Optimum Motorsport and 2 Seas Motorsport shared the spoils from the British GT Championship’s pair of 60-minute practice sessions at Snetterton, as the order looks finely poised ahead of what could be a pivotal qualifying session heading into the second half of the season.
In GT4, it looks like McLaren has the rule of the roost, as George Gamble was only denied a clean sweep of top spots in his Optimum McLaren Artura by a last lap stormer from Colin Turkington in the WSR Flexifly BMW M4 GT4 Evo.
Free Practice
With temperatures cooler than they have been over recent days, the action on track was also slightly less action-packed as teams looked to tweak set-ups for the more tolerable conditions.
Despite a brief full course yellow to clear a bit of debris, the action tended to focus around the start of the hour-long session as the Pros got the cars up to speed before handing over to their teammates to get some longer running in ahead of Sunday’s pair of one-hour races.
That early action revolved around Orange Racing with JMH’s Marcus Clutton and Barwell Motorsport’s Hugo Cook, as the pair swapped fastest times through the opening quarter of an hour, with Ben Green’s 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG and Paddock Motorsport’ Martin Plowman putting themselves up at the top end of the field too.
But toward the end of the opening 20 minutes, it was Ben Barnicoat in the Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 who logged what proved to be the decisive time with a 1min46.582sec to put himself just 0.083sec ahead of Cook.
With the running generally settling down from the middle of the session to the chequered flag, the times remained extraordinarily tight to provide an enticing prospect ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying session with the top 12 covered by less than a second and all 13 GT3 entries covered by 1.313sec.
Third was Clutton, alongside Simon Orange, just 0.035sec down on Cook and his co-driver Rob Collard, with Jarred Waberski and Alex Martin taking fourth, a further 0.030sec down on the McLaren. The second Orange Racing entry of Steven Lake and new co-driver for this weekend Dean Macdonald took fifth, 0.172sec down on the session’s benchmark, a decent reward for the team who had to replace the McLaren’s engine overnight after an issue picked up in Friday testing.
Behind, Green and Kevin Tse took sixth, their AMG sporting a couple of war wounds after potentially clipping a marker earlier in the session, with Jack Brown and Marc Warren taking seventh in the second of the Optimum 720S entries.
Century Motorsport have clearly come into this weekend focusing on straight-line speed, not a terrible option considering Snetterton’s long straights. Charles Clark and Jonathan Beeston were setting great speed trap times in their BMW M4 GT3 Evo, but eighth – 0.445sec off the top – suggests they may need to find a touch more balance between straights and corners.
Plowman and Mark Smith took ninth, whilst Ferrari rounded out the top ten with Cameron Campbell and Josh Buchan 0.674sec down in the Rodin Motorsport-run 296 GT3 Evo.
After the session, Beechdean was disqualified from 12th, as the Aston Martin Vantage run by Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn proved to be 1.2mm under the minimum 50mm ride height.
GT4 proved to be equally as fluid, and when the chequered flag came out it was George Gamble – making a long-awaited second British GT appearance nine years after his first – who powered the Optimum McLaren Artura he’s sharing with Josh Stanton to the top of the class with his last lap of the session.
His 1min56.127sec was 0.340sec faster than the nearest competitor, which proved to be Jessica Hawkins in the MK Racing Aston Martin. She was fastest for a time, co-driving alongside Will Orton, but the latter couldn’t find any more speed in the closing laps to try and pip Gamble to the top of the times.
Cars were stacking up behind them, though. Jack Mitchell, having run 105 miles from Silverstone to get to this Snetterton event, showed no signs of tiredness with a time just 0.075sec off second in his Toro Verde GT Ginetta, whilst Revie Lake put in a great time to go fourth in his Paddock Motorsport Artura.
Fifth was another Ginetta, this the championship leading Innovation Racing G56 GT4 Evo of Hadley Simpson and Thomas Holland, which had a slow start to the session but picked up in the second-half. They finished 0.199sec ahead of the GBR Stratton Motorsport Aston Martin which this weekend is being driven by Jonny Adam. The multiple British GT champion is making his British GT4 debut this weekend driving for his father-in-law Graham Brunton’s squad, replacing an ill Ronan Pearson alongside John Hartshorne.
Pre-Qualifying
After a calm Free Practice, Pre-Qualifying proved to be slightly more exciting as crews got dialled in ahead of Qualifying and shook up the order compared to the morning’s first running, throwing more intrigue into the mix for who might walk away with the pair of pole positions available later on.
Initially, it was a continuation of the morning’s running as Barnicoat powered to the top of the standings ahead of the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 of Cook. The pair swapped times on occasion as they got increasingly dialled in around the Snetterton 300 circuit, but with 20 minutes gone both were usurped from a relatively unexpected crew.
Sixth in Free Practice, the 2 Seas Motorsport squad clearly found some extra pace in the Mercedes-AMG as Green powered his way to the top spot with what was initially a 1min46.851sec but was improved to a 1min46.264sec to be comfortable clear of the rest of the competition.
It was only in the closing few minutes that anyone really got close to Green’s time, with Paddock Motorsport boss Martin Plowman getting to within three-tenths in his McLaren before Jarred Waberski set a 1min46.524sec as the chequered flag fell to jump up to second and put the Barwell crew as favourites to take at least one pole.
Fourth went to another McLaren, this the one of Callum Macleod and Mike Price, the duo racing together for just the second weekend this season, whilst the second 2 Seas entry of Aaron Walker and Ian Loggie was running strong with the former putting them fifth.
Barnicoat, alongside co-driver Morgan Tillbrook, took sixth, but were lucky to keep hold of that as Josh Buchan finished seventh for Rodin by just 0.011sec.
Eighth was Marc Warren and Jack Brown, ahead of Cook and Rob Collard after the latter pair found themselves with some worries ahead of qualifying as they lost power coming out of Palmers with 18 minutes to go. They needed to be recovered under a red flag, and has given the Barwell crew some work to do before Qualifying.
In GT4, it was a last lap stormer from Colin Turkington to put the WSR Flexifly BMW M4 GT4 Evo he shares with Ernie Graham to the top of the category standings with a 1min55.870sec.
Before then, it was very much the George Gamble show as he once again got up to speed quickly in the McLaren Artura, but found himself pipped to what would have been a comprehensive lock-out of the two practice sessions by all of 0.120sec.
Once again proving the Ginetta is strong round here, Jack Mitchell and Luke Shaw took third as the first of the crews not to be able to break into the 1min55sec bracket with the former putting in a 1min56.048sec to push the Blake Angliss/Revie Lake McLaren down to fourth.
Adding a bit of variety to proceedings, Tom Bradshaw put the Toro Verde GT Porsche 718 Cayman RS CS he shares with Ian Diggan fifth, ahead of Simpson and Holland’s Innovation Ginetta. Jonny Adam proved best of the Aston Martin crews as he finished seventh, heading a chain of four Vantage GT4s.
