British GT Snetterton: Mitchell/Martin head comfortable Barwell 1-2, Century snatches GT4 spoils

Sandy Mitchell and Alex Martin extended their British GT championship lead as the pair took a comfortable victory in the first race at Snetterton to take a Barwell Motorsport 1-2 with the Collards just behind.

The most action came in the GT4 category where pitstop compensation penalties, Silver Cup penalties and short pitstops all melded together to allow Charlie Robertson and Ravi Ramyead to take a remarkable victory for Century Motorsport – just a few weeks after Ramyead crashed heavily in qualifying at the Spa round, and a first for Robertson in British GT.

GT3

Qualifying proved to be an early guide to what would unfold in the race as Martin and Rob Collard – starting on second and first respectively – blasted into Riches with the latter holding the lead and Martin sitting around six-tenths behind as he dealt with a brake issue in the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2.

While Martin did try to have a few looks to see if he could snatch the lead from Collard, the pair were still working pretty well together to grow a commanding advantage at the top of the field. They were helped in no small part by Richard Neary having to work hard to defend from his GT Cup co-driver Ian Loggie, who was back in his silver 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3.

The pair were showing each other a lot of respect, but weren’t giving each other much margin and Loggie was trying everything to get through. 10 minutes in was his best chance of making the move, he had the overlap coming out of the Agostini hairpin and stick it round the outside at Hamilton but he ran slightly wide and allowed Giacomo Petrobelli, who was shadowing this pair, to stick his Blackthorn Aston Martin Vantage up the inside and relegate Loggie to fourth.

After that, things remained pretty static until the pit window opened with 22 minutes of the race completed. With compensation penalties to deal with, things became slightly disrupted and the biggest mover seemed to be Jonny Adam – taking over from Petrobelli – who jumped ahead of Sam Neary, taking over from dad Richard, and Loggie’s co-driver Phil Keen to be a net third once all the stops had cycled through.

However, a stop/go penalty for being 0.7sec under the minimum driver time relegated Adam down the order and allowed Sam Neary to take third.

At the front, there was no trouble for the Barwells, but success seconds allowed Mitchell to come out ahead of Rob’s son Ricky, who took over the #63 and into the lead. For a lap or so, Collard was all over the back of the Scot but Mitchell is no new-comer to GT3 racing and kept a calm head to keep Collard staring at the Huracán’s tailpipes.

That, really, was the last incident of note in the top class in what descended into a pretty quiet race – perhaps with thoughts already ahead to the second race later on this afternoon.

Carving his way through traffic, Mitchell took a comfortable victory with Collard six seconds behind, but the same margin ahead of Sam Neary who took a well-earned podium alongside Richard.

The Team Abba Racing crew were under slight pressure at the end from Keen, but never really looked as though they were going to lose their place on the overall podium.

In fifth, Sacha Kakad and Hugo Cook had a quietly impressive run to second in the Silver-Am category with the pair not putting a foot wrong in their J&S Racing Audi R8 LMS as the latter absorbed the pressure from a debuting Max Hesse and remained unfazed from the looming RAM Racing BMW M4 GT3, as Hesse and John Ferguson took some much-needed points after a few leaner races for the BMW squad.

Rounding out the Silver-Am podium, and in seventh overall, was Matt Topham and Josh Rowledge in the second of the Blackthorn Vantages.

GT4

While GT3 was a pretty tepid affair, the action was really kicking off in the secondary class.

From the start, Aston Millar – covering for Stuart Middleton in the DTO Motorsport Ginetta G56 – and Forsetti’s Mikey Porter powered away from the pack behind with the Ginetta just holding the advantage over the Aston Martin.

They were aided in their escape by Will Moore defending for his life in the #62 Academy Mustang Ford Mustang, who was being attacked in the twistier middle sector by Optimum’s Jack Brown but was able to use the American grunt to pull clear of Brown’s McLaren Artura on the long front and back straights.

Brown couldn’t focus all his energy on attacking either as Marco Signoretti, in the sister Mustang, was sensing an opportunity to rob Brown of fourth and was sticking his nose up the inside of the yellow McLaren whenever he thought an opportunity presented itself.

Lap after lap, Brown tried everything he could think of to try and pass Moore, but his frustration perhaps became his downfall just before the half-hour mark. Heading into Agostini, Signoretti managed to force his way through and used the grunt of the muscle car to push his way into fourth.

Hostilities were paused as the pit window opened, and what proved quite surprising was that Matt Cowley – in the Paddock Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 – came from the lower reaches of the class, into the lead. But, confusion turned to realisation a few minutes later when the car was slapped with a 31-second stop/go penalty for a short pitstop, the team admitting on the livestream that they got the calculation wrong.

With the Mercedes pushed back down, Freddie Tomlinson – replacing Millar in the DTO car – pitted later and came out in the lead but with Seb Morris and Charlie Robertson breathing down his neck in their Team Parker Mercedes and Century BMW respectively.

For a time, Tomlinson could breathe slightly easy as Robertson filled Morris’ mirrors as the pair squabbled for second. It didn’t look as though Morris was going to be beaten, but Robertson was on inspired form and made the crucial move up the inside at Coram. Forcing Morris onto the dirty line round the very long right-hander, the Mercedes racer had to lift off the throttle and Robertson was ahead in the M4.

Quickly onto the back of Tomlinson, the key move bizarrely involved GT3 winner Mitchell. Heading out of Murrays – the last corner – for the penultimate time, Robertson had a better run on Tomlinson heading down the straight. With the pair filling the track, Mitchell decided to not lap them and slowed to take the chequered flag with a bit of extra margin. Robertson, a fraction ahead at the line, braked later going into turn one to take what became a comfortable win – his first in British GT.

Third went the way of Morris and teammate Charles Dawson, while Porter and Jamie Day – serving an extra penalty for being a Silver Cup crew – took second in their category and fourth overall.

It was a double podium for Forsetti as the sister car of Marc Warren and Will Orton took fifth overall and third in Pro-Am, while Moore and Matt Nicoll-Jones rounded out the Silver podium in their Mustang.