With the British GT Championship heading to Brands Hatch this weekend, there is a chance that the GT4 drivers’ crown could be won on Sunday.
Few drivers win a British GT race having served a 20s pitstop success penalty, but that’s what Century Motorsport’s Dean MacDonald and Jack Mitchell managed to do at Spa to give the Mitchell back-to-back GT4 wins and a chance of wrapping up the title this weekend.
A timely Safety Car helped the #43 BMW, whose full-season driver now finds himself 16.5 points clear of HHC Motorsport’s Ginetta shared by Callum Pointon and Patrik Matthiesen who lost the championship lead for the first time since Rockingham. They’re also now just 0.5 points ahead of Tolman Motorsport’s McLaren driven by Charlie Fagg and Michael O’Brien, who pushed Century all the way at Spa, while Matt Nicoll-Jones and Will Moore’s Academy Aston Martin means there are as many different manufacturers represented in the top-four.
With the first and third place crews serving success penalties and a maximum 75 points still available for two wins, the chances of Mitchell being crowned champion at Brands Hatch appear slim. Nevertheless, third place could be enough for the 20-year-old to win the title with a race to spare in the event of other results going his way. Meanwhile, a third consecutive win would leave Pointon/Matthiesen and Fagg/O’Brien requiring fourth or better to force a showdown at Donington.
Century’s second BMW of Ben Tuck and Ben Green also remains an outside championship contender, while at Spa Finlay Hutchison and Dan McKay finally delivered the podium Equipe Verschuur’s McLaren had been threatening since the opening round.
Aston Martin claimed class victory at the Kent venue last season, which undoubtedly plays into the hands of Moore and Nicoll-Jones who also started on pole there 12 months ago. However, it’s Academy’s second V8 Vantage that could be worth watching this weekend when Jan Jonck returns to the scene of that emphatic win.
GT4’s Pro Am class continues to swing from one crew to another and, for a fourth race running, a new set of names finds itself top of the standings.
Nick Jones and Scott Malvern’s win at Spa has propelled the Team Parker duo back into the box seat by 7.5 points from Kelvin Fletcher and Martin Plowman, whose UltraTek Nissan finished second, while Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson’s non-score appears to have ended their hopes of retaining the crown for a third season. They currently occupy third, albeit 47.5 points shy of the lead.
British GT’s penultimate round of the season begins at 13:40 this Sunday. Watch it live on the championship’s website or Facebook page, as well as SRO’s GT World Youtube channel.
PITSTOP SUCCESS PENALTIES
- 20s – #43 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 – Mitchell/Macdonald
- 15s – #4 Tolman Motorsport McLaren 570S GT4 – Fagg/O’Brien
- 10s – #10 Equipe Verschuur McLaren 570S GT4 – Hutchison/Mckay
