Optimum Motorsport dominated proceedings at the latest British GT Championship event at Snetterton as both of its crews won the pair of 60-minute sprints, with the team’s pairing of Morgan Tillbrook and Ben Barnicoat storming to the top of the championship standings.
In GT4, the balance of power has swung toward MK Racing as a win and a non-score for title rivals Innovation Racing has allowed the former to sneak ahead by 1.5 points.
Race 1
In the first race, it was Optimum’s other pairing of Marc Warren and Jack Brown who dominated proceedings. Starting from pole, Warren held off a hard-charging Rob Collard and never looked back.
Despite Collard pressuring hard in his Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2, the pair were locked in position throughout the opening stint. Even when Warren handed his McLaren over to Brown, and Cook jumped in for Collard, the result was only ever going one way – with a 720S GT3 Evo on the top step of the podium.
Third place had gone to the sister car of Tillbrook and Barnicoat, but the former was slapped with a 30-second post-race penalty for tipping Paddock Motorsport’s Mark Smith into a spin, pushing them down to fourth.
That penalty promoted the Orange Racing with JMH pair of Simon Orange and Marcus Clutton into third, putting them right in the mix for the title with now just two weekends remaining.
Despite starting from the back of the GT3 field, then championship leaders Alex Martin and Jarrod Waberski pushed through to finish fifth in the second of the Barwell Lamborghinis.
In GT4, Hadley Simpson capitalised on a slight mistake from pole-sitter Josh Stanton allowed the Innovation Racing Ginetta to power through to the lead and never looked back.
Even when handing over to co-driver Thomas Holland, the pair had everything fall in their favour; Stanton’s McLaren had to serve extra pitstop success time, and the pressure being placed on them by Jack Mitchell was relieved when the latter had to serve a penalty after co-driver Luke Shaw outbraked himself and hit Revie Lake’s McLaren Artura on lap one.
Whilst that benefit the Innovation duo, it really boosted MK Racing’s Will Orton and Jess Hawkins who ran a faultless race to finish in second and keep pace at the top of the standings.
Jack Collins and Brandon Templeton finished third in their Century Motorsport BMW to keep up the pressure on the top of the standings and add an extra dynamic to the title fight.
Race 2
Tillbrook and Barnicoat became this season’s first two-time British GT race winners as Barnicoat claimed second at the start and stuck himself under the race wing of Beechdean AMR’s Ross Gunn for all the opening stint.
Through the pitstops, it was the same again as Andrew Howard took over the lead as he took over the Aston Martin Vantage from Gunn. However, it didn’t last long. An unaided spin for Howard at the Wilson Hairpin allowed Tillbrook to sweep through into the lead and dropped the Aston to third.
That spin also allowed Simon Orange to sneak through into second, and completely shake-up the championship standings. With Optimum’s duo taking the win, they’re now 13.5 points ahead of Martin and Waberski, who themselves are now just three points ahead of Clutton and Orange.
More useful points banked has also put Collard and Cook within 25 points of the lead and setting up what will be a thrilling last two races.
That definitely spreads on to GT4. After a suspected engine problem took Holland and Simpson out of contention, fifth place for MK Racing has put them 1.5 points ahead and left the observer with no clear indication of which way the title pendulum might swing before the season’s close.
In the race itself, Stanton and George Gamble made it a third Optimum win of the season as the latter broke clear at the start and handed over to Stanton with an insurmountable gap. Second went the way of the Pro-Am winning Aston Martin of Daniel Lavery and Darren Turner, while Tom Bradshaw and Ian Duggan rounded out the GT4 podium in their Toro Verde GT Porsche.
Photos by Dom Vincent
