The GB3 championship lead changed hands again at Zandvoort last weekend, Tymek Kucharczyk moving back to the top as the fight intensified in mixed conditions on the Dutch coast.
JHR Developments’ John Bennett improved his own aspirations by taking a double pole in a wet qualifying session and converted the first of those into race-one victory, despite tricky conditions as rain fell early on but only in isolated areas.
Bennett survived the conditions to take his second win of the year, with 1.1 seconds in hand over fellow title contender, Hitech’s Kucharczyk. James Hedley earned the final spot on the podium, 0.3s ahead of then-championship leader Louis Sharp. Kucharczyk’s team-mate, and another title contender, Will Macintyre was fifth, while Elite’s Hugo Schwarze claimed sixth.
However, like in Hungary last month, race two turned the title battle on its head. On the first attempt, the race was immediately red flagged after a multi-car shunt seconds after the lights went out. The drama eliminated Macintyre, Schwarze, VRD Racing by Arden’s Noah Ping, plus Hitech’s Gerrard Xie.
Kucharczyk had made a terrific getaway to take the lead from the front row and duly repeated the feat at the second start, passing polesitter Bennett on the run to Tarzan, while Sharp followed through into second, with eyes on minimising any championship damage.
But that was scuppered on the second lap when Sharp was nudged into the barriers at the banked Turn 3 by Bennett, who damaged his front wing and was penalised with a race three grid penalty for his indiscretion. Not only that, but the resulting pitstop after the safety car period dropped him to the back.
With his three title rivals in strife, Kucharczyk made the most of his fortune by taking a clear victory, 7.5s ahead of Hedley in a reduced nine-lap event, and therefore reclaiming the championship lead he lost at the Hungaroring. Elite’s McKenzy Cresswell took third to boost his own title hopes. Fortec’s Colin Queen surged up the order to finish fourth ahead of the ever-improving Patrick Heuzenroeder, with VRD Racing by Arden’s Nikita Johnson taking sixth.
Johnson triumphed in the final race as, having started second on the partially reversed-grid, he passed polesitter Josh Irfan before Heuzenroeder got the better of them both to lead at Turn 1. Johnson immediately repassed the Australian, though, and scampered clear by 4s across the opening eight laps, only to lose his advantage when the safety car was deployed to collect a stranded car.
After the restart, Johnson rebuilt his lead and finished 1.6s ahead of Cresswell to become GB3’s youngest race winner, having turned 16 years old in May, with Heuzenroeder completing the podium in third, his first top three of the year.
Schwarze built on his race one result to take fourth ahead of Macintyre, with Ping prevailing in a thrilling battle with title fighters Sharp and Kucharczyk. Sharp took seventh while the Pole had to settle for ninth after a scrappy encounter.
Kucharczyk now holds a 20-point lead over Rodin Motorsport driver Sharp and is 22 ahead of Macintyre heading to Silverstone in two weeks’ time, with nine races remaining on the 2024 calendar.
British GT3: Post-race penalty deny Mitchell/Martin
Sandy Mitchell and Alex Martin were denied an incredible double win at Snetterton, as a post-race penalty cost them victory in British GT’s second one-hour affair in Norfolk last weekend.
Martin lapped two GT4 contenders under safety car conditions late on, which resulted in a drive-through penalty that was converted into 30 seconds and dropped the Barwell duo to 10th. It meant Maximilian Gotz and Kevin Tse claimed a second victory of the season, the 2 Seas Mercedes drivers adding to their win at Spa.
“There was no performance advantage, there was no danger, nothing,” said Martin. “The marshalling posts that I was approaching did not have a [safety car] board out, it had a yellow, but I hadn’t reached it yet and the rule on a yellow flag is you’re allowed to overtake up until the board.”
Barwell was the team to beat throughout the weekend as its Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2s qualified 1-2 for the opener. Rob Collard had pipped Martin by 0.177s and stayed ahead at the rolling start.
There was change behind, though, as Richard Neary overtook Ian Loggie’s similar Mercedes around the outside of the Wilson hairpin for third on the first tour. The 2 Seas driver fought back, yet Loggie failed to overcome Neary’s valiant defence before losing fourth when Blackthorn’s Giacomo Petrobelli went down the inside at Williams. The Aston Martin Vantage driver gained another position during the mandatory pitstops, but it came after Blackthorn failed to meet its minimum pitstop time.
This resulted in a 1s stop/go penalty that promoted Team Abba – now with Sam Neary in the Mercedes – back up to third, just as there was a change for the lead at approximately the halfway stage. It happened as the #63 Barwell Lambo served a 5s compensation penalty for finishing third at Spa, allowing Mitchell – in for Martin – to move ahead of Ricky Collard (replacing dad, Rob) in the pitlane.
But a car problem meant Collard Jr struggled for pace and was unable to sustain any attack on his team-mate. Mitchell therefore pulled 2.2s clear after just five minutes of running. “We had an issue with the throttle paddle,” said Collard Jr. “So the car was bucking quite hard and caused it to eat the tyres and also we were trying to balance the car but couldn’t balance it.”
Mitchell continuously extended his lead and crossed the line 6.4s ahead in what he called a “pretty textbook race from Barwell”. The Nearys finished a further 6.8s behind the Collards for their second podium of the season, while Phil Keen/Loggie and Sacha Kakad/Hugo Cook (J&S Audi R8) completed the top five.
The #78 Lamborghini was once again the car to beat in race two, as Mitchell claimed a last-gasp pole after beating Keen by just 0.081s with his final run in qualifying. At lights out, Mitchell was quick to defend the inside of Riches, allowing him to stay ahead while Gotz remained in third. Neither 2 Seas car could handle Mitchell’s pace, though, as he gained 3.3s after two laps despite the struggles of the other Huracan, which started down in seventh.
Although Collard Jr gained a position at the start, frustration soon hit as he was given a 5s penalty for squeezing Neary Jr off at Turn 3 when he attempted to claim sixth around the outside.
Back at the front, Mitchell led by 10.1s after 25 minutes and had the chance to retain the lead once the car had served its 10s compensation penalty for victory in race one. But the Barwell pair found themselves in second after the driver change, as 2 Seas quickly released Loggie into the path of Martin, forcing him to slam on his brakes. However, Loggie served a drive-through penalty for the unsafe release one lap later, so Martin regained the lead, with second-placed Tse 4s behind.
The field was then grouped together with 17 minutes remaining when a safety car was called due to the stoppage of the GT4 Toyota in the final sector and green-flag running resumed for only six minutes.
Martin crossed the line first, with Tse and RAM Racing’s John Ferguson – alongside BMW works driver and series debutant, Max Hesse – completing the top three, yet a cloud hung over the result. Approximately 90 minutes later, Barwell lost its victory while RAM Racing was disqualified from both outings because of “a post-race incident involving team representatives and race control”.
It left 2 Seas the winner of race two with the #63 Lamborghini in second, as Collard Sr drove an incredible final stint, gaining three positions after the restart as the father-son duo now lead the championship by five points in a Barwell 1-2.
British GT4: Maiden success for Robertson/Ramyead
Charlie Robertson and Ravi Ramyead claimed their maiden British GT victory in a dramatic one-hour affair at Snetterton, before Jack Brown took his third GT4 win in Norfolk during race two.
DTO’s Ginetta G56 actually started on pole for race one, Aston Millar staying ahead of Forsetti’s Mikey Porter at lights out, but the complexion of the race changed during the driver swap in the one-hour contest. While Forsetti dropped down after serving its five-second success penalty from Spa, DTO’s Freddie Tomlinson, in for Millar, was suddenly behind the Paddock Mercedes, which had started 13th.
But this was after reigning champion Matt Cowley left his pitbox too early due to “a mathematical error”, meaning the Paddock entry he shared with Ed McDermott received a 31s stop/go penalty, handing DTO the lead back.
Its potential win was under threat, though, because Century’s BMW was rapid, as Ramyead’s strong stint from 11th, combined with good strategy, meant Robertson took over in third. He first passed Team Parker’s Seb Morris at Coram with five minutes remaining, before overtaking Tomlinson along the start/finish straight just as the final lap began to eventually win by 2.191s.
“The win has been a long time coming,” said Robertson. “We’re really good on tyres, so I just trusted it would be there at the end and the last five minutes they came alive.”
Things turned sour for Century in race two, however, as the car suffered an early retirement when Robertson hit the side of Tomlinson’s Ginetta at the final corner on the opening lap. Further ahead, Optimum’s Zac Meakin led from pole but the erstwhile championship-leading McLaren, which finished eighth in race one, dropped to third during the driver change because it had to spend an extra 14s in the pitstop as Brown took over.
Brown recovered by first overtaking Forsetti’s Marc Warren at the final corner, before Kavi Jundu stopped his overheating Toyota in the last sector, resulting in a safety car with 17 minutes left. Green flag running restarted with five and a half minutes remaining, where Brown instantly overtook Steller Motorsport’s Tim Docker at Riches before cruising to victory.
It was a Forsetti 2-3 behind, though, as contact with Ricky Collard’s lapping Lamborghini caused a front-left puncture on Docker’s Audi. This gave Forsetti the GT4 teams’ title (see News), with its #7 Aston Martin finishing second after Porter overtook Warren with three minutes left.
Brown and Meakin now lead the drivers’ championship by 2.5 points from Porter/Day, with Warren/William Orton a further 4.5 points behind with it all to play for at the final two events.
