With three rounds remaining, the British GT Championship heads to Norfolk for a pair of sprint races at Snetterton. With a trio of front-runners in GT3 all close in the points standings, it has the potential be both a crucial round for the teams and drivers concerned, as well as set up a memorable finale at Donington Park.
While 10 teams can still win the drivers title mathematically, the cars to watch are the TF Sport Aston Martin of Jonny Adam and Derek Johnston which leads the standings, the Phil Keen and Jon Minshaw Barwell Lamborghini and Team Parker Bentley of Rick Parfitt and Seb Morris which are all separated by just 10.5 points.
It’s going to be an extremely important two days at Snet for Adam and Johnston, who are looking to bounce back after a tough outing at Spa which saw them finish seventh after the team’s mechanics had to rebuild the Vantage after a hefty shunt in Free Practice.
After winning at both Brands Hatch and Rockingham to open the season, the duo haven’t finished on the podium since, so this is as good time as any to recapture form with the title most certainly on the line. Adam knows his way round the Snetterton 300 circuit though, after taking a win at last year’s event with Beechdean en route to the title; Johnston scored two podiums with TF that same weekend too.
Speaking of Beechdean, there will be two Astons featuring its name on the grid, though it should have been three. The GT3 Vantage of Ross Gunn and Andrew Howard has been pulled from the event with the damage sustained at Spa not repairable in time.
Howard will not drive, though Gunn will still get behind the wheel down in the GT4 division, standing in for Jordan Albert, who has had to cut his season with the ice cream-backed short due to personal circumstances.
Fellow Aston team PFL is back on the grid after the car was damaged in a scary accident after the race at Silverstone, when the tail-lift on the team’s truck collapsed.
Of the other notable differences on the entry list since Spa, Ultimate Speed’s Mike Brown – joined for the first time by Matt Manderson – will make his second outing of the year after competing at Silverstone, while Tolman Motorsport’s Ginetta G55 of Luke Davenport and David Pattison is also on the bill after Pattison’s outside commitments fired the duo to miss Spa.
GT4’s championship race isn’t as close as GT3, but the racing promises to be just as exciting, with the field once again featuring a huge variety of chassis and set of drivers.
Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson head the points tally by 17.5 points in their Optimum Motorsport Ginetta, and need 20 to claim the title before Donington (50 are up for grabs over the two hour-long sprints in Norfolk).
Behind, the Jack Bartholomew along with Ross Gunn will be pushing hard to take the fight down to the wire to claim Beechdean another British GT title, with Century Motorsport’s Anna Walewska and Nathan Freke sitting third in the standings 39.5 points adrift of the championship-leading Ginetta.
Returning to the series is both the Simpson Motorsport Ginetta of Adrian Barwick and Bradley Ellis after skipping Spa, as well as the UltraTek Racing crew, which is competitng for the first time in 2016 with a Lotus Evora.
As was reported by DSC earlier this week, team owner Richard Taffinder is back in action in 2016 for a shorter-than-planned campaign with Garage 59 driver Martin Plowman sharing the outfit’s sole Evora; the car will be present at the final round too.
Taffinder has high aspirations of racing at Le Mans in the next three years, and this comeback to GT4 after time away due to business commitments marks the start of his journey to La Sarthe.
Race 1 begins on Sunday at 11:50, with Race 2 later in the day at 16:05 local time in the UK.
The full entry list is available HERE >>
