20-second handicap adds pressure to Barwell’s GT3 title bid
The championship-leading #63 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 is shared by two-time British GT champion Rob Collard and last year’s runner-up Hugo Cook on 122.5 points. To win the 2026 GT3 drivers’ title — Barwell’s fourth — they must secure a podium finish.
Although they start second on the grid, their victory at Donington Park means they will need to serve a 20-second pit stop compensation time.
Collard’s immediate objective will be to overtake Kevin Tse’s #18 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and build a gap in the lead, replicating his opening stint at Donington.
“It’ll be a great thing to do,” Cook told DSC regarding the possibility of championship glory.
“But we can do our best, and if that’s enough then that’ll be it,” he conceded.
“Commitment, consistency [are important at Brands Hatch]. You’ve got to be perfect every lap because there’s no margin for error here.
“I think with Rob, he always is looking to go forward. So if he can do it, he’ll do it. But if not, we are mindful that we’re in the championship fight.
“It’s really nice to have some backing from the factory,” he said as a Lamborghini GT3 Junior Driver. “I’m still trying to prove myself. The end goal is hopefully to be a factory driver.”
Collard and Cook are the only championship contenders with compensation time, and a safety-car interruption will reset any hard-earned lead that either driver has established.
The #77 Optimum Motorsport McLaren GT3 Evo of Morgan Tillbrook/Ben Barnicoat is starting P4 (105.5 points) and the #78 Barwell Lamborghini of Alex Martin/Jarrod Waberski is starting P7 (107 points).
Century’s Templeton faces GT4 title pursuit on joint lead
Century Motorsport’s #24 ‘Chomp’ BMW M4 GT4 Evo is shared by Branden Templeton, in his second British GT Championship season, and his rookie teammate Jack Collins.
Consistent results, including a win, have put them in a prime position towards GT4 championship glory at Brands Hatch. Equally determined, however, are Ginetta customer team Innovation Racing’s Thomas Holland/Hadley Simpson, who tie with Century on 127 points but lead on countback.
“It’s my first time going into a final round, being joined on points,” said Templeton.
“But the preparation hasn’t changed. It’s just another race. Whatever happens, I’m very grateful to be in this position that I can fight for the championship.
“I’ve got a little bit of experience here, not as much as others, but I’ve done this race before, so there are a few things that I know and keep in mind. The car’s a bit different setup-wise compared to last year, so I’m still just cracking on, working hard.”
The #24 BMW qualified in a competitive fourth position, two positions ahead of the #74 Innovation Racing Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo, which may put it in a prime position for the race start — but managing the faster GT3s, avoiding track limits violations and staying out of the barriers all play a key role in crowning the 2026 GT4 champions.
In third place in the standings with 121 points is MK Racing’s #21 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo, driven by Jessica Hawkins and Will Orton, starting fifth just behind Innovation.
Reigning GT4 champion Brown ponders enjoyable GT3 step-up
Optimum Motorsport’s #90 McLaren GT3 Evo duo Jack Brown and Marc Warren have had a season to remember in their maiden GT3 campaign together.
The 2025 GT4 champions claimed their first outright pole position and win at Snetterton. At Donington Park, Warren performed impressively during his opening stint under changing weather conditions before the team incurred a drive-through penalty, which escalated amid Brown’s team radio issues.
“Enjoyed it a lot,” summarised Brown. “It’s been a lot of things to learn. I’ve had good people around me to learn from: Ben [Barnicoat] and Callum [Macleod] in the other cars.
“We’ve had a bit of bad luck really. At Silverstone, the car was unreliable. Spa, we had a puncture. Donington, we got a drive-through penalty because the engineer put his foot on the car (during the pit stop).
“Didn’t expect to win a race. It’s been a good, fun year.
“At the end of the day, I’m racing against people who’ve got a lot more time in this car than I have. I’ll get there; I just need a bit more time.”
They have performed strongly in the GT3 Silver-Am competition and, for outright victories, impressively for a Bronze-Silver driver combination. It is not without precedent as they are the third GT3 Silver-Am pairing to win outright this year and start today’s race from fifth on the grid – pole in GT3 Silver-Am.
Pro-Am champion Lavery under ‘no pressure’ targeting outright GT4 honours
Grange Racing by FSR driver Daniel Lavery has learned quickly in his first British GT championship campaign, having wrapped up the GT4 Pro-Am title with his treble Le Mans- class winning teammate Darren Turner at Donington.
Only last year, Lavery was contesting one-make BMW racing before racing a GT car. Now the #27 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo pairing are third-highest on 116.5 points, 10.5 behind Innovation Racing and Century Motorsport, who both carry compensation time for their Donington podiums.
“For us it’s a big advantage,” Lavery told DSC. “Really, we’re the only ones with no pressure.
“Worst case scenario, if it all goes wrong, we’ve still got a championship to our name.
“We want the overall, so it’s quite liberating for us. We feel free just to really attack it, not worry too much about what’s going to happen, and see where we land.
“In a really odd way, as the BMWs don’t have a lot of power, you end up having to roll speed into a corner, not scrubbing speed off, and actually, that helps me with this car as well. It’s a heavy car. You have to roll momentum into corners, so it’s actually been quite useful. It’s not as big a step as people expect it.”
Kingsford soaks up GT3 debut with 2 Seas
Todd Kingsford is making both his British GT and GT3 racing debut this weekend in place of an injured Ian Loggie in the #15 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.
The #15 AMG claimed GT3 Silver-Am victory at Donington by Aaron Walker and Loggie’s substitute, 2025 British GT champion Charles Dawson.
Kingsford is a Thai-based driver, born in Australia, and tested with 2 Seas at Snetterton, having received coaching from decorated Mercedes-AMG works driver Jules Gounon, whose achievements include winning the Bathurst 12 Hours thrice.
Not only is this Kingsford’s first race meeting in a GT3 car, but it also marks his first appearance at Brands Hatch as a novice on UK circuits.
In this year alone, he has taken 14 wins from 16 starts, winning the 2026 Lamborghini SuperTrofeo Asia Pro-Am title, following on from last year’s title success in the Thailand Super Series and the 2025 Porsche Sprint Challenge Indonesia.
“The Mercedes-AMG is the exact opposite to the Trofeo in every sense of the word,” said Kingsford.
“The way you brake, the way you turn and the way you carry speed is completely different.
“It’s just a huge learning curve. On top of that, I’ve never seen this track before.
“I bought the track in iRacing because I obviously didn’t have it and just started running laps. In about three days, I did 400 laps.”
Fox Motorsport’s Townsend makes British GT history in solo effort
For the first time in British GT history, a driver will compete alone in one of its two-hour endurance races.
James Townsend in the #40 Fox Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo has been granted special permission to drive alone.
British GT drivers have raced alone before, but Townsend is certainly the first to do so at an endurance round.
For instance, JRM Racing, who ran Nissan GT-Rs in the 2013 season, entered Jody Fannin in the #230 and Mark Cole in the #330 entries at the Oulton Park sprint meeting.
Fox Motorsport took second place in the GT4 Pro-Am category at Donington, navigating the wet-to-dry track conditions. However, the team was disqualified after someone touched the car under parc fermé.
With his professional-graded teammate Joe Wheeler unavailable, Townsend took up this special challenge.
“It’s a good opportunity to have lots of track time,” he said.
“I’ve also liked the idea of creating a little bit of British GT history by being the first person to do a two-hour race and hopefully complete it by myself.
“From my point of view, if I’m going to continue doing endurance racing, the opportunity to double stint at a big race is going to come up from time to time, and it’s going to be important for strategy.
“To have that under my belt and knowledge in the bank, to know I can do it physically and mentally, is a great challenge.
“I’ve done 130-odd races (across his career). This is the first time I’ve done anything over an hour, so it’ll be fun, but is it going to be a challenge? Yes!
“I’ve got to get out at the pit stop and still refuel the car and then get strapped back in, so it’s basically like any other pit stop would be for the drivers.
“There’s no special treatment for me, but we’ve just got to try and keep our heads down.”
An additional team member will assist Townsend in re-entering the car, similar to how his competitors have a driver help secure their teammate during the changeover.
Townsend understands that winning as an ‘Am’ racing solo is highly unlikely and surviving to the end around the undulating Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit is the key goal.
Paddock Motorsport explains late major repair job with new Porsche
Paddock Motorsport has switched from McLaren to Porsche machinery for the first time in their British GT programme.
The #9 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo is hired from Team Parker Racing; the same car that competed in last year’s British GT season got its first outing last weekend at the GT Cup UK race meeting, but has since been fitted with the Evo kit.
Between the GT Cup meeting and British GT’s Brands Hatch Decider, the car was rebuilt after Mark Smith had an accident at Druids in the third GT Cup race, on Sunday morning.
He avoided drama with two GT4 cars in front by running over ‘marbles’ — the term in motorsport for small balls of rubber from drivers’ tyres formed just off the racing line.
Unlike McLaren’s Woking base of operations, reasonably close to Brands Hatch, Paddock sourced replacement and spare parts from Stuttgart, Germany, where Porsche is based.
“A very unfortunate crash at the start of the Sunday morning race did some extensive damage,” recalled team principal and Smith’s long-time British GT teammate Martin Plowman.
“It wouldn’t normally be enough to put you out of the race weekend, but the fact that we had absolutely zero spare parts meant we were out of the day.
“Then what followed was a bit of a mission to get the car ready for this weekend, because we had logistical headaches to cover customs, get the parts ordered, dispatched from Porsche, Germany — and then get them here on time and fitted.
“So we had a 24-hour courier service from our partner team at Black Falcon, who drove the parts through the night to Dover.
“We had one of our courier drivers meet the Black Falcon guys at 1 a.m. on Saturday, drive to the track, and we would finish rebuilding the car half an hour before free practice.”
Record-breaking McMurtry Spéirling draws attention
British startup McMurtry has brought their iconic Spéirling single-seat electric fan hypercar to this weekend’s British GT season finale.
It gained attention when it set a blistering record hillclimb time at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed with a 39.08-second run by Max Chilton, breaking further records at Laguna Seca and the Top Gear Test Track.
Statistics for this machine draw awe and fascination because its performance matches that of a Formula 1 car. The Spéirling produces 2000 kg of downforce at a standstill and accelerates to 60 mph in just 1.55 seconds with 1000 hp sent to the rear wheels.
This example is one of 100 cars, each costing an estimated £1.2 million.
Beechdean’s Andrew Howard bids farewell to British GT
Two-time British GT champion Andrew Howard is readying for his 157th and final professional GT race before his retirement.
The co-founder of ice cream manufacturer Beechdean contested his maiden British GT race in 2006, having since claimed race victories, podiums and championship glory at the wheel of GT3 machinery, cementing Beechdean’s status as a committed Aston Martin Racing team customer.
He reflected on his tenure as one of British GT’s most respected veterans, calling the curtain on a momentous 27-year professional motor racing career.
Century’s Clark tops morning warm-up after red-flag interruption
Century Motorsport’s Charles Clark topped the 15-minute morning warm-up session in the #44 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, setting a fastest lap time of 1:24.136.
A red flag was raised when Kevin Tse, the driver starting today’s race from pole position, spun and ended up in the gravel at Sheen Curve, Turn 7.
With Tse swiftly recovered and any gravel swept off the track, the session resumed with 8 minutes and 24 seconds left on the clock.
Marcus Clutton took second place in the #67 Orange Racing by JMH McLaren GT3 Evo with a time of 1:24.280, followed by Hugo Cook’s #63 Barwell Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 with its lap time of 1:24.569.
Jack Brown put the #90 Optimum Motorsport McLaren in fourth (1:24.864) as Martin Plowman rounded out the top five in the #9 Paddock Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo (1:24.887).
Innovation Racing were quickest in the GT4 field and in the Silver Cup, after Thomas Holland drove a lap time of 1:31.537 in the #74 Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo.
Jordan Collard was second overall and fastest in GT4 Pro-Am, in the #97 GBR Stratton Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo (1:31.839), followed by Jack Collins’s #24 Century BMW M4 GT4 Evo (1:31.936).
Revie Lake put the #84 Paddock Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 in fourth (1:32.074) ahead of Colin Turkington’s #61 West Surrey Racing BMW (1:32.240).
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British GT press officer Tom Hornsby previews the final race meeting of the 2026 season, the ‘Battle of Brands’.
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Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
