The British GT Championship title fight took a massive swing at the penultimate round of 2026 at Donington Park as Barwell Motorsport’s Rob Collard and Hugo Cook took the race win and inherited the championship lead after a dramatic two hours in the East Midlands which saw previous leaders Morgan Tillbrook and Ben Barnicoat crash out.
There was also drama in the GT4 title fight as a penalty for MK Racing has put Innovation Racing and Century Motorsport into a tie at the top of the standings, in a race that was comfortably won by Paddock Motorsport after an ingenious strategy to stay out longer on wets on a drying Donington circuit.
GT3
Heavy rain, which had stopped just as the field went to the grid meant there was a gamble to be made in terms of tyre strategy but in keeping with what has been a cautious weekend all round so far for the British GT field, no one elected to take the risk with everyone instead starting on wets.
Not that it seemed to matter to Collard, whose move from second on pole-sitter Jonathan Beeson was planned to perfection. Going round the outside at Redgate, he defied the relative lack of grip in his Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 and swept past the Century Motorsport BMW into the lead.
With Collard into the lead, that’s pretty much where he stayed for the opening 20 or so minutes as he enjoyed the benefit of a clean road ahead of him to disappear up the road, especially as Beeson was having to fend off pressure from Marc Warren in the fast starting Optimum Motorsport McLaren.
Indeed, the only incident of note in the opening stages was Simon Orange spinning his McLaren coming out of Goddards, seemingly catching a rear wheel on the painted white grid marking when trying to put down the power.
The first real flash point in the race came with about 30 minutes of the 120 completed. Heading through McLeans, Warrens squeezed himself up the inside of the lapped Rodin Ferrari – having had a spin early on – with Alex Martin looking to also take advantage round the outside. Taking it three-wide, Martin looked to get stuck behind the 296 GT3 Evo and both of them ended up on the grass, smashing through advertising banners and ending in the Coppice gravel.
Whilst they both managed to get going again, that was the first significant championship change as Martin and Jarrod Waberski slipped back slightly.
With the track starting to dry, teams slowly started to make a stop to get rid of their quickly over-heating wets and swapping instead onto dry slicks. Whilst the stops went smoothly, quick work from 2 Seas Motorsport allowed Charles Dawson to get out ahead of Warren’s McLaren.
However, Warren was a man possessed in the opening stint and was filling Dawson’s mirrors. Just a few minutes after the stops, a great feint from Warren going into Redgate sent Dawson ever so slightly too deep into the right-hander, allowing Warren to cut back and take the inside down the Craner Curves.
There was no time for any further moves as the race’s big moment flashed into being. A few McLarens, notably Warren’s, seemed to lose the rears slightly going into the Melbourne Hairpin after pitting for slicks. Whilst others managed to hold the slide, Morgan Tillbrook’s was the biggest of the lot, and the championship leader lost control of his 720S GT3 Evo and slammed into the rear-right of Beeson’s BMW M4. Whilst Beeson managed to limp back to the pits, Tillbrook was eliminated on the spot; putting a serious dent into his and Ben Barnicoat’s title ambitions.
A brief Full Course Yellow later, and the race tended to settle down again after that. Through the mandatory stops, all seemed relatively calm except for drama involving the #90 McLaren of Warren and Jack Brown. Handing over to Brown, one of the Optimum mechanics instinctively put his foot on the splitter of the car to stop it rolling forward but found himself in breach of the regulations surrounding having only four personnel touching the car. Race control gave the car a drive-through penalty but radio issues meant Brown didn’t immediately serve the penalty, meaning it was upgraded to a one-minute stop/go.
That took Brown out of third and freed a hard-charging Chris Lulham into third, having been on the rear of the McLaren for a number of laps having cut down an 11-second gap to nought in less than 10 minutes. Having moved into third, he made quick work of the fellow 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Aaron Walker to take second.
Facing a 22-second gap to Barwell’s Hugo Cook, he tried his best to cut it down but the Lamborghini driver didn’t a put foot wrong after replacing Collard behind the wheel of the #63 and – despite Marcus Clutton lunging him at Goddards to unlap himself on the last lap – took a trouble-free run to the flag. Lulham took second alongside Kevin Tse, with the second 2 Seas entry of Walker and Charles Dawson rounding out the podium and taking the Silver-Am win.
Victory for Cook and Collard is more than just silverware to add to the collection, it’s given the pair a serious advantage heading to the final round at Brands Hatch in three weeks. They sit on 122.5 points, compared to 107 for Martin and Jarrod Waberski who managed to recover to fifth, and 105.5 points for Tillbrook and Barnicoat who have lost their championship lead.
Sixth for Clutton and Orange has kept them as title outsiders on 101 points, with 37.5 available at what has already been christened as the ‘Battle of Brands’. But fourth for Beechdean AMR’s Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn has given them the slimmest of chances to allow Howard to retire from British GT with another title under his belt.
Elsewhere in the race, Warren and Brown finished seventh after the latter had to serve his stop/go, ahead of the sister Optimum car of Mike Price and Callum Macleod. Ninth went to the last of the GT3 points finishers as Cameron Campbell and Josh Buchan fought through various misfortunes to take ninth in their Rodin-run Ferrari.
GT4
Whilst there were dramas in the championship fight, the race itself was one of patience and not doubting the plan as Blake Angliss and Revie Lake took a comfortable maiden victory in their Paddock Motorsport McLaren Artura, a deserved win after a season of ups and downs for the former Mahiki Racing duo.
At the start, only the Innovation Ginettas – which had been disqualified from qualifying after a homologation issue Ginetta owned up to – gambled on slicks, everyone else was on wets.
At the start, the biggest mover was Jack Collins in the Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 Evo who had lightning reactions to gain three places on the start and sit behind promoted pole-sitter Angliss.
But those lightning reactions came at a price as the car was slapped with a 10-second penalty to serve at their mandatory stop for overtaking off-track on that opening lap climb.
Things settled for a time, and as the circuit started to properly dry there was – compared to GT3 – a proper mix of strategy. Grange Racing by FSR and Toro Verde’s repaired Porsche immediately pitted for slicks, but weren’t joined by anyone else as others elected to hang on to their wets until the pit window opened. With the Innovation cars not particularly making up lots of places as the circuit dried, their canary in the coal mine approach allowed teams to put evidence to their decision to either stick or twist.
When the pit window finally swung open, championship leader Jessica Hawkins was amongst the first to pit in the MK Racing Aston Martin Vantage whereas the Innovation cars elected to stay out and get a bit more life out of their slicks.
It was a full five minutes later that Angliss finally pitted from the lead of GT4, using every single bit of rubber his wets had left to offer. Despite losing time to the cars who pitted earlier, they came back out in the lead, Paddock’s strategy of hanging on until the final minutes paying off beautifully.
Released into the lead, Lake was untroubled on his run to the flag. You couldn’t entirely say the same for the cars behind. Branden Templeton took over the Century BMW from Collins and, thanks to success penalties for others, found himself back into second and under a bit of pressure from Will Orton, who replaced Hawkins in the MK Aston.
Orton himself was under pressure from Thomas Holland, who took over the Innovation Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo from Hadley Simpson and was looking to re-claim the championship lead by passing Orton.
He didn’t have to work very hard. Hawkins had been pinged for speeding in the pits as she entered for her stop, giving the car a drive-through penalty and allowing Holland to move through into third.
Whilst that third moved the pair up to the championship lead, they’re not alone. Templeton and Collins took a lonely second at the flag, unable to close the gap to Lake, and they find themselves tied with the Innovation crew on 127 points. Sixth for Orton and Hawkins has kept them well in the title fight, just six points down, but there’s now much more competition at the top of the standings.
Fourth place, and unlucky really to run out of time to put more pressure on Holland, was Grange Racing’s Dan Lavery and Darren Turner. Winning the Pro-Am category has confirmed them as the Pro-Am title winners with a race remaining, but on 116.5 points they’re also well within range of taking the overall spoils as well. Seventh has kept Josh Stanton within a mathematical chance of the title, but on 96.5 points he’ll really need luck on his side to walk away from Brands Hatch with the crown.
In the race itself, credit must go to James Wareing and Sam Branston in the second Innovation car who finished fifth on their British GT debut having struggled through the opening 30 minutes of wet racing on slicks.
The final round of the British GT Championship, the Brands Hatch title decider, takes place on September 26 & 27 with another two-race surely set to be packed with yet more drama.
