TF Sport’s Marco Sorensen and Derek Johnston led home an Aston Martin 1-2-3-4 in Sunday’s second one-hour British GT sprint race at Snetterton, with Johnston fending off huge pressure from second-place finisher Andrew Howard in the Beechdean car shared with Darren Turner. Race-one winners Nicki Thiim and Mark Farmer (TF Sport) completed the podium, with their pitstop success penalty meaning that was probably the maximum result they could have expected.
Thiim had defended pole position and Sorensen had moved ahead of Phil Keen in the #33 Lamborghini to take second off the grid, and there were no offs or incidents for the GT3 runners on the first lap. Only a lap in, Thiim had already pulled out a noticeable gap on his fellow Dane, but this was eliminated almost immediately when the safety car was deployed due to Ben Barnicoat’s GT4 McLaren leaving the track earlier in the lap.
The safety car came in at the end of lap four; behind the top three Turner was circulating in fourth ahead of Jonny Cocker (#69 Lamborghini), Callum Macleod (#7 Bentley), Jonny Adam (#75 Aston) and Yelmer Buurman (#116 Mercedes), with ninth-place Maxime Martin in the Jetstream Aston having got ahead of Ryan Ratcliffe (#1 Bentley) and Struan Moore (#24 Nissan) from his back-of-the-grid starting position.
Moore demoted Ratcliffe to last in GT3 on lap seven, while at the front Thiim had established a 2.6-second cushion on Sorensen – a gap which didn’t change much between then and the pit window opening. Most teams elected to leave the quick pro drivers in as long as possible.
Cocker and Ratcliffe were the first GT3 runners to pit, handing over to Sam de Haan and Rick Parfitt, while Martin and Moore came in shortly after, handing over to Graham Davidson and Jordan Witt respectively. The next lap saw Macleod hand over to Iain Loggie and Adam to Flick Haigh, while the top five runners in GT3 left it to the last possible moment to make the pro-to-am switch.
With both the #11 TF Sport Aston and #33 Barwell Lamborghini having to pit for longer due to their race-one podium finishes, it was no surprise to see Sorensen’s co-driver Johnston emerge in the lead after the stops, ahead of Howard in the Beechdean Aston.
Elsewhere, there was trouble for Loggie in the #7 Bentley shortly after the car emerged from its pitstop, while things went from bad to worse for Team Parker when Pariftt lost the #1 on his own a short while later, managing to rejoin without damage.
Farmer had rejoined in fourth in the car started by Thiim and was running ahead of Jon Minshaw (#33 Lamborghini), Lee Mowle (#116 Mercedes), Haigh, Davidson, de Haan, Witt and Pariftt following the two Bentley incidents. Loggie had been forced to retire the #7 due to a driveshaft issue.
On track, Howard got past Farmer to reshuffle the order of the Aston 1-2-3 at the front of the field, while Haigh also made progress during her stint, overtaking Mowle for fifth. Up front, Howard closed down Johnston rapidly and was right with him with just over 15 minutes to go.
The two Vantages circulated nose-to-tail for several laps, while several seconds back down the road Minshaw had Farmer’s car in his sights in the battle for the final podium position. Mowle lost another place, to Davidson, with 12 minutes to go, while Minshaw also had a charging Haigh in fifth place to worry about, just a second behind him as the race entered its final 10 minutes.
Haigh swept past Minshaw for fourth into Riches at the start of lap 26, with Johnston and Howard still locked in combat at the front of the field. Minshaw meanwhile was now defending his fifth place from Davidson – a battle that ended in contact at the Wilson hairpin that put Minshaw briefly off the circuit before rejoining.
Despite every effort from Howard, Johnston couldn’t be dislodged from the lead and the duo crossed the line just half a second apart. Farmer took third, just ahead of Haigh and Davidson (although the latter’s contact with sixth-place finisher Minshaw is likely to be investigated post-race). Witt overhauled Mowle for seventh on the penultimate lap, with Parfitt and de Haan completing the finishers in ninth and 10th.
Stop press: The Martin/Davidson Aston was handed a 30-second penalty post-race for Davidson’s contact with Minshaw, dropping the car to ninth in the official result.
Century scores the M4 its first GT4 win
In the highly competitive GT4 class, victory went to the #42 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 of Ben Green and taking the second stint, Ben Tuck who crossed the line just over 2.5 seconds ahead of Lewis Proctor in the #5 Tolman Motorsport Ltd McLaren 570S GT4 in the car he shared with Jordan Albert.
Completing the podium positions, which were also the top three positions in the Silver class, was the pole-sitting #62 Academy Motorsport Aston Martin V8 Vantage of Matt Nicoll-Jones and Will Moore.
Taking the win in the Pro-Am category was the #501 Balfe Motorsport McLaren 570S GT4 driven by Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson.
Matt Nicoll-Jones, at the wheel of the #62 Academy Motorsport entry, led the field from pole but the race was quickly neutralised behind the Safety-Car after the #72 Track-Club McLaren, driven by Ben Barnicoat, was pushed into a spin at the exit to Oggies following contact with Sennan Fielding in the #68 Steller Performance Toyota GT86.
The race went back to green-flag running after eight minutes and Nicoll-Jones continued to hold a narrow lead over Jack Mitchell in the #43 Century Motorsport BMW. Mitchell was pushing hard, however, and passed Nicoll-Jones for the class lead after 20 minutes. Joe Osborne in the #56 Tolman Motorsport Ltd entry, winner of Race One, was clearly looking for the second win of the day and passed Nicoll-Jones to take second place following which he set his sights on the #43 car.
Osborne passed the #56 car over to teammate David Pattison in the class lead but Pattison could not maintain the pace and was passed by Lewis Proctor in the #5 Tolman Motorsport entry with 15 minutes remaining. With Pattison falling back in the field, Ben Tuck moved into second in class in the final ten minutes and then passed Proctor to take the class lead and the eventual win on the penultimate lap.
Ben Green and Ben Tuck were delighted to take the win.
“We’re very happy with that,” said Ben Green. “We had great pace all race. It was a shame about the contact but Ben (Tuck) managed to pull that back in the second half. We showed the pace we’ve had all year and I think we’re only going to keep going this way. We’ve had a chat (with Joe Osborne following contact which resulted in a spin for the #42 car at Oggies) and it’s all good now. Silverstone should be great for us and it suits the car.”
Ben Tuck was determined to take the win in the final few minutes.
“I could see that I was catching him slowly but every time a GT3 car came past the gap would go back out again,” said Ben Tuck. “I was on the radio asking how many GT3s were left as I’ve got to get him! Luckily I got him on the next to last lap. I couldn’t have asked for more really.”
The British GT Championship now moves to Silverstone on June 9/10 for the ‘Blue Riband’ 500-mile race.
