Four-time British GT champion Jonny Adam admitted after his most recent Donington Park triumph that he was fortunate to even cross the line after his TF Sport Aston Martin V8 Vantage sustained rear-end damage in the closing minutes of the race.
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The damage, sustained after Adam was hit by WPI Motorsport’s Dennis Lind going into the Old Hairpin, dropped the Scot to sixth and on course to lose the title by half-a-point after Barwell Motorsport’s Jonny Cocker squeezed past a recovering Adam and Lind.
However, after Lind was given a five-second post-race time penalty Adam was promoted back up to fifth – enough to claim the title for himself and Graham Davidson by 2.5 points. But according to Adam, it was luck that he even crossed the line.
“At the end it was really tricky with the Lambo hitting us two or three times and then obviously losing places and probably very lucky to finish the race with the damage we had on the rear of the car,” he added.
While not race-threatening, the rear-end damage picked up in the race wasn’t the only issue Adam and Davidson had to deal with over the course of the weekend as the TF Sport mechanics picked up on a gearbox problem on Saturday which required a quick change.
Jonny explained: “There was a small gearbox gremlin, which was something we were talking about over a debrief and then all of a sudden we got into the detail and we found it. So we fixed it and Graham drove the car in warm-up and realised it was definitely better.”
Securing a record-extending fourth GT3 drivers’ title is made more remarkable considering Davidson is Jonny Adam’s fourth title-winning co-driver over his British GT career – after Andrew Howard in 2015, Derek Johnston in 2016 and Flick Haigh in 2018 – and Adam has credited Davidson with putting the team in the perfect position to claim the title: “Graham drove so well and I have to say he put us in that situation. We didn’t say much to him on the radio we just let him crack on with it but his last four laps as I was getting my helmet on were so strong, because we were 14 seconds in front of De Haan and then all of a sudden we were right on the cusp of getting 20 and then I came out just in front of Cocker.
“He’s put so much work in behind the scenes with me coaching him and he’s really trusting myself and the team to deliver this championship.
“This is the fourth different champion I’ve worked with and they trust me and I trust them and if they listen I’ll make them as fast as I can make them so great for Graham. He trusted me at the start of the year and he wanted to win this championship and he’s done that.”
As well as delight at claiming a title for himself and Graham, Adam also praised his employer Aston Martin which swept the board at the #DoningtonDecider, with TF Sport securing the GT4 overall title and Beechdean AMR taking the GT4 Pro/Am crown to join Ollie Wilkinson and Bradley Ellis in winning titles for Aston Martin after the Optimum Motorsport pair won the GT3 Silver Cup at Brands Hatch.
He added: “Graham’s really clicked with the new Vantage. You look today what everyone has won – Aston has pretty much cleaned the floor with all the championships, only one we didn’t get was GT3 teams’ [which was won by Barwell Motorsport]. It has been a great year for Prodrive in British GT, to build two brand-new cars in the GT4 and 3 is a testament to the work we do behind the scenes in testing and making the cars as good as we can for our customers.”
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