A thoroughly eventful but equally confusing third rounds of the British GT Championship and FFSA GT4 Series as fifty-five cars from both SRO series shared the 7km Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgian earlier today marking the start of Speed Week and the run into the Spa 24.
In a novel way in saving track time between all the SRO governed series between this weekend and next, the idea of running the GT3 and GT4 classes of the British GT Championship with the GT4 and sub-classes of the French FFSA GT4 independently in governance but at the same time as on track with one another had all the hallmarks of something very interesting but reality sadly proved that idea needed further thought.
The start to today’s two-hour race started under the searing heat of northern Europe making for some very uncomfortable working conditions for the drivers, team crews and circuit safety teams as air temperature reached into the low thirties.
After yesterday’s Qualifying sessions, the #7 Beechdean Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn would be starting from the second row of the grid which would this time start along the downhill looking into Eau Rouge along the endurance pit lane. The four AMR Vantage GT4’s from the Townsend Racing, GBR Stratton Motorsport, MK Racing and Grange Racing teams mainly saw adjustments to the original qualifying position to end up starting from towards the rear of the class.
Eventually getting the green light coming out of La Source saw the #7 Beechdean car of Howard get jumped by a rampant Lamborghini to drop the Aston immediately down to fifth whilst (first) the British GT GT4 class came through before being eventually followed by the FFSA GT classes for what was a clean start. Such was the speed differential between the GT3 frontrunners and the slowest of the FFSA classes that the race leaders were lapping cars on only the fourth lap of the race.
The rotten weekend for the #005 Mirage Racing AMR Vantage GT4 car of Jodie Sloss and new co-driver Nicolas Siebenschuh continued after the pit lane contact that halted their qualifying runs before they had even begun, as the young Scot only managed six laps before retiring the car before the first drama on track saw a fellow FFSA runner hard off and into the tyre wall.
That would be the first of three Full Course Yellow – Safety Car interruptions for various incidents on track that would lose the race nearly half the race as the longest interruption dragged on for over half an hour and Race Control permitted all runners to make their necessary stops at the reduce circulating rate of a FCY.
The end of the third interruption left just over twenty minutes of racing to go for the (mainly) Pro drivers aboard as the #7 Beechdean with Gunn was still in fourth whilst the #27 Grange Racing GT4 of Darren Turner was now battling for the class lead despite Dan Lavery getting pinged for passing FFSA traffic before the green flag – getting them a further twenty seconds hold time in pit lane earlier in the race.
The #40 Townsend car of first James Townsend before Joe Wheeler took over was struggling in the heat, as was the #97 GBR Stratton car of John Hartshorne and Ronan Pearson as the #97 would later get five seconds added to tehir race time for track limits. The final two laps would create a perfect storm for the GT3 front runners as they would find themselves coming up upon the FFSA tail enders again just at the slowest sections of the track which gave the pole setting McLaren the opportunity it needed to pass Gunn again for position into the bus stop for the final time.
Eventually all British GT runners passed the line to take the checkered flag with the #7 Beechdean crew finishing fifth overall but with the #27 Grange Racing crew taking their second class win in succession after their achievements in race two from Oulton Park last time out.
The #21 MK Racing silver pairing of Will Orton and Jessica Hawkins would recover from their qualifying issues of yesterday to eventually finish sixth despite the additional forty seconds that they had to spend in pit lane during their stop thanks to both their silver/silver grade and their podium position from Oulton Park. The #40 Townsend car would swap positions at the end thanks to the #97 GBR Strattons final time penalty as they would finish fourth and fifth respectively in GT4 Pro-Am.
The Championship now enters their six-week summer break before it returns to its two sprint race format next time out at Snetterton in mid-August.
Photo credits – J Ebrey / Teams / Phil Hay / Series / social media