Saturday’s second free practice for British GT Brands Hatch saw both Barwell Motorsport-run BMWs in the top three again, but this time Alexander Sims in the Ecurie Ecosse car was fastest. The Cambridgeshire driver set a 1:26.220 in the last 10-minute portion of the session, following two red flags.
Second-quickest was Adam Carroll in the FF Corse Ferrari, who improved on early pacesetter Joe Osborne’s time of 1:26.655 with a 1:26.421 just before the two red-flag interruptions.
“The car feels really good and consistent, as usual,” the Northern Irishman told DSC. “It’s always good to get out on the GP loop, it’s a real man’s track with not much run-off.” (Carroll holds the unofficial lap record for this layout, a 1:10 set in qualifying when he was driving for A1GP Team Ireland).
A late effort from Phil Keen put the Demon Tweeks-backed Team Russia BMW (above) third and shuffled the Mowle/Osborne Triple Eight Z4 to fourth.
“The thing with British GT is, the tyre allocation means there’s only one new set to use in free practice, so the gentleman will get that,” explained Osborne. “We’re still feeling the benefit of having Dirk Muller in the car at Spa last week to be honest, he’s such a database of information about the car. We’ve made some quite radical setup changes.”
Rounding out the top five was the TF Sport Aston Martin of Andrew Jarman and Jody Fannin, while two other Astons, the Oman Racing car and the second TF Sport entry, were also within a second of Sims’ time.
Fresh from his Spa 24 Am Cup win with Team Parker Racing, Benny Simonsen went ninth-fastest this session in the Rosso Verde Ferrari. “This isn’t our best track, but not our worst either,” reckoned the Dane. “We’re still getting used to the new Avon tyres, as we don’t do every round.”
The Rick Parfitt Jr/Tom Oliphant Ginetta completed the top 10, while the other GT3-class Ginetta of Steve Tandy and factory driver Mike Simpson finished up 15th fastest on a 1:28.346. “It’s going okay, we’re trying a lot of different things and working a lot with Steve on the driving, as you don’t often get track time around here.” said Simpson. “A mid 1:27 is definitely doable on old tyres.”
The #10 Von Ryan McLaren of Andrew Watson and Ross Wylie had a quiet session, ending up 13th fastest. “The extra weight we’re carrying [two silver-rated drivers makes this a Silver Cup entry] is killing us on the uphill parts,” said Wylie. “I’d hate to say it’s an Aston track, but we’ll see how it goes.”
GT4 saw a Ginetta 1-2-3-4, with Tolman, Optimum, University of Bolton and Fox Motorsport cars monopolising the top of the timing screens. Leading the chasing pack were Jake Giddings and Kieran Griffin in the JWB Aston, while class championship challengers Oz Yusuf and Gavan Kershaw were fifth fastest in the ISSY Racing Lotus Evora.
“This is definitely a Ginetta track,” Kershaw said, he also confirmed that the car had suffered braking issues in the first practice session, hence why it was spotted smoking in the pits.
GT4 cars were the cause of both of the session’s red flags. Pattison went into the gravel at Sheene in the #56 Tolman Ginetta, while the GPRM Toyota (above) came to a halt at Surtees trailing smoke and oil, indicating likely engine trouble.
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