After an exciting start to the season the British GT Championship is set to welcome two new manufacturers and an expanded grid for next week's round at Spa-Francorchamps.
The race – a single 150 min event, as opposed to the series normal pair of two one hour races – will see an expanded field, including two manufacturers making their first starts in this year's championship.
Many of the headlines (and indeed glory over the weekend) may be taken by the Lamborghini Gallardo of the German Reiter Engineering squad, the closest Lamborghini have to a dedicated works team. The car will be driven by Peter Kox, who also drives for the squad in the FIA GT1 World Championship, and Marc Hayek, head of watch makers Blancpain – the company that sponsors Reiters GT1 cars, and will almost certainly follow suit for their British GT outing.
Also joining (or rather re-joining) the grid will be the RPM run Ford GT for Alex Mortimer and Philip Walker and the Barwell-Cadena entered Aston Martin, with Paul Whight and Michael Bentwood expected to take the driving duties at the legendary Belgian track.
Spa will also see an expanded effort from the Trackspeed team, bringing a second Porsche as they hope to continue their surprising start to the season, both on the British and European stage. The second Porsche 911 GT3 R is due to be driver by a pair of Olivers – past race winner Oliver Bryant being joined by namesake Oliver Morley. The team's regular driver David Ashburn will drive the other car, alongside an as yet unnamed second pilot.
They will, of course, join the series regulars with the MTECH pairing of Matt Griffin and Duncan Cameron leading the championship by eight points from the Preci-Spark Ascari of David and Godfrey Jones.
The race will also see the normal flotilla of Ferraris. Three from Piers Maserati's Chad Racing outfit, and singleton entries from Rosso Verde and Predator CCTV – the former including a man who has more recent experience on the circuit than most, Allan Simonsen only having raced in Belgium in the Le Mans Series earlier in May. adding even more depth to the field will be the Dodge Viper of Aaron Scott and Craig Wilkins, who won on their visit to the Ardennes last year.
“It is shaping up to be a very special grid at Spa,” said championship manager Benjamin Franassovici, “with seven different marques represented in GT3. It’s great to see a Lamborghini back in the championship, and I hope that it will lead to further outings.”
Photo Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
