Earlier this week the Intelligent Money British GT Championship held its first media day since 2020 with the majority of this season’s 36 entries turning out at Donington Park. The series now in its 31st season will see eight factory drivers joining the capacity grid along with several returning champions.

Defending champion Ian Loggie returns and has swapped teams, moving from RAM Racing to 2 Seas Motorsport. Mercedes factory ace, Jules Gounon stays with Loggie and should complete a full season having missed several races in 2022. Also in for the full season is Raffaelle Marciello who joins John Ferguson over at RAM Racing. Having won the ADAC GT Masters last year, Marciello has chosen to contest the British GT championship over defending his GT Masters title.

Sandy Mitchell (Lamborghini), Rob Bell and Marvin Kirchhoefer (McLaren), Dan Harper (BMW), Jonny Adam and Ross Gunn (Aston Martin) make up the rest of the factory driver contingent in the GT3 class promising an incredible year of racing.

The GT4 class boasts an equal amount of entries as GT3 and see’s a number of former champions returning to the field.  Matt Nicoll-Jones (2008), Stuart Middleton (2017) and Daniel Vaughan (2020) will all be looking to reclaim the title.

With the morning session bathed in sunshine and blue skies, it was Loggie topping the times with Phil Keen deputising for Gounon. whilst GT4  saw Optimum Motorsports’ new McLaren Artura of Jack Brown and Charles Clarke finish on top.

 

The afternoon session was marked by snow, wind, rain, sleet, and more rain but Shaun Balfe and Sandy Mitchell were unfazed by it all to top the times in the #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini popping in a time 1.1 seconds better than the best of the morning session.

Championship debutants Drivetac topped the GT4 times with Sam Maher-Loughnan and James Wallis putting their #50 Track-Focused prepared Mercedes-AMG GT4 ahead of the field by the end of the day.

 

The opening round of the championship will be at Oulton Park on Easter Bank Holiday weekend (April 8 & 10). Prior to this look out for our full season preview but before then check out some of our pictures below.

Photos by Jurek Biegus

 
 

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