British GT Donington Park GP 28th May 2023
The Intelligent Money British GT championship took on the Grand Prix circuit at Donington Park over the weekend of the 27th and 28th of May. The Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Shaun Balfe/Sandy Mitchell would start the two-hour enduro from pole, their combined times putting them 0.399 seconds clear at the head of the grid. Starting alongside would be the 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes of James Cottingham/Jonny Adam. The Beechdean Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard/Ross Gunn would head the second row from the blue-riband Silverstone 500-winning Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Darren Leung/Daniel Harper, which led the standings coming into the meeting. What should have been an all-McLaren 720S row three was broken up when the Garage 59 example of Alex West/Marvin Kirchoefer, which had qualified in fifth, was penalised ten places for totting up four behavioural warning points. Lucky Khera/Euan Hankey’s Racelab version took their place in fifth, whilst the second Barwell Lamborghini of Mark Sansom/Will Tregurtha moved up a row into sixth. Reigning champion Ian Loggie would line up on the fourth row in seventh with partner Jules Gounon aboard their 1990s DTM-inspired D2 liveried Mercedes, the RAM Racing Mercedes of John Ferguson/Rafielle Marciello starting one spot behind them in eighth. Completing the top ten would be the Morgan Tillbrook/Marcus Clutton McLaren and the father-and-son duo Richard/Sean Neary. There was unrest in the Nearys’ ABBA Racing team as their original iteration of the Mercedes AMG GT3 was solely slapped with an extra 15kg of ballast under a revised Balance of Performance ruling. The DTO Motorsport McLaren Artura of Josh Rowledge/Aston Millar took pole by the narrowest of margins for the GT4 element of the field, pipping the Raceway Motorsport Ginetta G56 of Freddie Tomlinson/Stuart Middleton by just 0.001 seconds.
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Race: At the rolling start of the two-hour enduro, James Cottingham's Mercedes made a good getaway from the front row to threaten Shaun Balfe's Barwell Lamborghini's lead into Redgate on the outside but got up on the kerb exiting the corner and was demoted to third by the Andrew Howard Aston Martin through Hollywood. 2022 champion Ian Loggie also got ahead of the second Barwell Lamborghini towards Redgate for sixth, the Huracan then ran wide at Redgate and lost several places. Cottingham had a serious look at taking back second into the Old Hairpin but order stayed unchanged, despite the Mercedes being given space by Howard. Lucky Khera then got a run on the 2 Seas Mercedes towards Hislops but was held off on the outside. A good opening couple of corners for Richard Neary saw him dive inside Morgan Tillbrook into Redgate, past the John Ferguson Mercedes and Mark Sansom Lamborghini as they both ran wide, before bagging Loggie’s Mercedes by the top of the Craner Curves and was challenging a defensive Darren Leung’s Century Motorsport BMW for fifth by the end of the opening lap. Throughout the early stages, Balfe opened small lead from a closely circulating Howard, Cottingham and Khera. An early retirement after three laps came in the shape of John Ferguson's Mercedes, which went out from seventh place. The RAM Racing car had shuffled the Loggie Mercedes down the order, along with the Tillbrook McLaren, before a bumpy trip over the Hislops kerbs damaged the sump and denied works Mercedes star Rafielle Marciello a chance to influence the race. Having shown some strong pace in the first few laps, Balfe's pace in the leading Lamborghini started to fade and the top five started to compress with the GT4 lappery about to begin. Howard caught Balfe unawares in the traffic to take the lead up the inside into Hislops for the ninth time and Cottingham immediately moved onto the tail of the Hurucan. Just behind, Leung had an attempt on Khera’s fourth place rebuffed at the Melbourne Hairpin after the McLaren lost momentum out of Hislops. Howard's Aston Martin began edging away once in front, whilst Balfe, Cottingham, Khera and Leung stayed in formation as they negotiated the leading GT4 class cars. The Aston Martin was three seconds up the road after the group had cleared the GT4s. However, Leung dropped off the tail of the pack after getting held up by Freddie Tomlinson's GT4-leading Ginetta through Redgate. As the first half an hour drew to a close, the second and third-placed cars of Balfe and Cottingham were easing away from Khera and Leung whilst a lurid incident befell Chris Hart’s Drivetac Mercedes AMG GT3, which had missed qualifying due to having an engine change, as it spun at high speed approaching McLeans after its bonnet flew open due to contact damaging the retaining pins. The rattled Hart was able to continue slowly back to the pits for repairs. Cottingham relieved Balfe of second after 34 minutes and the Lamborghini was soon falling into the clutches of Tillbrook, who had quietly climbed into fourth from ninth, Khera and Leung. Two laps later, Tillbrook made it past Balfe and the Huracan's slide continued as Khera dived past into the Melbourne Hairpin after two more tours and Leung's BMW was also close behind. Up front, Cottingham set his sights on catching Howard and set the then-fastest lap, Howard having been up to four seconds ahead. The Century Motorsport M4 GT3 of Leung was now crawling all over the defensive Balfe Lamborghini and finally got past with a much better run onto the Grand Prix loop after fifty minutes. At the same time, the pair were being reeled in by Loggie's Mercedes and he swept past Balfe through Starkeys on the following lap, with the former race leader’s pace waning from a lack of grip. Back at the head of the field, Cottingham brought the lead gap down to 1.6 seconds, with a flying Tillbrook only another 0.7 seconds further back. Some decisive moves through the lapped traffic brought Cottingham almost onto Howard’s tail after 54 minutes but encountering Mike Price’s Mercedes AMG GT3 in tricky some spots on the circuit opened the gap again as the first hour neared completion. Cottingham wouldn't get the opportunity to attack Howard as the Safety car was deployed on the 58-minute mark, after Price inverted his delayed Mercedes on the infield between McLeans and Coppice. The car had lost ground earlier in the encounter after contact with the Alex West Garage 59 McLaren. The starting drivers are mandated to complete a minimum of 62 minutes behind the wheel before handing over to their partners and all the GT3s pitted after following the Safety Car for two laps. A difficult stop ensued for the leading Aston Martin after Howard overshot his mark and got tangled up with the safety net, plus the car was also dropped on his foot (!), before co-driver Ross Gunn stalled leaving their pit bay. The third-placed McLaren of Tillbrook was also delayed in the pit stops and fell to ninth in the queue, Marcus Clutton having taken the car over. Lengthy tyre wall and barrier repairs saw the Safety Car leading the field for approaching forty minutes, so just over 24 minutes remained when the field was released. Cottingham's partner Jonny Adam headed the queue from Euan Hankey in the Racelab McLaren that was started by Lucky Khera, Ian Loggie's replacement Jules Gounon sat in third and the Paddock Motorsport McLaren of Martin Plowman, which had leapt up two spots after being brought in by Mark Smith in sixth. Adam immediately gained a 2-3 lengths lead at the restart, whilst Dan Harper in the Century BMW, which had to spend an extra twenty seconds stationary during its stop due to the pair's Silverstone victory, fired past Plowman into Redgate with a demon move on the brakes. Clutton, in the Enduro Motorsport McLaren, tried to follow the BMW by but was squeezed towards the grass through Hollywood. The top four were together by the end of the lap, with Gunn monstering the rear of Gounon at Goddards. A determined Harper dived into sixth at the expense of the Sky Tempesta McLaren of Chris Frogatt at Redgate starting the following tour and then the flying BMW took fifth later in the lap from Rob Bell's Optimum Motorsport McLaren at the Melbourne hairpin. Well into his stride, the fired-up Harper was now catching the top four with a new lap record of 1 minute 25.147 seconds. Ahead of the BMW, Adam had established a very small lead from second to fifth, who were all in a line, with the GT3 field closing on the tail of the GT4s to lap them. As the lappery began, Hankey was right with Adam but couldn't rattle the leading Mercedes. With seventeen minutes left on the clock, the Plowman and Clutton McLarens came to blows. The stubborn Plowman on the inside line had run wide at the Melbourne Hairpin and Clutton cut back inside on the exit but made contact with Plowman as he caught the kerb. The right-rear tyre let go on Plowman's car as the pair raced towards Goddards side by side, which flicked Plowman into the rear quarter of Clutton and turned the car around. Clutton whacked the wall head-on and retired on the spot whilst Plowman staggered into the pits before recovering to finish tenth. Inside the last ten minutes, Gunn was forced to defend successfully from Harper in more GT4 traffic, before Hankey's McLaren made one last push heading into the final five minutes, setting a new fastest lap to rewrite Harper's benchmark, but Adam was equal to the task so took the win. Khera/Hankey's Racelab 720S GT3 finished as runners-up just under a second behind, whilst Gounon's Mercedes, Gunn's Aston Martin and Harper's BMW finished in a line for third to fifth places, with 1.528 seconds covering the trio. Froggatt's Sky Tempesta McLaren took sixth despite being investigated for an unsafe release from its pit stop, after cutting up Plowman's similar car. Sandy Mitchell in the pole-winning Lamborghini had been right with the Sky McLaren after the restart but had fallen three seconds away by the flag in seventh.
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GT4
The second-placed starting Ginetta in the hands of Freddie Tomlinson leapt into the category lead as the two hours got underway. The rest of the top four were all at the wheel of McLarens, with polesitter Josh Rowledge ahead of Jack Brown and Harry George. The top three would still be together after quarter of an hour, when Brown tried for second at Goddards but only succeeded in costing himself time to Rowledge. A couple of laps later, an opportunistic Rowledge fancied taking the category lead around the outside of Hislops as the GT3 lead pack put a lap on them but the attempt failed. With more of the GT3 field putting a lap on them, Tomlinson survived a brush with Mark Sansom's Lamborghini, which suffered a puncture, after 23 minutes at Redgate to retain the lead. A lap later Tomlinson was out on the grass exiting Coppice and Rowledge drew alongside heading towards Hislops but was held on the outside so couldn’t make the move stick. Brown was still with them and the trio were falling over each other around the GP loop but somehow the order didn't change. After 33 minutes, Rowledge got another opportunity as he cut back inside exiting Coppice but was stuck on the outside again for Hislops - the cars were briefly three abreast as the recovering Iain Campbell/James Kell Racelab GT3 McLaren passed them at the same time. Rowledge tried again at the Melbourne Hairpin and it looked as if the move was done after Tomlinson skated wide but the Ginetta had a great exit and claimed the inside of Goddards to hang on to the class lead. With a good run on the pair, Brown unsuccessfully attempted to grab second on the outside of Goddards. On the 40-minute mark, the Rowledge pressure finally told as the McLaren lunged into the class lead at Goddards. The DTO McLaren straight away started moving clear as Tomlinson dealt with the threat from Brown, who was forced outside entering McLeans. The Ginetta can only hang on for another five minutes, as Brown dived down the inside of Tomlinson for second into Redgate to settle the lead trio's order at the end of the opening hour. The Safety Car deployment for the incident at McLeans coincided with the GT4 category pit window opening, with a minimum stint length of 58 minutes for the starting drivers. There would be no additional time to be served beyond the 140-second mandatory sojourn in the pits, with the Silverstone 500 GT4 result still provisional after the Tomlinson/Middleton Ginetta allegedly passed a red light during a round of pit stops. The Racelab McLaren of Ian Gough/Tom Wrigley vaulted into the class lead from seventh after a shorter minimum stop time due to their crew’s Pro-Am status, their stop 26 seconds shorter than all of the silver-silver crews that they'd been trailing. There would be heartbreak for Aston Millar in the DTO McLaren as it ground to a halt behind the Safety Car and retired from second place at Hollywood with a loss of drive, the top three order in the queue saw Wrigley head Charles Clark, in the new tyre shod Optimum Motorsport McLaren started by Jack Brown, and the Ginetta that Stuart Middleton took over from Freddie Tomlinson in third. On the second lap after the restart, the new tyres on the Optimum McLaren gave Clark a great slingshot out of the Old Hairpin and he pulled up along the outside of Wrigley climbing through Starkeys, which gave him the inside for McLeans - where he makes the place his own. A big fight for third among five cars enlivened the closing stages, as an obstinate Middleton tried to keep a baying pack at bay. The Century Motorsport BMW of Lewis Plato/Carl Cavers was the first to breach his defence with twelve minutes to go before the Darren Burke/Harry George McLaren also moved past inside the last 6 minutes. The nimbler Ginetta would continue to fall back into the pack and the battle came to a head on the penultimate lap after the remaining trio was caught by Michael Broadhurst's lapped One Motorsport Mercedes, who was driving a spare car after their original entry was rolled by co-driver Ed McDermott in Thursday testing. An error from Middleton saw the Ginetta run wide through Hislops, which allowed Chris Salkeld's BMW to cut inside and Broadhurst to try to squeeze between the two of them but Tom Rawlings in the delayed Paddock Motorsport McLaren had a run on all of them! A light touch between Salkeld and Broadhurst approaching the Melbourne Hairpin was of little consequence as the BMW held off the Mercedes but just ahead of them, the Middleton Ginetta suffered broken steering and skated off into the gravel. Ahead of that drama, the championship-leading McLaren of Clark stretched away to a comfortable win by 11.677 seconds from Wrigley, an equally lonely 9.195 seconds ahead of Plato's Century Motorsport BMW M4. Burke came home in fourth from Salkeld. On the last lap, the Ford Mustang of Erik Evans/Matt Cowley clattered into the Aston Martin of Josh Miller at Hislops after suffering brake failure, the Academy Motorsport Mustang staggered home in sixth after spinning into the gravel whilst the Aston was out on the spot.
EDIT: Following the rejection of Raceway Motorsport's appeal of the Silverstone result, the additional stationary time could now be added to the Donington Park results. The decision would have a bearing on the results as the first-past-the-flag McLaren of Clark and Brown dropped down to second behind Gough/Wrigley's similar car.
The second-placed starting Ginetta in the hands of Freddie Tomlinson leapt into the category lead as the two hours got underway. The rest of the top four were all at the wheel of McLarens, with polesitter Josh Rowledge ahead of Jack Brown and Harry George. The top three would still be together after quarter of an hour, when Brown tried for second at Goddards but only succeeded in costing himself time to Rowledge. A couple of laps later, an opportunistic Rowledge fancied taking the category lead around the outside of Hislops as the GT3 lead pack put a lap on them but the attempt failed. With more of the GT3 field putting a lap on them, Tomlinson survived a brush with Mark Sansom's Lamborghini, which suffered a puncture, after 23 minutes at Redgate to retain the lead. A lap later Tomlinson was out on the grass exiting Coppice and Rowledge drew alongside heading towards Hislops but was held on the outside so couldn’t make the move stick. Brown was still with them and the trio were falling over each other around the GP loop but somehow the order didn't change. After 33 minutes, Rowledge got another opportunity as he cut back inside exiting Coppice but was stuck on the outside again for Hislops - the cars were briefly three abreast as the recovering Iain Campbell/James Kell Racelab GT3 McLaren passed them at the same time. Rowledge tried again at the Melbourne Hairpin and it looked as if the move was done after Tomlinson skated wide but the Ginetta had a great exit and claimed the inside of Goddards to hang on to the class lead. With a good run on the pair, Brown unsuccessfully attempted to grab second on the outside of Goddards. On the 40-minute mark, the Rowledge pressure finally told as the McLaren lunged into the class lead at Goddards. The DTO McLaren straight away started moving clear as Tomlinson dealt with the threat from Brown, who was forced outside entering McLeans. The Ginetta can only hang on for another five minutes, as Brown dived down the inside of Tomlinson for second into Redgate to settle the lead trio's order at the end of the opening hour. The Safety Car deployment for the incident at McLeans coincided with the GT4 category pit window opening, with a minimum stint length of 58 minutes for the starting drivers. There would be no additional time to be served beyond the 140-second mandatory sojourn in the pits, with the Silverstone 500 GT4 result still provisional after the Tomlinson/Middleton Ginetta allegedly passed a red light during a round of pit stops. The Racelab McLaren of Ian Gough/Tom Wrigley vaulted into the class lead from seventh after a shorter minimum stop time due to their crew’s Pro-Am status, their stop 26 seconds shorter than all of the silver-silver crews that they'd been trailing. There would be heartbreak for Aston Millar in the DTO McLaren as it ground to a halt behind the Safety Car and retired from second place at Hollywood with a loss of drive, the top three order in the queue saw Wrigley head Charles Clark, in the new tyre shod Optimum Motorsport McLaren started by Jack Brown, and the Ginetta that Stuart Middleton took over from Freddie Tomlinson in third. On the second lap after the restart, the new tyres on the Optimum McLaren gave Clark a great slingshot out of the Old Hairpin and he pulled up along the outside of Wrigley climbing through Starkeys, which gave him the inside for McLeans - where he makes the place his own. A big fight for third among five cars enlivened the closing stages, as an obstinate Middleton tried to keep a baying pack at bay. The Century Motorsport BMW of Lewis Plato/Carl Cavers was the first to breach his defence with twelve minutes to go before the Darren Burke/Harry George McLaren also moved past inside the last 6 minutes. The nimbler Ginetta would continue to fall back into the pack and the battle came to a head on the penultimate lap after the remaining trio was caught by Michael Broadhurst's lapped One Motorsport Mercedes, who was driving a spare car after their original entry was rolled by co-driver Ed McDermott in Thursday testing. An error from Middleton saw the Ginetta run wide through Hislops, which allowed Chris Salkeld's BMW to cut inside and Broadhurst to try to squeeze between the two of them but Tom Rawlings in the delayed Paddock Motorsport McLaren had a run on all of them! A light touch between Salkeld and Broadhurst approaching the Melbourne Hairpin was of little consequence as the BMW held off the Mercedes but just ahead of them, the Middleton Ginetta suffered broken steering and skated off into the gravel. Ahead of that drama, the championship-leading McLaren of Clark stretched away to a comfortable win by 11.677 seconds from Wrigley, an equally lonely 9.195 seconds ahead of Plato's Century Motorsport BMW M4. Burke came home in fourth from Salkeld. On the last lap, the Ford Mustang of Erik Evans/Matt Cowley clattered into the Aston Martin of Josh Miller at Hislops after suffering brake failure, the Academy Motorsport Mustang staggered home in sixth after spinning into the gravel whilst the Aston was out on the spot.
EDIT: Following the rejection of Raceway Motorsport's appeal of the Silverstone result, the additional stationary time could now be added to the Donington Park results. The decision would have a bearing on the results as the first-past-the-flag McLaren of Clark and Brown dropped down to second behind Gough/Wrigley's similar car.
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Other Highlights
The GB4 entry faced four races across the weekend, the opening race was in effect the first race from Silverstone after the encounter was cancelled due to a waterlogged circuit. KMR Sport driver Tom Mills was in inspired form, the former FF1600 star racing to the first three race victories. Australian Cooper Webster and American Colin Queen would join him on the podium in each of the first three bouts. 2022 Ginetta Junior front-runner Liam McNeilly took the reversed-grid fourth race win from Webster, who took a clean sweep of second places. Aditya Kulkarni came home in third but had a rapidly closing Mills finishing less than half a second behind him in fourth from the seventh row of the grid.
After losing his on-the-road Ginetta Junior victory to a five-second track limits penalty in Saturday's race, William Slater made no mistake on Sunday as he took both wins in unusually dominant fashion. On Sunday morning, Slater finished a couple of seconds up the road from a three-way scrap for second that included Luca Hopkinson, Charlie Hart and Mikey Porter before racing to a 4.173-second winning margin from Porter in the afternoon. Hugo Schwarze, who was credited with the win on Saturday, took third.
Luke Reade took the first two Ginetta GT Championship wins, leading home Callum Davies by less than a second on Saturday afternoon. The race also saw third-placed finisher Ruben Hage, from the pitlane, disqualified from the meeting after driving too fast through the paddock in his desperation to reach the grid. Making a welcome return to racing after his nasty shunt at Thruxton last August, Colin White was elbowed out of third place by Davies at McLeans before further contact dumped him in the Coppice gravel on Sunday morning, the former National Hot Rod world champion stormed through the field to take second place behind Connor Garlick on Sunday afternoon.
After trailing Nick White in the opening Ginetta GT Academy outing on Saturday, Ravi Ramyead was unstoppable on Sunday as he took two clear victories. Ed Acres took second on Sunday morning with White just behind but, in the afternoon, the Race One winner left it late to topple MacKenzie Walker for second.
The GB4 entry faced four races across the weekend, the opening race was in effect the first race from Silverstone after the encounter was cancelled due to a waterlogged circuit. KMR Sport driver Tom Mills was in inspired form, the former FF1600 star racing to the first three race victories. Australian Cooper Webster and American Colin Queen would join him on the podium in each of the first three bouts. 2022 Ginetta Junior front-runner Liam McNeilly took the reversed-grid fourth race win from Webster, who took a clean sweep of second places. Aditya Kulkarni came home in third but had a rapidly closing Mills finishing less than half a second behind him in fourth from the seventh row of the grid.
After losing his on-the-road Ginetta Junior victory to a five-second track limits penalty in Saturday's race, William Slater made no mistake on Sunday as he took both wins in unusually dominant fashion. On Sunday morning, Slater finished a couple of seconds up the road from a three-way scrap for second that included Luca Hopkinson, Charlie Hart and Mikey Porter before racing to a 4.173-second winning margin from Porter in the afternoon. Hugo Schwarze, who was credited with the win on Saturday, took third.
Luke Reade took the first two Ginetta GT Championship wins, leading home Callum Davies by less than a second on Saturday afternoon. The race also saw third-placed finisher Ruben Hage, from the pitlane, disqualified from the meeting after driving too fast through the paddock in his desperation to reach the grid. Making a welcome return to racing after his nasty shunt at Thruxton last August, Colin White was elbowed out of third place by Davies at McLeans before further contact dumped him in the Coppice gravel on Sunday morning, the former National Hot Rod world champion stormed through the field to take second place behind Connor Garlick on Sunday afternoon.
After trailing Nick White in the opening Ginetta GT Academy outing on Saturday, Ravi Ramyead was unstoppable on Sunday as he took two clear victories. Ed Acres took second on Sunday morning with White just behind but, in the afternoon, the Race One winner left it late to topple MacKenzie Walker for second.
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