The 2025 GT Cup season got underway at a sunny, yet extremely windy, Donington Park with the first ever GT Cup 100 meeting. The new 2025 format sees two rounds featuring a 100-minute endurance race on Sunday with the two 25-minute sprint races taking place throughout Saturday.

 

Race 1

The first of the day’s 25-minute sprints was headed by returnee Darren Kell in the Track Focused McLaren 720s GT3 Evo. He managed to fend off Simon Orange in the JMH Mclaren 720s GT3 Evo by just 0.078s to secure the first pole position of the season.

At the start, it was Orange who gained the upper hand as Kell ran slightly wide into Redgate and set about building an early advantage over the chasing pack.

Meanwhile, Kell had fallen into the clutches of G-Cat’s Greg Caton, who was running a new-to-him Porsche 991.2 GT3R. Caton made a lunge up the inside of Redgate but just made slight contact with Kell’s McLaren, which ended with the latter spinning into the gravel. He managed to rejoin, albeit down in 20th position.

A lap later, the GTA Ginetta G55 of Mack Priestwood collided with the Jolt McLaren Artura of Rupert Williams through the Craner Curves, leaving both cars beached in the gravel, deploying the safety car for the first time.

The interruption shut down Orange’s advantage over Caton and for the remainder of the race, the Porsche man was all over the back of the McLaren but ultimately couldn’t find a way through before the chequered flag, giving Simon Orange his first victory of the season.

Caton came home second with Mark Smith in the Paddock McLaren 720s GT3 Evo, rounding out the top three.

Meanwhile, in GTC, GT Cup returnee Iain Campbell claimed a commanding victory in the first of the Topcats Racing Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeos ahead of George Jaxon in the sister car. Jaxon managed to usurp GT Cup favourite Grahame Tilley in the closing stages, with Tilley coming home third on his return to GT Cup.

GTH saw youngster Archie Clark in the Feathers Motorsport Aston Martin GT4 take a convincing victory in his first start, 8-seconds clear of the SVG Ginetta G56 GT4.

 

Race 2

As with Race 1, the lead changed through Redgate corner, but this time it was Smith who jumped James Kell before the latter made his way back through before pulling a 25-second gap on the rest of the field to take a well-earned victory.

Meanwhile, the battle for second wasn’t quite so straightforward. Smith held on to second after Kell made his way through, but Caton and Orange were right on his heels until the very last moment. Smith put on a defensive masterclass to hold off the quicker machinery behind him and claim his best result in GT Cup thus far.

Caton held off Orange to round out the top three but was later hit with a 5-second time penalty for track limits. This would have dropped him to fourth behind Orange, but for the fact that Orange himself had accrued a 15-second time penalty for multiple track limits offences, leaving the order unchanged.

GTC was equally as intense as Bal Sidhu took over from Jaxon for race 2 but spun at Redgate, forcing Fraser Fenwick (who took over from Iain Campbell) to take avoiding action, picking up a puncture in the process. A disaster for the Topcats team.

Meanwhile, Tilley benefitted from this and overhauled Frank Morris in the JMH Huracan Super Trofeo to pull out a lead which looked set to lead him to victory. However, a backmarker tried to unlap themselves in the closing stages, forcing Tilley into a rare mistake and allowing Morris through to claim his first group win. Tilley regrouped to come home second with Fenwick storming through the field back to third.

Owen Hizzey in the SVG Ginetta G56 performed a superb race to hold off Clark and prevent a clean sweep for the Aston Martin driver. Patrick Collins in the 24/7 Motorsport Ginetta G56 held off a charging Ray Harris to clinch the final step of the GTH podium for Saturday’s running.

Bill Caley made his full season GT Cup debut driving the Uber GT Porsche 991.2 Cup and secured GTB victory over Tom Walpole whilst former British GT racer Ian Astley claimed GTA despite having missed qualifying earlier on.

 

Race 3: GT Cup 100

New for 2025 was the introduction of the GT Cup 100. Instead of having two 50-minute races per weekend, 2025 will see two events feature a 140-minute race on Sunday, including the season opener here at Donington. This time, pro drivers are allowed to take part as usual but only during the second half of the race.

Unfortunately, Saturday frontrunner Greg Caton withdrew from Sunday’s running due to a lack of a co-driver for this event.

Simon Orange, meanwhile, claimed pole for the enduro ahead of Smith and the Kell duo.

At the start, both Orange and Smith maintained their positions through Redgate, but further back, Peter Erceg in the PB Racing Audi R8 looped it, causing the chasing pack to scatter, with Grahame Tilley being forced out into the gravel.

Luckily, no one hit the stationary Audi, and Erceg was able to continue along with Tilley, who, despite returning to the track, retired a few laps later with a gearbox failure.

Back out front, Orange couldn’t break away from Smith, with the latter showing excellent pace despite being a solo driver for the weekend. The battle looked set to continue once the mandatory pitstops had been completed, but Orange tangled with Morris whilst trying to lap the GTC runner and subsequently damaged the front of his McLaren, ending any chances of victory.

Smith meanwhile emerged from the stops with a lead of 50-seconds over the ever rapid James Kell (who by this point had established himself as a handy GT3 racer out in Europe) with just 50-minutes to go. A tall order for the youngster, but he quickly set about lapping two-seconds quicker than Smith ahead and worked down the gap until he could see the black and pink McLaren up the road.

It all culminated in a last-lap battle as Kell was glued to the gearbox of Smith halfway through the final lap. Smith looked like he had everything under control, using his defensive skills from Saturday to keep the faster McLaren behind him through the final half of the lap. But then Kell used his racecraft and got a superb run out of the final corner to draw alongside Smith in what turned out to be the closest finish in GT Cup history.

Smith had just claimed his first GT Cup victory by just 0.024-seconds from Kell after 100-minutes of racing.

The third-place car was on a charge of its own. After Erceg’s spin at the start, he clawed through the pack to hand the car over to talented youngster Hugo Cook, who went on a charge to try and catch the leading two, setting the fastest lap of the race in the process. Ultimately, he would settle for third in a promising first weekend in GT Cup for PB Racing.

GTC saw a straightforward race for Topcats Campbell and Fenwick. Leading every lap in GTC to secure a dominant victory and fourth overall, three laps clear of their nearest rival. This rival just so happened to be Morris (who lost ground after the collision with Orange), who was sharing with former BTCC Seat factory driver James Pickford. Third went the way of Doc Bush in his Team Parker Porsche 992 Cup.

GTH was once again a dominant performance by Feathers Motorsport, with Archie Clark proving a real talent over the weekend. He was assisted in the endurance by Aston Martin driver Tom Canning, who himself has had much success with the brand in the UK and beyond.

Marc Elman and Owen Hizzey scored their third podium of the weekend, whilst 24/7 Motorsport rounded out the top three despite having been punted into the gravel early on in proceedings. Patrick Collins is making a fine return to GT Cup with a GT racing debutant.

He may have been a GT racing debutant, but he was none other than four-time BTCC champion Colin Turkington, who starts his venture into the realm of GT racing with a fine result.

Neil Wallace and Ian Astley once again claimed GTA whilst the Caley duo performed admirably to take GTB honours after a successful weekend.

 

Following two days of GT action, Archie Clark leads the overall standings by just one point from Campbell and Fenwick, with Wallace and Astley also tied for second.

GT Cup returns on the 17th/18th of May with a trip down to the fearsome Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit for what is set to be another great weekend of GT racing.