2024 BRITISH GT CHAMPIONSHIP – ROUND 4

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.

Gearing up to support the British GT Championship for the third time this year, Ginetta’s trio of factory series prepare to make their first visit of the season to Donington Park, with the GT Championship, GT Academy and Ginetta Junior Championship all eager to carry on where they left off at a damp and wet Silverstone GP circuit.

The young guns of the Ginetta Junior Championship put on a junior racing clinic at Silverstone with a trio of clean and entertaining races that produced three different winners. Henry Joslyn, Marcus Saeter and Ethan Jeff-Hall all took to the top step over the course of that weekend, but none of them are top of the standings going to Donington Park. Despite the live stream commentators dubbing him “Second Place Charlie”, Charlie Hart’s sheer consistency has elevated him to the top of the points and is clear by 14. His five second places in a row ensured he bagged solid scores from the first two weekends at Oulton Park and Silverstone, and a first win must surely be on the cards soon.

Isaac Phelps maintained second place despite missing out on the podium at Silverstone, ahead of Jeff-Hall, Joslyn and Chase Fernandez in the top five. Saeter, meanwhile, has work to do from sixth place currently but strong efforts at Silverstone helped him to recover from a tough Oulton. Every driver in the top six has taken all the podium finishes between them to date, so if anyone seventh downwards wants to break through, they’ll have to pull out all the stops.

In the GT Academy, the revelation of the season so far has been Palmer Sport Scholarship winner James Nicholas. From five starts, the rookie has already won three races after he triumphed first time out at Oulton Park, then mastered the wet conditions at Silverstone to claim both. Even so, Nicholas is second in the Rookie class behind Harry Gamble, on the podium in all five races so far with a win at Oulton to his name. These two appear to be the initial standout Rookies as Donington Park approaches.

Mike Taylor, Luke Shaw and Peter Thompson currently round off the Rookie top five, each of them with at least one podium finish so far and each will be keen to carry on making progress and building on the form shown. Over in the main GT Academy class, Julian Wantling has been near unstoppable with four of the five victories available going his way thus far. His advantage is already 30 points strong out in front , leaving Marc Elman, Amy and Emma Tomlinson and Mike West with the task of trying to close him down.

Last but by no means least, the Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT Championship has seen quite the level of competition in the early stages of this season. Five points cover the top three in the Pro class standings – McKenzie Cresswell leads heading to Donington Park, but only by two points from Luke Garlick, with his brother Connor Garlick only another three back in third. If this trio remains close all weekend, expect fireworks between them.

Over in the Am class, Nick White is currently on a run of four victories in a row and after dominating Silverstone, he must feel as though momentum is on his side to continue this streak. Incredibly, he’s already a staggering 76 points ahead of second placed Matt Shaw at this stage, with Paul Livesey, Peter Mangion and Shawn Fleming completing the top five. 

Make sure to watch all of the action from all three championships LIVE via the Ginetta TV channel on YouTube.

Written by Scott Woodwiss