Optimum Motorsport claimed double pole for race one of the British GT Championship’s summer trip to Snetterton as the team took GT3 and GT4 honours for the opening test.
In the fight to set the race two grid, the team were pipped in both categories as Ross Gunn stormed to GT3 honours for Beechdean Motorsport, whilst Jack Mitchell scored GT4 pole for Toro Verde GT.
There was drama, though, for the GT3 championship leaders as Alex Martin crashed whilst running fifth, leading to what will be a long night for the Barwell Motorsport crew and a lot of work to be done in the races if the car can be repaired.
Race One
With the grid for race one set by the Am drivers, there was intrigue abounding to see who would come out on top after a pair of practice sessions that seemed to be finely poised by the drivers with lesser experience.
What became clear very quickly was that the McLarens were the cars to beat as Simon Orange, in his Orange Racing with JMH 720S GT3 Evo, put the first quick lap in before Marc Warren quickly established himself at the top of the times in his Optimum machine. Initially setting a 1min47.670sec, a lap later he improved down to a 1min47.494sec to give himself a bit of a buffer over what was an increasingly rapid pack behind.
That main chaser was initially Rob Collard in the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2, who got to within a few tenths but had no response to Morgan Tillbrook in the second of the Optimum McLarens who was starting to really wind up. He got to within 0.156sec but was denied the chance to go even better after the session was red flagged with about 30 seconds to go.
That stoppage was caused by championship leader Alex Martin hitting the barriers hard at Oggies in the second Barwell Lamborghini. Losing control coming out of Hamilton, he skidded across the bone dry grass and hit the barrier broadside, driver’s side first. Team boss Mark Lemmer said Martin reported he was OK on the radio, but there’ll need to be long work overnight to ensure the car is ready to race.
With that stoppage robbing everyone of their last laps, there were a few drivers you could say were probably a bit out of position. Collard remained third, and will probably be grateful for it as Mark Smith was looking quick in the Paddock Motorsport McLaren, but will have to settle for fourth.
Fifth went to Martin, but there’ll be plenty of looking at the rule book to see if that will get taken off him for causing the red flag. Who will definitely feel aggrieved is Orange, who was looking good and going faster before the session got stopped. He’ll line up sixth, ahead of the first non-McLaren/Lamborghini, which was Kevin Tse in the 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG.
In GT4, it was more delight for Optimum in race one as Josh Stanton held his nerve in the McLaren Artura to take pole by the slenderest of margins.
At the start of the session, it was actually Revie Lake in the Paddock Artura who was setting the pace, but as Stanton got up to speed there was no real doubt as to where the session was going to go as the Optimum driver stormed to the top.
That said, Innovation Racing’s Hadley Simpson ran things very close. Jumping up to third in his Ginetta, Simpson started to light up the timing screens and it looked as though he was on course to take pole. It wasn’t to be, his effort fell agonisingly short – 0.010sec down on Stanton, but enough to pip Lake by a tenth to nab a space on the front-row. Lake himself took third, in what was a solid result for the Paddock driver in a season where he, and co-driver Blake Angliss, started under the guise of Mahiki Racing.
Second for Innovation gives them a handy early advantage over title rivals MK Racing, Jessica Hawkins only seventh in the Aston Martin Vantage in a day of general struggles for the British brand.
Indeed the only result of note to shout about for the Vantages was fourth – Pro-Am pole – for Daniel Lavery in the Grange Racing by FSR example, who was somewhat marooned in that position; three-tenths behind third and four-tenths ahead of Luke Shaw in fifth.
Race Two
There was always going to be someone who would spoil the McLaren hold on the top of the timesheets, and for a time it looked as though it was going be Josh Buchan in the Rodin Motorsport Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo as the Australian lit up the timing screens on his first trip to Snetterton, but in the end it was the man who won the GT4 title in Norfolk 11 years ago as Ross Gunn stormed to pole for Beechdean Motorsport.
Buchan set the early pace, but it was Gunn who took the initiative early doors as he set a 1min46.191sec which was alright but never looked as though it would be anywhere near good enough to take the top spot for the second race on Sunday which will be started by the Pro drivers.
Indeed, Buchan immediately put Gunn’s time under pressure by moving to within 0.006sec and open up more of a gap on Paddock’s Martin Plowman. However, as the fuel loads dropped, the speed increased and Gunn set a 1min45.737sec to make his hold on the top more comfortable.
That will have been especially welcomed as the McLarens started to get ever stronger. First it was Ben Barnicoat in the Optimum machine he shares with Tillbrook who moved to within 0.230sec in second, but then Marcus Clutton in the Orange Racing with JMH 720S took a tenth off Barnicoat’s best time to move within 0.159sec on the outside of the front-row, but ran out of time to try and snatch pole.
Behind that that top three, Buchan held on to take fourth, with Ben Green fifth for 2 Seas Motorsport. Plowman will consider himself unlucky not to be able to get more out of that session, but will start sixth as he out-qualified the second Orange Racing McLaren driven by Dean Macdonald by just 0.005sec.
GT4 could have been a clean sweep for Optimum Motorsport, as George Gamble got behind the wheel of the McLaren driven to race one pole by Stanton and showcased the same amount of pace. Making his first British GT start since 2017, Gamble wasted no time in ringing out every ounce of speed from the Artura.
Setting a 1min54.973sec was a good marker, and looked like a solid enough time. But no one accounted for just how quick Jack Mitchell was going in the Toro Verde GT Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo. Mastering the twitching, rapid, car he was absolutely flying up the standings with an early lap that put him second and set the foundations for what was to come.
Just a lap later, and Mitchell kept his cool and glided almost to the top spot – his 1min54.706sec was o.267sec ahead of Gamble and one of the fastest GT4 laps of the weekend so far. Indeed, his next lap was looking even faster, but elected to pull into the pits.
Behind the top two, Tom Bradshaw did a great job to put the Toro Verde Porsche into third, a tenth ahead of Will Orton who took his turn qualifying the MK Racing Aston Martin.
Colin Turkington put in a late lap to put the WSR Flexifly BMW up to fifth, 0.011sec ahead of Jonny Adam making his GT4 debut in the GBR Stratton Motorsport Aston Martin.
