The British GT Championship heads into its Summer break with two one-hour races on the Snetterton 300 circuit in Norfolk and with an entry that looks a little more ‘normal’ after the bumper Silverstone 500 field.
That said, there are several absences this weekend – some temporary and others unfortunately seemingly permanent – but we should be in for another treat of racing with a grid of around 30 cars and a driver roster packed with talent. Not here this weekend are Duncan Cameron/Matt Griffin (GT Open) and Richard Westbrook (Grand-Am), while the Vita4OneTeam Italy Ferrari of Jay Palmer and Matteo Bobbi has withdrawn from the series. Also absent – for reasons unknown at the moment – are both Blendini Moto cars. But we welcome back Glynn Geddie – replacing Mark Blundell in the #24 United Autosports McLaren for the remainder of the season – and Stephen Jelley, who joins Gregor Fisken in the #32 Trackspeed Porsche.
Silverstone was nothing short of disastrous for Trackspeed, for well-documented reasons, but Keith Cheetham has rallied the troops and all three GT3 Rs are back this weekend (although Snetterton has something of a history when it comes to Trackspeed intra-team incidents). Undoubtedly, all three cars will be challenging for the top places once more this weekend, but the catastrophic events of the previous round mean that we have a new championship leader – the Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 of Marco Attard and Olly Bryant. Their victory at Silverstone – which also attracted points-and-a-half –means that they now hold a 17.5-point advantage over the second-placed Porsche of David Ashburn and Nick Tandy at the head of the standings; an advantage that won’t easily be overcome in the final six races. Attard and Bryant aren’t expecting too much from this weekend, with the BMW not best suited to the circuit, but a decent points-haul is more than possible.
Incidentally, Ecurie Ecosse will henceforth be known as ‘Ecurie Ecosse powered by Black Bull’ after signing a title-sponsorship deal with Black Bull Whisky. While this is great news for the team, let’s hope that their drivers aren’t actually powered by the product this weekend!
888Optimum are another team to have done much testing at Snetterton and so should know their way around the 2.969 mile circuit. Silverstone dealt the team mixed fortune, with Lee Mowle retiring after just four laps, but with Steve Tandy and Dan Brown going on to take the team’s first podium finish with a third-place finish. Their BMW Z4s will face the same issues as Ecurie Ecosse, but it is clear that this team is gelling nicely and more top results are not far away; and although they are not in the same car this year, 2012 winners Tandy and Joe Osborne will each be looking to replicate the result from last August.
Michael Caine should by rights have won the second race at the same venue in 2012, but a whole series of seemingly-unforced errors from the would-be champion left the car fifth at the close. Caine will be keen to make amends to Motorbase this weekend and has the perfect partner in the ever-more-impressive Ahmad Al Harthy, but will that oh-so-contentious 75kg of ballast keep them out of contention, though?
The entry of the #3 Rosso Verde Ferrari 458 of Hector Lester and Allan Simonsen was only confirmed a couple of days ago, and the car is sure to again feature prominently. It’s been a while since the Irishman and the Dane enjoyed a win together, and Snetterton could well be the venue for another victory. If Lester can hand the car over to Simonsen in a half-decent position (and with 30 cars on the circuit a Safety Car is not out of the question), a trademark charge is sure to follow. Close finishes seem to be a feature of races at the East Anglian track and few are better than Simmo at exploiting opportunities at close-quarters.
But we could also see one or more of the other three Ferraris is the field starting to make a difference. John Dhillon and Gary Eastwood – under the tutelage of Aaron Scott and Rob Barff respectively – are getting quicker with every round in the #13 AF Corse and #18 FF Corse 458s, while Derek Johnston and Jake Rattenbury have twice this season found themselves exiting a race as a result of someone else’s actions.
But Snetterton is quite possibly Matt Bell’s favourite circuit, with his haul being two wins from the last three races there; his wins coming alongside Mike Guasch in 2011 and Charles Bateman in 2012. Now with Mark Patterson alongside in the #25 Audi R8 LMS ultra, there is every reason to believe that a third victory is in the offing. More importantly, perhaps, the United Autosports duo were another to leave Silverstone with empty pockets and will be determined to claw back some of the points-deficit they now find themselves with. Neither did their teammates claim any points at the 500, so the pairings of Zak Brown/Alvaro Parente and Glynn Geddie/Jody Firth will also be looking for confidence-boosting results after a pretty dreadful season so far. The knowledge that a UA McLaren took the win in Race 1 last year is likely to help.
Both the Beechdean and Barwell Aston Martins went very well at the last round, with Andrew Howard and Jonny Adam taking second and Mark Poole and Richard Abra taking fifth; and just a week later, the Barwell Vantage claimed a Pro-Am podium in the Blancpain Endurance Series race at the same venue. Both teams will thus be heading to Norfolk with expectations and confidence high. And perhaps the PGF-Kinfaun Aston of Phil Dryburgh and John Gaw will see an upturn in fortune following their Gentlemen Trophy podium finish in the BES race? Certainly, a single British GT championship point is no reflection of their efforts so far.
Mike Simpson’s goal this weekend is rather more modest than a podium finish; the Ginetta works-driver still awaiting his first racing lap of the season after four races! Appalling luck has stymied the progress of the LNT G55 GT3, but the car is looking quicker with every round and a change of fortune for Simpson and Richard Sykes would be welcomed. The CWS-IDL G55 of Colin White and Tom Sharp had a very good run at Silverstone and they can count themselves very unfortunate not to have finished in the points. Could there be a surprise from one of these cars this weekend?
We haven’t yet seen what Grégoire Demoustier and Duncan Tappy are capable of in their Von Ryan McLaren, but a trouble-free run in either or both of Sunday’s races could quickly change that. Even with an extra 75kg to carry, the Anglo-French pairing is capable of getting to the front. Over at M-Sport, meanwhile, Rembert Berg and Warren Hughes will be keen to claim a win in the #10 Audi, in what could potentially be its final outing, as the Bentley could take its place at Brands.
And how will the Fortec SLS fare? Jason Minshaw and Benji Hetherington are forming a great partnership in the #14 Mercedes, and the car looks to be rapidly overcoming any teething issues. The SLS is a good endurance car –perhaps only strategy letting them down at Silverstone – but let’s not forget that it also took a podium at Oulton on its first outing. We wait to see who will be in the #15 this weekend.
GT4 is back to a quintet after the bumper-field at Silverstone, but is still capable of producing an entertaining race. The four Ginettas and the lone Aston look quite evenly matched and no team has yet shown signs of dominating the class.
Century Motorsports’ Zoe Wenham and Declan Jones hold a 20-point lead in the championship standings, but only picked up 1.5 points at Silverstone after a troubled race. They won both ‘sprint’ races at Oulton Park in the #43 Ginetta, so will things get back on track for them at Snetterton? Or will Rick Parfitt Jr and Ryan Ratcliffe capitalise on the momentum they carry over from the previous round, where a well-earned third place in the #44 Optimum G50 yielded 22.5 points.
But could it be the turn of APO Sport or Redgate Lifetime to make ground? James May and Alex Osborne have not had a great deal of luck so far (not helped by having to carry an extra 40kg, of course) but have managed to amass 45 points, so are by no means out of it. What they need more than anything now is a good, trouble-free run in the #69 Ginetta. Matt Smith and Dan Eagling, meanwhile, have recovered from the worst possible start to the season at Oulton, to deliver two decent performances in the enduros at Rockingham and Silverstone. With the team being based at Thetford, just down the road from Snetterton, the team is sure to have lots of local support to cheer on the #50 this weekend.
Steve Chaplin and Tom Wilson followed up their Rockingham victory in the #53 Aston Martin GT4 with a sixth-place finish at Silverstone. We still have to see how the car fares in the sprint races (the car crashing out in Race 1 at Oulton and failing to make Race 2), but pole at Oulton might well be a positive indication.
The weather forecast suggests occasional showers on Saturday and dry but overcast for Sunday. If Benjamin Franassovici can reign in some of the wilder driving styles that have been on display so far this season, we should be in for a good show this weekend.
MH
