BRITISH GT ROLLS INTO DONINGTON PARK FOR ROUND 4 OF 2024
The British GT Championship winds up for its third weekend of the season, as the first of two trips this year to Donington Park’s GP circuit in Leicestershire welcomes the GT3 and GT4 classes, as well as hosts only the second three hour endurance race of the year.
This weekend’s grid features another bumper entry with no fewer than 38 cars due to line up on Sunday across both classes. The championship heads to Donington for the first time this season off the back of a thrilling Silverstone 500, that saw Adam Smalley and Shaun Balfe claim the overall win in GT3 in the McLaren, while Jack Brown and Zac Meakin ensured the Woking outfit scored a double success with the GT4 honours in their Artura.
The Silverstone success puts Smalley and Balfe on top of the GT3 points with a 6.5 point lead, trailed currently by both of the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracans. Father & son duo Rob and Ricky Collard are best of Mark Lemmer’s pair, thirteen points ahead of teammates Alex Martin and Sandy Mitchell, who in turn only have a point over 2022 champion Ian Loggie and co-driver Phil Keen in the Mercedes. Despite failing to score in the first Oulton Park race, Sam and Richard Neary put another Mercedes into the top five in points, in the hope to climb further.
Among the rest of the full time entries, two round by round GT3 cars also join the Donington grid – the Audi R8 of J & S Racing with Sacha Kakad and Hugo Cook, and the RJN McLaren of brothers Alex and Chris Buncombe who will give this 720S another shot at racing after an accident for Simon Watts at Silverstone.
In GT4, Forsetti Motorsport’s Aston Martin Vantage of Mikey Porter and Jamie Day currently leads, but their points gap is slimmer than that of GT3. Just 2.5 points separate them and Silverstone 500 victors Brown & Meakin, but the McLaren boys are also looking over their shoulder at Charles Dawson and Seb Morris in the Team Parker Racing Mercedes, who themselves are equidistant to P2 as their rivals are to the lead.
Forsetti’s second Aston Martin currently stands in fourth place thanks to Will Orton and Marc Warren, while a fine drive from Ian Duggan and Gordie Mutch in their Mahiki Racing Lotus Emira saw them claim a podium at Silverstone and fifth in points. Watch for both cars this weekend as they try to make moves up the table.
You can watch all of this weekend’s British GT action via the GT World YouTube channel with qualifying on Saturday and the three-hour race on Sunday afternoon.
