The championship fight at the head of the British GT Championship’s GT3 and GT4 categories is still all to play for as the field heads to Belgium for its now-traditional two-hour race at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps.
To make sure you’re fully up to speed ahead of this weekend’s action (20-21 June), our helpful preview runs through the championship standings and who’s making the trip to Spa, and who’s electing to skip the European encounter.
The biggest thing to note is that this weekend’s race will have an even bigger grid than usual. With time tight for the opening weekend of SRO’s Spa Speedweek, British GT finds itself combined with both FFSA GT – bringing a field of French GT4s – and the Alpine ELF Cup to boost the grid to 55 cars, giving the GT3 contenders even more traffic to deal with, as if Spa itself wasn’t enough of a challenge.
GT3: Beechdean’s consistency pays dividends
The biggest news since Oulton Park is the closure of Mahiki Racing. Their cars will instead be run by other teams; Orange Racing by JMH will run the McLaren 720S GT3 for Steven Lake alongside new co-driver Tom Wood, whilst Paddock Motorsport will run the GT4 McLaren for Revie Lake and Blake Angliss.
With the intrigue dealt with, it’s time to talk about the championship. Fourth-placed points at the opening round at Silverstone (once you take out the one-off entries) and a pair of runner-up finishes in the 60-minute sprints at Oulton Park has put Beechdean AMR’s Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn to the top of the standings in their Aston Martin Vantage GT3.
It’s a bit of déjà vu for the team as Howard – a two-time British GT champion – finds himself back at the summit of the points standings, but he of all people will be well aware that there’s a lot of racing still to come. Especially when you consider who is breathing down their necks.
Leading the charge is Century Motorsport’s Charles Clark and Jonathan Beeson. After full points at Silverstone, the pair struggled to eighth and seventh at Oulton Park in their BMW M4 GT3 and will be looking to Belgium as an opportunity to close the 6.5-point gap to the Aston Martin crew.
But they need to be careful, only 1.5 points back is Ben Barnicoat and Morgan Tillbrook. A win at Oulton has given them the boost they needed to confirm that the pair’s prodigious pace behind the wheel of their Optimum Motorsport-run McLaren 720S GT3 can be converted into race-winning form. Barnicoat in particularly has shown he can ring every ounce of speed in anything he races this season, and they’ll be wanting to close down the 8-point deficit and head into the summer break on a high.
Behind, and always a threat, is the Barwell Motorsport duos of Alex Martin/Jarrod Waberski and Rob Collard/Hugo Cook. The latter took race one glory at Oulton Park in their Lamborghini Huracan GT3, and Cook and Collard sit on 37 points, 5.5 behind their team-mates – who themselves are 3.5 down on Barnicoat and Tillbrook. But with Barwell’s knowledge of setting up the Lamborghini for success around Spa, refined through multiple British GT races here and successes at the Spa 24 Hours, expect them to shake up the standings.
Just outside that top five is the Orange Racing by JMH entry of Simon Orange and Marcus Clutton. The pair left the Silverstone opener second in the championship, but a tricky pair of races in the North West has seen them drop off the pace slightly. They’ll be motivated to do well in Belgium, and Clutton is not known to give anything less than 100% so they’ll be keen to bag solid points in the first two-hour race of the season.
Also joining the field is Herberth Motorsport which enters a Porsche 911 GT3 R for Harry King and his European Le Mans Series team-mate Hiroyuki ‘Bankcy’ Ogawa as they get in some pre-Spa 24 Hour preparation.
Making a welcome return also, is Callum Macleod and Mike Price in an Optimum McLaren after the latter’s other commitments stopped them from being at the last two weekends.
GT4: Innovation heads MK in back-and-forth thriller
All season long it seems as though the battle for GT4 honours is boiling down a two-team sprint. After a win at Silverstone, and two third places at Oulton, it is advantage Innovation Racing with Thomas Holland and Hadley Simpson sit at the top of the standings on 67.5 points.
Behind, though, Will Orton and Jessica Hawkins have closed the gap in their MK Racing Aston Martin Vantage. A pair of second places last time has narrowed the gap to just 4.5 points and they’ll be wanting to keep the Ginetta squad honest in Belgium.
That said, both of them need to keep one over their shoulders. Branden Templeton and Daniel Lavery are on 55 points and Century Motorsport knows a thing or two about engineering title-winning BMW M4 GT4s – the pair will be wanting nothing more than to capitalise on the two cars ahead tripping over themselves and closing that lead. A three-way fight for the title is on, and the Century pair will be keen to punish any mistakes.
Slightly further back is the Grange Racing by FSR Aston of Darren Turner and Daniel Lavery. A DNF at Silverstone hamstrung them initially, but a win in Oulton’s second 60-minute encounter has put them back into a decent position in the standings and if anyone knows the twists and turns of a championship fight, it is Turner. They’ll be targeting another strong weekend at Spa, so expect them to be in the mix.
Of course, what’ll be the biggest test for our teams is the introduction of the FFSA GT and Alpine Cup cars; whilst it won’t affect the points they score, it could throw in that element of chaos to really shake up the standings ahead of August’s Snetterton double-header.
Schedule and livestream
Qualifying takes place at 18:35 local time on Saturday (17:35 UK) with a slightly longer format to incorporate the additional categories, whilst the race takes place at 14:20 (13:20 UK) on Sunday 21 June. You’ll be able to watch all the action live on GT REPORT!
Friday 19 June
Paid Test: 14:20–16:20 CEST / 13:20–15:20 BST
Saturday 20 June
Free Practice 1: 09:00–10:00 CEST / 08:00–09:00 BST
Free Practice 2: 13:10–14:10 CEST / 12:10–13:10 BST
Qualifying: 18:35–19:50 CEST / 17:35–18:50 BST
Sunday 21 June
Race (120 min): 14:20–16:20 CEST / 13:20–15:20 BST
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