Barwell Motorsport’s Rob Collard and Hugo Cook dominated Round 7 of the 2026 British GT Championship at Donington Park today, in a race that got underway in wet conditions.
A surprise rain shower before the race start prompted the starting drivers to undertake their first wet laps of the week. The conditions added an extra element of strategy with teams timing their switch back to slicks during the opening hour.
Collard snatched the lead in his #78 Barwell Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 into the opening Redgate corner from the pole-sitting #44 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Jonathon Beeson. The #63 Barwell crew’s lack of success compensation allowed them to extend their gap after Cook took over, aided by fierce battles behind them.
Their second win of the season has elevated them into the outright championship lead, with Cook hungry for championship glory since he left as vice-champion last year.
Reigning teams’ champions 2 Seas Motorsport secured their first season podiums, with British GT debutant Chris Lulham earning second place in the #18 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo shared with Kevin Tse — ahead of the #15 Mercedes of 2025 champion Charles Dawson and his teammate Aaron Walker.
The #15 duo also took the team’s first GT3 Silver-Am win.
“It was great,” Collard told DSC after taking his second win of the season. “I knew we had to try to get in front of the BMW car, whether it was wet or dry conditions, and thankfully I did.
“And then it was just easy going; I just managed the gap then because I just didn’t want to go too hard and absolutely melt the tyres because I didn’t know if the rain was going to come back.
“But then it just dried, and it dried very quickly. I think we could have maybe gone to slicks a lap or two earlier, and I think if we were under pressure, we might have jumped to do that.
“We’re sitting there quite comfortably, and it’s just nice to come in to have a nice straightforward pit stop, handing the car over to Hugo. And he’s done an excellent job, and he’s brought it home. He had fantastic pace.
“I very much would love to try and win another championship and to win it with Hugo because I think we should have won it last year. Hopefully we can bring the car back in one piece and score well [at Brands Hatch].”
Both Century Motorsport and the championship-leading #77 Optimum Motorsport McLaren GT3 Evo endured disastrous races when Morgan Tillbrook lost control of his #77 car under braking into the Melbourne Hairpin. As a result, 17 minutes into the race, he crashed into the #44 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, becoming the only retirement.
“It was my first time in the GT3 in the wet,” added Beeson, “so it was probably a blessing with Collard taking the first spot. The start of the race felt really good out there. A few mistakes, pushed a bit too much into a few corners.
“We just needed a clean race today, and we didn’t get it. We didn’t deserve that.”
Only the rear-right tyre needed replacing during a thorough inspection in the garage, before Charles Clark reached the checkered flag 9 laps down on the winner.
Beechdean rebounded from its P9 qualifying performance with Andrew Howard and factory driver Ross Gunn putting the #7 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo in P4.
Barwell’s #78 Lamborghini of Alex Martin and Jarrod Waberski claimed fifth after a difficult race when Martin hit the rear of a lapped #13 Rodin Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo (Cameron Campbell at Coppice.
Both cars escaped the gravel, and despite a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility, the #78 Lamborghini retained second place in the overall championship standings.
Orange Racing by JMH’s #67 McLaren GT3 Evo of Simon Orange and Marcus Clutton finished sixth despite a spin and an early drive-through for Orange speeding in the pit lane.
The #90 Optimum McLaren of Marc Warren and Jack Brown finished seventh. Warren was undoubtedly the star driver during the opening hour of the race, surging from sixth and taking second place twice.
The first move was on Beeson, who had to be mindful of the lapped #13 Rodin Ferrari — and the second time, it was a switchback manoeuvre on the exit of Redgate against Dawson.
During a pit stop, the ‘lollipop man’ rested his foot against the front splitter of the #90 Optimum McLaren, therefore exceeding the allowed limit of four people touching the car. The team incurred a drive-through penalty. Due to radio issues, Brown was unaware of this penalty, which escalated to a 1-minute stop-and-go.
Callum Macleod and Mike Price brought the #3 Optimum McLaren eighth ahead of the #13 Rodin Ferrari (Campbell/Josh Buchan), which spun early on before being hit by the #78 Barwell Lamborghini.
Paddock Motorsport’s Angliss and Lake deliver maiden GT4 victory
Paddock Motorsport claimed their first victory in the GT4 category, with credit to their drivers Blake Angliss and 16-year-old Revie Lake.
The team inherited pole position after the Ginetta’s were disqualified. Angliss managed to adapt to drying track conditions on the wet tyre, elongating his stint for Lake to take over en route to the end.
Lake becomes one of the championship’s youngest race winners, with Paddock marking their first success since taking over the #84 McLaren Artura GT4 from the former Mahiki Racing outfit.
“I’m really proud of the whole team,” team principal Martin Plowman told DSC. “The guys have been fantastic all weekend. We’ve got so many crew members who are full-time and part-time who come together on these weekends.
“From when we started five years ago to where we are now, we’re just very proud of the growth that we’ve shown and finally got that first big overall GT4 win.
“We were monitoring the time-loss to pit and take the pit stop, versus staying out, and we were managing that gap very nicely.
“Actually, by staying out, although we were losing a few seconds a lap to the guys who stayed on slicks, we actually believed that we had a net gain on staying out.
“Then because we had such a large margin going into the pit window, we knew we had three laps where we could elongate our stop, even though that was going to lose us four or five seconds a lap.”
The renowned ‘Chomp’ #24 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 Evo (Branden Templeton/Jack Collins) claimed second position, having started fifth.
A risky gamble from Innovation Racing to be the only team, with its #74 and #5 Ginetta G56 GT4 Evos, to start on slick tyres paid off for the #74 shared by Hadley Simpson and Thomas Holland.
The pairing bounced back after losing pole position and starting the race from the pit lane, like the #5 and #42 Toro Verde GT Ginetta’s — thus retaining the championship lead ahead of Templeton/Collins.
Grange Racing by FSR wrapped up the GT4 Pro-Am title after Daniel Lavery and Darren Turner took the win in the #27 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo, fourth outright.
Debutants James Wareing and Sam Brunston brought the #5 Innovation Ginetta in fifth place, but could not turn the same success on the slick gamble as the #74.
“It’s a bit of a tough one,” Brunston reflected. “With the Ginetta disqualification, having to start from the pit lane, we started on slick tyres when it was wet. I managed to come through from last to fourth in (Silver Cup) class.
“Looking at the progression and speed we had, it’s definitely a really good result in my stint. I quite enjoy throwing a car around, and with slicks in the wet you have no grip whatsoever.”
MK Racing’s Jessica Hawkins got as high as third place in the #21 Aston Martin heading into the pit window, as Will Orton fended off Holland’s #74 Ginetta before the team were awarded a drive-through for pit-lane speeding.
Optimum’s #59 McLaren of George Gamble and Josh Stanton, serving maximum compensation time, finished behind MK Racing in P7 overall in GT4, followed by the #40 Fox Motorsport Aston (James Townsend/Joe Wheeler).
Toro Verde’s #8 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS (Ian Duggan/Tom Bradshaw) took third in Pro-Am, P8 outright, followed by the #97 GBR Stratton Aston of Jordan Collard/John Hartshorne and the #61 West Surrey Racing BMW of Colin Turkington/Ernie Graham, who served a drive-through for speeding under the full-course yellow.
Toro Verde GT’s #42 Ginetta of Jack Mitchell/Luke Shaw rounded out the field two laps ahead of the #44 Century BMW.
The Brands Hatch decider will decide the 2026 champions in three weeks on 26-27 September.
