Rob and Ricky Collard secured the British GT Championship title with a faultless run in the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini in what was a chaotic end to the season at Brands Hatch with almost half the race run under caution, which was ultimately won by Team RJN’s Josh Caygill and Alex Buncombe.

BRANDS HATCH: ENTRY LIST | PREVIEW | PRACTICE REPORT | QUALIFYING REPORT

In GT4, that chaos played right into the hands of Optimum Motorsport’s Zac Meakin and Jack Brown who banished the demons of 12 months ago with what turned out to be a dominant victory and run to the class title thanks to a well-timed pitstop which gave them a lap on the competition.

GT3

Right from the start, the typical Brands Hatch chaos didn’t quite unfold to the levels we’ve seen before but a cold afternoon in Kent and cool tyres weren’t a good combination for Kevin Tse. Starting the 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, he squeezed up on Mark Radcliffe’s Optimum McLaren at the first corner. Radcliffe had nowhere to go, already pretty much over the kerb, and Tse essentially tapped himself into a spin and into the Paddock Hill Bend gravel trap.

Up front, there were no dramas for Josh Caygill who converted his pole to a handy start and even after a few laps under the safety car to pull Tse’s car out the gravel, he launched the perfect restart to open up a margin on Alex Martin’s Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2.

Running in clear air for a time, Caygill’s advantage started to be under threat as he began to lap the GT4 back markers. Picking them off relatively cleanly, there was a bit of a heart-in-mouth moment as he found quite firm resistance in the form of Ian Duggan in the Mahiki Racing Lotus Emira.

Eventually getting past him, it nevertheless allowed Martin to close up to within half-a-second but the Barwell racer couldn’t make a move for the lead and Caygill started to pull away again. But sometimes one threat follows another, and not too long after he built a 3sec lead, the Team RJN car was put under close scrutiny as it looked as though the McLaren’s engine cover was starting to come loose, with the pin holding in the front-left corner failing.

Behind, there was no worries for Rob Collard who made a solid start in the second of the Barwell Huracáns as he aimed to defend his title lead. Absorbing early pressure from Richard Neary, he then made a pair of lovely moves on first Radcliffe and then Morgan Tillbrook at Paddock Hill Bend to sit himself in third – behind the sister car – and bank those all-important championship points.

With Caygill not called in to fix the engine cover, there was an intriguing battle forming as he started to shed time – allowing both Barwells to close right up and add a whole dose of pressure onto the RJN McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.

Just as it appeared the three-way fight was going to spark into life, the first Full Course Yellow of the race unfolded as Simon Orange went into the barriers at Stirlings in the returning Orange Racing By JMH McLaren. While the incident itself wasn’t fully seen by the cameras, one angle did see a sliding #62 Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang coming out of the same corner. A timing screen message about a collision between the two being investigated after the race hinted at what might have happened.

Running the FCY until after the mandatory pitstops neutralised the race for a time, but maintained some sort of fairness – certainly in the mind of Ricky Collard when talking to the livestream – with cars not losing too much time in the pits behind the safety car.

On the restart, Alex Buncombe – taking over from Caygill – had no dramas from behind despite Sandy Mitchell having a bit of a sniff in the Lamborghini he took over from Martin.

Even if Mitchell did have a thought of making a move, he didn’t really have any time to do it in as yet another FCY was called for after an issue involving three GT4 machines. Still bunched up round the Grand Prix Loop, Matt Cowley – in the Paddock Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 – misjudged how much space he had behind Gordie Mutch’s Mahiki Racing Lotus when trying a lunge up the inside and clipped the back of the blue machine, and then went into the back of Matt Nicoll-Jones’ Mustang with the trio all ending up in the Stirlings gravel trap.

Going green with just more than 10 minutes remaining, Buncombe once again paced the restart, with Mitchell again unable to make a move for the lead. Not that it would have affected the points. With RJN being a non-scoring entry, Mitchell and Martin were already set to take the full 37.5 points and needed Ricky Collard – taking over from dad Rob – to lose places.

On the last restart, Tom Gamble – in the Radcliffe-started McLaren – could have been one to relegate the father-and-son down a place, but was having his mirrors filled by Tom Wood, who was so fast in the Beechdean AMR Aston that he took the lap record on his British GT debut. Ultimately, Wood couldn’t take a place off Gamble but it did give Collard a bit of breathing space for a couple of laps.

Come the final tour, Gamble did eventually close up and pass Collard but the latter knew – no doubt told by the team – that he could let the McLaren through and still score enough points to take what was a hard-fought title. Eventually crossing the line in sixth, Ricky took his first British GT title after a pretty much faultless season alongside dad Rob, who adds a second title to his collection having won the 2020 title alongside vanquished opponent Mitchell.

In the race, RJN’s Caygill & Buncombe didn’t put a foot wrong on a superb run to the flag, with the latter fending off Mitchell – arguably British GT’s fastest racer – to ensure victory by 0.524sec. Third went to Morgan Tillbrook and Marcus Clutton in the Garage 59 McLaren, with Clutton trying his best to try and find a way through Mitchell, but the Scot was too canny to allow the orange 720S GT3 to get through without a fight.

Richard and Sam Neary took fourth – and Silver-Am class victory – in what was a faultless race for the pair and hopefully a good way to banish what has often been a frustrating season for the pair, not always through their own making as their brake disc failure at Donington Park last time out demonstrated.

Fifth went to Radcliffe and Gamble – having been allowed through by Ricky Collard on the last lap – with Wood and Andrew Howard taking seventh in what was a superb race for the pair, and a demonstration that former Radical racer Wood might well have a good career in GT racing if he’s back next season.

GT4

The secondary category was the star of the show for the opening hour, as Optimum’s Zac Meakin and Jack Brown went from bridesmaids, to brides – by getting their elbows out – as they became title winners in comfortable fashion in a GT4 race that started out as a race for the ages.

There was championship drama straight away as Marc Warren’s charge, alongside Will Orton, didn’t last one full lap, but not really through any fault of his own. Getting squeezed tight into Druids, Warren was caught out by how quickly the pack ahead slowed down and he hit the back of Marco Signoretti’s Academy Motorsport Ford Mustang, which then hit the back of Aston Millar’s second-place-starting DTO Motorsport Ginetta.

While there was no malice to the incident, the end result were punctures for Signoretti & Millar, but a retirement for Warren as the Forsetti Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage suffered significant front-end damage.

With pressure rising, there was yet more twists and turns in the championship battle. Having lost two places from pole, Zac Meakin – in the Optimum McLaren Artura – quickly prevailed in a duel with RACE LAB’s Callum Davies to get onto the back of title rival Jamie Day. Day, in the sister Forsetti Motorsport Aston, was defending for his life and went over the limit slightly 15 minutes in as he robustly defended a move from Meakin into Paddock Hill Bend which resulted in a decent chunk of Meakin’s front-left corner to shatter.

Despite the damage, it didn’t slow the Optimum racer who remained glued under the rear-wing of the Aston out on the Grand Prix Loop but the speed of the Vantage allowed Day to open up a slither of breathing space down the Brabham Straight.

Meakin was relentless in his pursuit, and with 30 minutes completed, his patience was finally rewarded. Able to turn tighter out of Graham Hill Bend, the McLaren got a gap on the inside on the run down the Cooper Straight and stuck his elbows out to ensure Day’s relegation to second stuck as they went through Surtees.

Released from behind the Vantage, the Optimum machine assumed the championship lead and opened up a handy lead pretty quickly – 3.5sec after just three laps – aided in no small part by the GT3 leaders starting to lap the GT4 front-runners.

For a time, it looked as though the title advantage had swung decisively in the direction of Optimum. Following the FCY to recover Simon Orange’s GT3 McLaren, which was extended to cover the mandatory pit window, the Optimum crew called in Meakin and serviced him in prompt fashion, allowing Jack Brown to take over and come out just ahead of the GT3 leader.

When the safety car came out – in keeping with the ‘long’ FCY rules – Brown was right in front of the safety car, effectively giving him a full lap over the rest of the GT4 field.

However, the title pendulum wasn’t quite done with its swinging and there was the slight potential of yet another twist just a few laps after the race went green again following the collision between Cowley, Mutch and Nicoll-Jones. The three of them needed dragging out the gravel, necessitating another long FCY and safety car restart which could have shaken up the order slightly.

But already being a lap ahead and carefully keeping out of trouble, Brown essentially had a 25-minute rest in the Artura with a clean run to the flag and a hard-earned, and much deserved, GT4 title alongside Meakin.

Behind, second place for Day and co-driver Mikey Porter in the black-and-green Forsetti Motorsport Aston Martin was enough for them to secure the Silver Cup title by five points – a small consolation prize after the main crown was taken out of their hands without much say in the matter.

Third, just, went to Davies and Sai Sanjay in the RACE LAB McLaren Artura in what has been far and away not only their best race, but best weekend of the year. It was almost taken off them at the last, though, as Harry George in the RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 had a great run coming through Clearways but Sanjay just about managed to shut the door on him on the run to the chequered flag.

While the Pro-Am race win went the way of Thomas Holland & Colin White – in a quiet but solid race for the CWS Ginetta pair – eighth overall and third in Pro-Am was enough for Charles Dawson and Seb Morris to secure the sub-class title in their Team Parker Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 following Warren and Orton’s early retirement.

That’s it for the 2024 British GT Championship! Next year’s competition gets going at Donington Park on 4 – 6 April 2025.

 
 

Please consider making a donation so we can keep bringing you our best content from the racetrack.