Seconds out, round two! British GT ready to rumble at Rockingham
26th April 2016
Following a short two-week break the 2016 British GT Championship roars back into life at Rockingham Motor Speedway this weekend for round two of the new campaign.
Brands Hatch’s opening race generated plenty of excitement and surprises as teams and drivers across both the GT3 and GT4 classes battled for early bragging rights. But will the same combinations excel during Rockingham’s two-hour race which, for the first time since 2011, is being held on the slightly shorter 1.94-mile International Super Sportscar Circuit?
GT3: EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
Four different manufacturers filled the top four positions a fortnight ago, and that diversity is once again on show this weekend thanks to seven different marques represented in the senior class. But with Brands’ podium finishers all expected to serve varying degrees of pit-stop success penalty, the way could be left clear for an unexpected winner.
TF Sport’s reigning Drivers’ champion Jonny Adam and team-mate Derek Johnston lived up to their billing as pre-season title favourites by winning at Brands Hatch. Their resulting 20-second pit-stop burden makes clinching two in a row – or three in the case of Johnston, who also won last year’s season finale – highly unlikely. Nevertheless, expect the Aston Martin to remain a top-six contender.
The same can be said of Team Parker Racing’s Rick Parfitt Jnr and Seb Morris who surpassed their own expectations at Brands by securing pole position courtesy of fastest times in both the Am and Pro sessions. Clearly the Bentley Continental GT3 has race-winning pace, although its 15-second success penalty makes that unlikely at Rockingham this weekend.
Barwell Motorsport’s #6 Lamborghini of Liam Griffin and Fabio Babini completed the Brands Hatch podium finishers, but thanks to its 10-second handicap expect the team’s sister Huracan GT3 to be a stronger victory contender this time around. Indeed, Jon Minshaw was lying second overall when an incident while lapping GT4 traffic put paid to his and co-driver Phil Keen’s race. The Surrey-based squad certainly knows its way around Rockingham after winning there last year, albeit with BMW machinery.
Speaking of which, only a fool would write off the chances of AmDTuning.com whose Z4 GT3 finished second on the road at Brands Hatch in the hands of Lee Mowle and Joe Osborne before a post-race penalty dropped it to fourth in the final classification. Both drivers will be fired up to make amends and, potentially, clinch their maiden British GT3 wins.
Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse’s McLaren 650S GT3 should also be a contender after a below-par start to the season two weeks ago. Pro driver Rob Bell set what were then three consecutive fastest laps during his Brands Hatch stint, suggesting the car has sufficient pace to trouble the podium contenders this weekend. Equally, Ecurie Ecosse is bidding to make it back-to-back British GT wins at Rockingham.
But the real dark horses this weekend could be Beechdean AMR whose Brands Hatch weekend was compromised by Andrew Howard skipping qualifying to contest (and win) the opening round of this season’s ELMS at Silverstone. The reigning GT3 Drivers’ champion made it back in time for race day when he and Ross Gunn helped the V12 Vantage gain nine places en route to fifth. 19-year-old Gunn, who has graduated to the team’s senior squad after winning 2015’s GT4 crown, has already proven he has what it takes to compete with the big boys.
Elsewhere, Tolman Motorsport and Optimum Motorsport will both be eager to put difficult first weekends in the GT3 ranks behind them by getting their respective Ginettas and Audi to the finish. The same can be said of Motorbase Performance and Phil Dryburgh who was fortunately unharmed in a huge race-ending accident at Brands.
GT4: GINETTA’S STRONG START SET TO CONTINUE?
The combined efforts of PMW Expo Racing/Optimum Motorsport, Century Motorsport and RCIB Insurance Racing ensured Ginetta G55 GT4s locked out the podium positions at Brands Hatch. But with the same pit-stop success penalties applied as in GT3, Rockingham’s winner is likely to come from elsewhere.
Aston Martin seems like a good place to start given that five V8 Vantage GT4s should line up for Sunday’s race. Chief among those will be Generation AMR SuperRacing whose driving strength again features Matthew George and reigning class champion Jamie Chadwick. The latter’s Brands Hatch qualifying misdemeanours forced the pair to fight through from 13th on the grid to finish fourth on the team’s British GT debut. And with no success penalty to serve, allied to Chadwick setting Rockingham’s fastest race lap 12 months ago, this is an entry worth watching.
The same goes for Beechdean AMR who dominated last year’s race with Chadwick and Gunn. Its new teenage Silver Cup pairing of Jack Bartholomew and Jordan Albert finished fifth on their British GT debuts at Brands and should be amongst the front-runners again.
Meanwhile, Generation AMR Macmillan Racing’s Matty Graham was fighting for second before an accident with Phil Dryburgh ended his and the team’s involvement. The Aston, which features a Hesketh-inspired livery, should be back at the sharp end at Rockingham provided its extensive damage has been repaired in time.
McLaren’s new 570S GT4, which is being developed exclusively in British GT this season, enjoyed a reliable if low-key run to sixth at Brands Hatch with Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse drivers Ciaran Haggerty and Sandy Mitchell at the wheel. The teenage pairing, who have both stepped up from racing junior single-seaters, will only become more competitive as the campaign progresses.
As for Ginetta, Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson enjoyed a relatively comfortable win at Brands after starting second but will have a 20-second success penalty to contend with at their pit-stop. It’s a similar story for Century Motorsport’s Anna Walewska and Nathan Freke who qualified on pole before finishing runners-up. They were chased all the way by series debutants RCIB Insurance Racing, William Phillips and Jordan Stilp, who broke British GT4’s long-standing Brands Hatch lap record while pursuing Freke.
Ebor GT’s new Maserati GranTurismo MC GT4 showed glimpses of its potential at Brands but still has a little way to go before challenging for podium places.
Track Days / Test Days / MotorsportDays.com
