Marcus Clutton and Simon Orange won a thrilling Brands Hatch Decider en route to 2026 British GT GT3 championship glory in the #67 Orange Racing by JMH McLaren GT3 Evo, heading home a McLaren 1-2-3.
Rob Collard took the lead into Druids in his #63 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 on Kevin Tse’s #18 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, which started on pole.
Orange jumped into second place during a rapid opening stint, with GT4 traffic playing a role in opening and closing the gap towards Collard’s lead.
The #63 Lamborghini driver made a rare mistake from the lead approaching the end of his stint, putting himself into the gravel trap at Sheen Curve and throwing away his and Hugo Cook’s championship hopes in dramatic circumstances.
Despite this circumstance, Barwell Motorsport secured a record eighth Teams’ title and GT3 Silver-Am glory too with their #78 Lamborghini duo Alex Martin and Jarrod Waberski, the latter winning in the SRO GT Academy rankings and a seat in next year’s 24 Hours of Spa in a Team Motopark Mercedes-AMG.
After turning up the pressure earlier on, Orange inherited the lead. Without any compensation time, Clutton took over, retaining first with a mistake-free run, albeit ahead of the #77 Optimum Motorsport McLaren of Ben Barnicoat, whose quick form left him 16.510 seconds behind Clutton after 80 laps.
“It’s not really sunk in yet, and I’m still embracing the moment,” Clutton told DSC.
“What an achievement for the team, for Jason [Hughes] at JMH and for Orange Racing, their collaboration. This has just been excellent.
“Simon’s an interesting character. He’s not your simulator guy, but I got him on his sim; he hates it with a passion, but I’m like, mate, we have to do our homework.
“We did GT Cup last week, and it just paid dividends. Yes, we got very lucky with Rob [Collard] making a very uncharacteristic mistake, but that only came because of the pressure we were putting on.”
Optimum Motorsport’s #77 McLaren pairing of Barnicoat and Morgan Tillbrook ended up second in the race and second in the GT3 championship fight.
At the start, Orange passed Tillbrook into third position, and so the #77 McLaren struggled to match the pace of their rivals in Tillbrook’s hands.
Barnicoat was undoubtedly the quickest driver of the race, and pursued Clutton during the closing portion, ending a strong first campaign in British GT’s GT3 competition.
Jack Brown crossed the line third outright and first in GT3 Silver-Am in the #90 Optimum McLaren. Unfortunately, his and Marc Warren’s #90 machine were disqualified after it was found to be under the minimum weight of 1310 kg.
Warren put in a strong opening stint, as he did at Donington. Here, he pounced from fifth on the grid and wrestled his way forward, pressuring Tillbrook and eventually overtaking after Tillbrook made an error at Bottom Bend, before the first of two full-course yellows was deployed.
As a result, the #44 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Jonathon Beeson and Charles Clark took the GT3 Silver-Am win.
Beeson battled closely with Warren during the opening hour, as Clark continued the tension in his fight on Waberski in pursuit of the 2027 Spa 24 Hours seat, which Waberski succeeded in doing so after crossing the line in fourth, which became fourth after the #90 McLaren’s DQ.
Martin also showcased ambitious form in his opening stint, crucially overtaking Beeson before Clark’s intense push against Waberski.
Aston Martin factory driver Ross Gunn claimed fifth place in the #7 Beechdean Vantage AMR GT3 Evo, shared with team principal Andrew Howard, who concluded his 157th and final British GT race.
Third in GT3 Pro-Am was the #18 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG of Tse/Chris Lulham. After losing the lead, Tse made a mistake into Sterling’s, which lost him more ground to the front.
They incurred a drive-through penalty for proceeding slowly in the fast lane of the pits after the pit stop, after Lulham took over from Tse. Lulham was running in fourth at the time, with 18 minutes of the race remaining.
Optimum Motorsport’s #3 McLaren of Mark Price and Callum Macleod finished in seventh position, having started on the back row of the 11-strong GT3 field.
Aaron Walker secured a third-place finish in the GT3 Silver-Am category, driving the #15 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG. His teammate, Todd Kingsford, made a promising debut in the British GT Championship, despite receiving the first drive-through penalty early in the race for exceeding track limits, a topic often discussed when racing at Brands Hatch.
Martin Plowman brought the #9 Paddock Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo in ninth position with his teammate Mark Smith, in what was the team’s first British GT event in their Porsche loaned from Team Parker Racing.
Cook salvaged 10th place, last of the GT3 field, finding difficulty in making progress after their maximum pit stop compensation time for winning last time out at Donington, having entered this final race meeting as championship leaders. The #63 Lamborghini fell off the lead lap after Collard’s mistake, and finished three laps down.
Gamble & Stanton win GT4, Turner beats Orton to championship glory
Optimum Motorsport’s #59 McLaren Artura GT4 of George Gamble and Josh Stanton won comfortably in the GT4 category from the very first corner, taking their second win together this season.
Meanwhile, behind, a tense showdown during the 40 minutes of the race between respected Aston Martin factory driver Darren Turner and Will Orton’s #21 MK Aston Martin Racing Vantage AMR GT4 Evo came down to an exciting end.
Turner beat Orton to the finish line by just 0.250 seconds, securing the GT4 championship title with his teammate Daniel Lavery in the #27 Grange Racing by FSR Aston Martin.
Ultimately, Turner/Lavery won the GT4 title on countback, having already wrapped the GT4 Pro-Am honours at Donington, as he and Daniel Lavery tied on 143.5 points with MK Racing’s Orton/Jess Hawkins.
“Not the most enjoyable time I’ve had in a race car,” Turner admitted to DSC. “But the overall result, just unbelievable really.
“So happy that we held onto the line. To win a championship by 0.25 seconds is very satisfying. We came into this weekend hoping things went our way and being able to get the overall GT4 title.
“Everything went our way as we got to the flag, and just happy for everyone at Grange FSR, exceptionally happy for Dan. He’s had a stellar season this season. He’s just grown in confidence, grown in ability, and he’s become the true Bronze driver in terms of delivering and not making any mistakes today.”
“I threw everything at it,” added Orton, who won the GT4 Silver Cup title despite missing out on the main championship.
“I didn’t want to leave anything on the table. No regrets with it all; it was close over the line but yeah, what a race.
“It’s a good result for Aston Martin winning both titles, so I’m really pleased with that.
“A hell of a journey [this season]. I had full confidence in everything we’ve got. We’ve done everything right this season, preparation-wise. Donington was a little slip-up, but equally, I knew we were going to be in a good position, and it was everything I expected the last race to be and more.”
Innovation Racing, who led the championship on countback this weekend, suffered misfortune when Hadley Simpson from fourth endured a rear-left puncture, thus retiring their #74 Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo with 57 minutes of the race left to go.
After becoming the only retirement, the second FCY was deployed to recover the #74 Ginetta before resuming with 42 minutes left in the two-hour enduro.
With the #27 Grange Racing FSR Aston Martin winning in the GT4 Pro-Am classification, Jack Mitchell took second in class in the #42 Toro Verde GT Ginetta with his teammate Luke Shaw.
Mitchell was equally involved in the fight against Turner and Orton. After pressuring Turner’s lead, Mitchell attacked Orton straight after but was not able to make his move stick into Hawthorn Bend.
The #84 Paddock Motorsport McLaren of Blake Angliss and Revie Lake finished fifth in GT4, third in GT4 Silver. Angliss was passed by Turner into second position early in the race, before serving a drive-through penalty — awarded when Lake, acting as fire cover during the pit stop, had his helmet visor open during refuelling.
Century Motorsport’s #24 BMW M4 GT4 Evo of Jack Collins and Branden Templeton finished sixth, with Lake having carried out a late overtake on Collins into Druids during the final minutes.
Toro Verde GT’s #8 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS CS of Ian Duggan/Tom Bradshaw were seventh, ahead of the first British GT driver to solo-run an endurance round, James Townsend in the #40 Fox Motorsport Aston Martin.
Townsend beat out GT4 Pro-Am entrants GBR Stratton’s #97 Aston Martin (Jordan Collard/John Hartshorne) and West Surrey Racing’s #61 BMW M4 of Colin Turkington and Ernie Graham.
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
