and the Lamborghini made a bid for the lead at Westfield but had to back out of it as they encountered Ian Duggan's Lotus. Caygill was forced to follow the GT4 car down Dingle Dell and was close to making contact as he squeezed past into Sheene Curve, with Martin following as they put three cars between themselves and Tillbrook. Caygill was able to open a margin over the following couple of laps, despite his engine cover starting to work loose, but when they caught the GT4 lead scrap just after the half-hour mark had passed, Caygill was able to leap further away as Martin was held up through Sheene Curve and Stirlings to send the gap out to 2.602 seconds. Behind Tillbrook in third, Collard had been quietly chasing down the McLaren and the Barwell Huracan arrived behind the third-placed car when it stumbled across the Callum Davies GT4 McLaren at Graham Hill Bend after 33 minutes, the championship leader then dived inside into Paddock Hill Bend at the start of the following lap to move into the podium placings. The outsider in the championship fight had made some forward progress after a crank sensor failure condemned Shaun Blafe/Adam Smalley's McLaren to a seventh-row start and were running in tenth position. The Duckhams-backed car briefly moved into ninth when Balfe got a run on Mark Smith's similar car out of Hawthorn but skated wide exiting Westfield to hand the place back again. As the opening stint wore on, Collard's Lamborghini was gathering strength and was almost with teammate Martin and the pair were just under a second from Caygill in the lead when a Full Course Yellow was necessary after 48 mins when the Simon Orange GT3 McLaren tripped over the Will Moore Mustang GT4 and crunched into the barrier. The Full Course Yellow was extended to cover the GT3 minimum driving time of 62 minutes that passed during the interruption. After the stops, the lead still belonged to the RJN McLaren now handled by Alex Buncombe and the loose engine cover was taped down during its service. The Dextra Lamborghini that was started by Martin remained second with 'works' driver Sandy Mitchell now at the wheel. The Collard car in the hands of son Ricky faced a bigger gap to its teammate after serving an extra twenty seconds of compensation time for their Donington Park win, which saw the Barwell machine slip behind Marcus Clutton and Sam Neary to fifth but the deficit was eradicated by the Safety Car. The officials' Lotus Emira came in with 41 minutes to go after the field spent some half an hour under caution. There would be five minutes of green flag running without change in the top five running order before another Full Course Yellow was caused by a multiple collision in the GT4 category. Another long neutralisation followed to clear up the mess and the Safety Car released the field with just under twelve minutes left. Buncombe made no mistake to take a lights-to-flag victory with the RJN McLaren by 0.524 seconds but Mitchell still took maximum points with second as the victors weren't eligible to score. Clutton finished right behind the Barwell Lamborghini in third with the Garage 59 McLaren started by Morgan Tillbrook. Sam Neary stayed with the leaders in fourth and Gamble also passed Collard late on to grab fifth on-the-road but the Optimum McLaren incurred a 37-second penalty after pitting seven seconds too soon, which dropped the Optimum car to twelfth overall and the Lamborghini thus ensured the title with fifth overall but fourth of the points scorers to secure the crown by five points. The Collards became just the second father-and-son duo to take the title after Jim and Glynn Geddie prevailed in 2011.
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GT4
Qualifying: Four crews came to Kent with a shout of claiming the overall GT4 title and were covered by just 13.5 points. The second-placed McLaren of Zac Meakin/Jack Brown started the weekend in the best possible way by securing pole position from the DTO Ginetta of Aston Millar/Freddie Tomlinson. The Optimum Motorsport pair's closest rivals for the crown lined up in third, the Forsetti Motorsport Aston Martin of Jamie Day/Mikey Porter that headed the standing by 3.5 points before the weekend. RACELAB's Callum Davies/Sai Sanjay also put their McLaren on the second row. The title-contending Charles Dawson/Seb Morris duo started the weekend 7.5 points adrift of the Forsetti Aston aboard their Team Parker Racing Mercedes and along with the similar RAM Racing example of Luca Hopkinson/Harry George formed an all-AMG GT third row, whilst Gordie Mutch set a new GT4 benchmark as he vaulted the Mahiki Racing Lotus Emira he shared with Ian Duggan up from twelfth to seventh during part two of Qualifying. The second Forsetti Aston Martin of Marc Warren/Will Orton was the fourth of the GT4 title contenders and joined the Lotus on row four. The first of the Academy Motorsport Mustangs in the hands of Will Moore/Matt Nicoll-Jones was ninth fastest, pipping the sister car of Marco Signoretti/Erik Evans on the fifth row. Just outside of the top ten was the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK Supra of historic racers Benjamin Tusting/Michael O'Brien, which was running in a special Army livery to highlight career opportunities in the military.
Qualifying: Four crews came to Kent with a shout of claiming the overall GT4 title and were covered by just 13.5 points. The second-placed McLaren of Zac Meakin/Jack Brown started the weekend in the best possible way by securing pole position from the DTO Ginetta of Aston Millar/Freddie Tomlinson. The Optimum Motorsport pair's closest rivals for the crown lined up in third, the Forsetti Motorsport Aston Martin of Jamie Day/Mikey Porter that headed the standing by 3.5 points before the weekend. RACELAB's Callum Davies/Sai Sanjay also put their McLaren on the second row. The title-contending Charles Dawson/Seb Morris duo started the weekend 7.5 points adrift of the Forsetti Aston aboard their Team Parker Racing Mercedes and along with the similar RAM Racing example of Luca Hopkinson/Harry George formed an all-AMG GT third row, whilst Gordie Mutch set a new GT4 benchmark as he vaulted the Mahiki Racing Lotus Emira he shared with Ian Duggan up from twelfth to seventh during part two of Qualifying. The second Forsetti Aston Martin of Marc Warren/Will Orton was the fourth of the GT4 title contenders and joined the Lotus on row four. The first of the Academy Motorsport Mustangs in the hands of Will Moore/Matt Nicoll-Jones was ninth fastest, pipping the sister car of Marco Signoretti/Erik Evans on the fifth row. Just outside of the top ten was the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK Supra of historic racers Benjamin Tusting/Michael O'Brien, which was running in a special Army livery to highlight career opportunities in the military.
Race: In the kerfuffle around Kevin Tse's spinning GT3 Mercedes at the first corner, championship leader Jamie Day found his way to the front of the GT4 pack after going around the outside of the Forsetti Aston Martin's nearest title rival Zac Meakin at Druids. The Optimum Motorsport McLaren was hemmed in behind the GT3 cars into the hairpin and the similar RACELAB car of Callum Davies followed Day through into an early second. Three of the top four cars were in the running for the championship as the Charles Dawson Mercedes ran in fourth. The first of the championship hopefuls to have their dreams dashed would be Marc Warren/Will Orton after the Aston Martin damaged its cooling system on lap one when it clattered into the back of the Marco Signoretti Mustang, which in turn had rear-ended the DTO Ginetta in a concertina at Druids. Aston Millar suffered a left-rear puncture in the incident and fell to the back of the field but the Ginetta stayed on the lead lap after the shredded tyre was replaced under the Safety Car. Meakin was straight onto the tail of the similar RACELAB Artura for second in GT4 at the restart and fought his way past Davies at Druids after opening the door into Paddock Hill Bend as they began the third lap at racing speed. Day continued to lead early on but would soon come under extreme pressure from Meakin, if either pairing won then they would be champions. The Aston Martin defended its position hard but the McLaren breached Day's blockade into Surtees at the 25-minute mark and the pair leaned on each other down Pilgrim's Drop before Meakin had to fall in behind again at Hawthorn. Their fighting had allowed Davies to close in on them once more but Meakin got alongside into Surtees again five minutes later, despite being squeezed onto the grass along the Cooper Straight, and nudged the Aston towards the exit kerb as Meakin finally wrested away the lead in the race and championship. The McLaren swiftly opened a gap to Day as the Aston turned its attention to fending off the second McLaren of Davies. A contretemps between Will Moore's Mustang and the GT3 McLaren of Simon Orange saw the GT3 car buried deep into the tyre wall at Stirlings and forced a lengthy Full Course Yellow to allow all the pitstops to occur, the minimum drive time of 58 minutes elapsing during the pause. The order remained the Optimum McLaren from the Forsetti Aston Martin and the RACELAB McLaren after the stops, with the cars now guided by Jack Brown, Mikey Porter and Sai Sanjay respectively. The Pro-Am Mercedes of the third remaining title fighters Dawson/Seb Morris had nine seconds less to serve during its pitstop over the leading GT4 crews but ended up staying put in fifth position for the restart, having lost fourth place to the similar Luca Hopkinson/Harry George RAM Racing AMG GT on lap eleven. GT4 leader Brown gained almost an entire lap on the rest of the GT4 field when the Safety Car picked up the overall leader sat directly behind the McLaren on the circuit. Five minutes after the restart. the fierce fight among seven cars over sixth place came to blows at Stirlings after Matt Cowley in the Paddock Motorsport Mercedes clipped the Mahiki Racing Lotus of Gordie Mutch and cannoned into the Matt Nicol-Jones Mustang, with all three firing off into the gravel. The resulting Full Course Yellow and Safety Car did no damage to Brown's lead and the Optimum Motorsport McLaren followed the field around to claim the GT4 overall crown with the category victory. Porter's Aston stretched away from the following pack for second, with Sanjay's McLaren coming out on top of a scrap with George's RAM Racing Mercedes for third. The CWS Ginetta in the hands of Tom Holland, that he shared with National Hot Rod legend Colin White, just held off the similar DTO car at the head of a four-car contest for fourth, with Freddie Tomlinson mounting a determined charge in the final stages to pass the Ian Gough/Tom Wrigley Century Motorsport BMW and the Dawson/Morris Team Parker Racing Mercedes after the final restart.
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Tom Mills GB3
2023 GB4 champion Tom Mills used the prize money from his title win to fund a one-off drive with Chris Ditmann Racing for the final rounds of the 2024 GB3 season. Despite spending almost a year out of the driving seat, Mills qualified 1.521 seconds off pole in nineteenth before taking fourteenth, thirteenth and seventeenth place finishes in the trio of races. New Zealander Louis Sharp wrapped up the championship title for Rodin Motorsport.
2023 GB4 champion Tom Mills used the prize money from his title win to fund a one-off drive with Chris Ditmann Racing for the final rounds of the 2024 GB3 season. Despite spending almost a year out of the driving seat, Mills qualified 1.521 seconds off pole in nineteenth before taking fourteenth, thirteenth and seventeenth place finishes in the trio of races. New Zealander Louis Sharp wrapped up the championship title for Rodin Motorsport.
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