Jonny Adam has equalled Phil Keen’s British GT wins record, after scoring a historic 19th victory in today’s three-hour contest at the Autodromo do Algarve.
Alongside 2 Seas Motorsport teammate James Cottingham, Adam’s win came in a thrilling race which was interrupted by multiple incidents. There were two Safety Car periods in the first hour, which prompted most teams to make two of their three mandatory driver changes earlier than expected, shaking up the order.
The first was for the #22 Century BMW of Carl Cavers getting stuck in the gravel at the hairpin after contact with the #90 Optimum McLaren of Jack Brown. The second was called when the #7 Paddock Motorsport McLaren stopped with a mechanical failure.
The neutralisations made for an exciting second half, creating plenty of action in the run to the flag.
In addition to being a milestone result for Adam, he and Cottingham have extended their championship advantage over Century Motorsport’s Darren Leung and Dan Harper, who finished fifth and find themselves 28 points adrift with two races remaining.
Adam was delighted with both the result and his teammate’s performance, who laid the foundations for the win with a pass on John Ferguson around the outside at Turn 13. The move to take the lead came with an hour and 40 minutes remaining after the second safety car period shuffled the pack and kept the field bunched up.
It was a ferocious battle between the two Mercedes drivers at the front of a train of seven cars all squabbling for places in the top five. The intensity of the racing behind allowed Cottingham to hold station and built a lead.
“The car felt great in the race, and James’ pass on Ferguson early in the race to take the lead was exactly what we needed,” said Adam after the race.
“Getting past Ferguson was very tricky indeed, I kept my nose out of trouble and did my best. Thankfully the track is wide and there are a lot of things you can try. When I got past I just put my head down and kept asking on the radio for them to tell me what the gap was to everyone behind,” Cottingham explained after his fight to the front.
Behind Optimum Motorsport’s Mark Radcliffe and Rob Bell finished second in their #27 McLaren 720S GT3 after Bell successfully held Barwell’s Sandy Mitchell at bay in the final half hour. Mitchell would eventually come home third.
The #15 RAM Racing Mercedes was fourth on the road, ahead of championship-contending Century BMW in fifth. The battle for fourth was hotly contested in the closing stages, with RAM’s Raffaele Marciello and Century’s Dan Harper going head-to-head for a lengthy spell. Fifth wasn’t ideal for Century, but it became a race where damage limitation was the main aim after Harper was handed a 30-second stop-go penalty for overtaking under the safety car.
2 Seas Motorsport’s #1 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Phil Keen and Ian Loggie came home sixth, battling back from a drive-through penalty that was handed to Loggie for track limits violations.
Further down the order in GT3, Kevin Tse and Chris Froggatt looked well set for their fourth successive GT3 Silver-Am win in their Sky Tempesta McLaren, until a late drive-through handed Barwell’s Mark Sansom and Will Tregurtha class victory.
The pole-sitting Garage 59 McLaren of Miguel Ramos and Marvin Kirchhöfer retired from the race after a clash with the Sky Tempesta McLaren early in the second hour that saw Ramos tapped into a spin by Tse. The damage from the contact would force Ramos into the pits and into retirement.
In GT4, after R Racing looked like the team to beat throughout practice and Qualifying it was Century Motorsport’s Michael Johnston and Chris Salkeld that emerged victorious.
The pair’s performance from eighth on the grid secured their first class win, Salkeld crossing the line three in the #17 BMW M4 GT4 seconds ahead of the chasing Enduro Motorsport Mercedes of Darren Burke and Harry George.
“It’s unbelievable, my first win in British GT, first win for BMW with the new car. It’s crazy as when we came into this weekend with the Balance of Performance we didn’t think a result like this would be possible. Credit to BMW for building an incredible car with incredible tyre degradation.
“Holding off everyone at the end was difficult, but it’s my first win in three years and I am over the moon,” commended Salkeld after the race.
The team’s ability to burn Johnston’s drive time early in the race proved key, Salkeld explained in his post-race interview.
“It was one of those things, when the second safety car came out I was in the car, and I knew it was going to be a long one, so I thought ‘let’s get MJ in and use his drive time as an AM to get it out the way’,” he added. “So we got him in and it was pedal to the floor for me for every single lap. I’m knackered.”
For the R Racing duo of Josh Miller and Seb Hopkins, the race did not go to plan. The pair started from pole and looked set to finish second before Hopkins made contact with the #55 Raceway Ginetta.
This forced the R Racing Aston Martin into the pits for repairs, which would drop them to seventh by the end.
The incident looked set to benefit Toro Verde’s James Townsend and Mike Simpson who had a sniff of a podium, but a puncture on the final lap proved costly and allowed DTO Motorsport’s Josh Rowledge and Aston Millar to take the final set of trophies. The Toro Verde Ginetta dropped to fifth, behind the #29 Race Lab McLaren that claimed fourth and ahead of the #62 Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang that finished sixth.
More to follow…
Images courtesy of BGT/JEP
