Category: British GT

Current British GT champion Jonny Adam admits that he isn’t sure where he’ll be racing in 2020.

The Aston Martin works driver has won the British GT championship the last two years with Flick Haigh and Graham Davidson and is eager to return to the series in which he has won the most races with 14.

“We’ve sold a lot of cars and we’ll wait and see where I am next year as we haven’t yet been assigned a programme for 2020. We won the championship in a car that was very new to everyone in March, second year round we know where to make the car nicer but it is a BOP championship so you can’t have the fastest car out there. That makes it easier to driver and makes it better all round. I’d love to be doing British GT next year.”

The flying Scotsman spoke about his coaching of Am drivers, a tool useful in a championship where professional racing drivers are usually paired with so called “gentleman drivers”.

“When I play golf I always go to the driving range before the first tee. The reason I do this is because of muscle memory, and it is the same when you’re racing these cars. You can’t test much because they cost an awful lot of money to run. The cheapest and easiest way to test the car and improve as a driver is by using the simulator. The sim model we have at base for me as an Aston employee is perfect because it’s got the same brakes, the same tub and it’s within a couple of tenths of what we do at the weekend.”

While there were some differences between Haigh and a hard-charging Davidson, Adam went back to basics with both drivers when he started to work with them.

“You change quite a lot (From Flick to Graham). Every customer driver wants to win, I have always been lucky in that the level of Am  that I have had is always at a nice level and always have the aspiration to win the championship.

“I actually put both of them in a go kart in January and February because it is a great training tool anyway but also, these guys won’t have driven anything with an engine for three or four months in anger so it flushes out the cobwebs.

“It is all about the personality though and what information they will take onboard from coaching, and I don’t know that until I meet the person. My method always changes, even depending on the race weekend and the weekend before to make sure I get their confidence up. My coaching technique has not changed and I’ve been coaching now for five or six years, though I have been an instructor since 2003.

“For sure Graham is one of the fastest Ams out there and it is plain to see from the lap times, but the key with GT racing is being consistent. If you finish fourth in every race in the British GT Championship you’re in with a chance of winning the title so the days where you are looking at an awkward manoeuvre are the days where you sit and take the points. Sometimes it is about communication, I always like to speak to the driver as well and give them information, not too much but enough detail at the right time.”

Jonny Adam and Graham Davidson took their second British GT victory of the season at Brands Hatch to give themselves a chance of winning the championship at the final round of the season.

Adam and Davidson move into second in the British GT Championship at the expense of former leaders Jonny Cocker and Sam De Haan of Barwell Motorsport, who dropped from fourth to eighth on the final lap.

Rob Bell and Shaun Balfe were second having started from pole position, with Jack Mitchell and Angus Fender picking up Century Motorsport’s best GT3 result of the season with third.

Phil Keen and Adam Balon in the other Barwell were fourth, Keen passing Cocker on the last lap to set off a chain reaction that saw Dennis Lind, Tom Onslow-Cole and Nicki Thiim also better the Lamborghini.

Polesitter Balfe initially struggled at the start as the Aston Martins of Ollie Wilkinson and Davidson mugged the McLaren at the start.

Wilkinson was gapping at over half a second a lap, but was caught out by traffic to lose the advantage before spinning at Paddock Hill to drop to fourth.

The race was interrupted for over fifteen minutes midway through the first hour as Glynn Geddie’s #7 GT3 Bentley attempted lap the #61 Aston Martin of Ben Hurst at Westfield, with contact sending the Bentley into the wall at high-speed to completely ruin the front of the car.

After the restart, Davidson gained four seconds ahead of the stops as a result of kind traffic and his ability to put GT4 cars between, Balfe and Angus Fender, who lost out badly.

Once Adam climbed into the TF Sport Vantage, the Scot made no mistake to stroke it home for a victory.

In GT4, the race was affected by a Safety Car in the middle of the race after polesitter Callum Pointon was earlier passed by Jordan Smith and Ash Hand to slip to third, while Scott Maxwell climbed to 4th in class during the early staging of the race.

Alex Toth Jones and Moore given a stop go penalty for a starting infringement, but emerged seventh and profited from a well-timed Safety Car to take a big lead in GT4 for the second half of the two-hour race.

Bad luck was never far away though and Moore, with a comfortable lead, spun at Druids to cede their best chance of victory this season and cap a miserable season so far for Academy Motorsport in GT4.

It was left t

o James Dorlin, with the help of Jordan Collard in the other Tolman McLaren, to bring the car home ahead Dean MacDonald in the HHC McLaren, with Seb Priaulx for Multimatic Ford in third.

Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher took GT4 Pro/Am honours ahead of Mark Murfitt and Michael Broadhurst, with debutants Richard Meaden and Jack Roush third in class.

 

Images: Inked Hand Images

Shaun Balfe and Rob Bell continued the impressive form of Balfe Motorsport in British GT GT3 to take an impressive pole position at Brands Hatch.

The will start tomorrow’s two-hour race at Brands Hatch ahead of the Optimum Motorsport duo of Ollie Wilkinson and Bradley Ellis.

Jonny Cocker and Sam De Haan, who have a very small chance of winning the British GT title this weekend, start third ahead of TF Sport’s Scottish duo of Jonny Adam and Graham Davidson in the Aston Martin.

Jack Mitchell and the impressive Angus Fender will line up fifth tomorrow in Century Motorsport’s best showing in Gt3 this year with the BMW M6 ahead of Seb Morris and Rick Parfitt Junior in the Bentley, with Ben Green and Dominic Paul eighth.

Pointon and MacDonald were top of both GT4 sessions by the smallest of margins for HHC Motorsport in their McLaren 570S.

The headed Spa winners Tom Canning and Ash Hand in the TF Sport Aston V8 Vantage and the top Pro/Am duo of Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher in the Beechdean Aston Martin.

Josh Smith and James Dorling will start fourth for Tolman Motorsport in their McLaren, just ahead of the Mercedes AMG Pro/Am duo of Nick Jones and Scott Malvern.

Patrick Matthiesen and Mike Robinson complete the top six in the third Aston MArtin on the GT4 grid, while Sennan Fielding and Richard Williams in the #29 Audi R8 took an impressive seventh ahead of Patrick Kibble and Josh Price.

 

IMAGES: Inked Hand Images

 

Sir Chris Hoy says that endurance racing and the British GT series is a great mental challenge after class victory at Donington Park.

Sir Chris and Billy Johnson took top honours in the GT4 Pro/Am category for Multimatic Racing in a Ford Mustang, and the 43-year-old Scot says that he got out of the car mentally exhausted.

“It is not as physically challenging as professional cycling but you get out of the car exhausted because of the mental challenge, the skill and the concentration.

“There is intensity even with Endurance racing because you’re doing it for a long period of time so every braking point, every corner apex you need to get right. There is no room to simply sit back and catch your breath especially with this type of track and this grid. You’ve got your position on the track, the GT3s coming through and so it is exhausting concentration wise, but it is really fun.

Hoy, who won six Olympic Gold medals in a glittering track cycling career before retirement six years ago, had his racing passion ignited after a meeting with Colin McRae.

“I got the bug from Colin McRae really, he was my hero and I met him in the 90s and got interested in motorsport. I went for a track day at Bedford at one of the Palmer Sport ones. I drove a lot of cars that day, spoke to Johnathan Palmer and asked him what I should do, he said get a small, light car that’s easy on tyres and brakes and do track days.

“That’s how it started. I got the opportunity in 2013 to go racing in the Radical Novice SR1 cup series, Nissan got in contact after that (For The British GT series) and opportunities came my way. If you show you have consistency, you can be a safe pair of hands and do a relatively decent job then the word spreads and you get more offers to drive.”

Sir Chris Hoy felt that adaptability gained by driving in a variety of different series helped him on his return to the British GT series for the Multimatic Ford Mustang team at Donington Park.

Hoy, who won six Olympic Track Cycling Gold medals during his career, won the GT4 Pro/Am class with Billy Johnson.

And the Flying Scotsman had plenty to adapt to in an ever-frenetic Am section of the race.

“It was great to be back out there, a bit chaotic at the start as it was a big grid on a tight track so you have to be mindful of where you are but to be fair there wasn’t too much in the way of driver standards, there was a tap here or there but that’s it.”

And Hoy was full of praise for teammate Johnson, another man stepping in to the #19 Mustang for the first time in 2019 this weekend.

“In terms of enjoyment I had a great time, it was a great car and a really good team and I couldn’t have asked for a better teammate, Billy has been fantastic in helping me learn to get the best out of the car because I had never driven before this race weekend so it was all very new.”

Hoy’s presence on the motorsport scene has been a somewhat varied one since his debut in 2013.

And the 43-year-old feels that versatility helped him after driving the Mustang for the first time at the start of the Donington Park race weekend.

“The key thing is that I am getting used to dropping into different cars, different championships at the last minute. I did the World RallyCross championships in Barcelona with little testing, had a great time there, I did Monster Trucks in Sweden last weekend, I raced Caterhams and Porsche SuperCup a week before that.

“I’ve done lots of different types of driving which means you never get really good at one specific thing because to become really good you have to be consistent in doing one thing and get used to the car but when you’re chucked in a lot you have to think more about what you’re doing and hopefully that has made me a better driver.”

Jonny Adam and Graham Davidson took a nervy British GT victory on Sunday afternoon at Donington Park.

The TF Sport Aston Martin led from pillar-to-post but through the two-hour race had to contend with pressure from Rob Bell and Shaun Balfe in the Balfe Motorsport McLaren, despite the efforts of the lapped Nicki Thiim to act as a rear gunner for Adam in the second stint.

Jonny Cocker took an impressive if slightly lonely third position for the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini he shares with Same De Haan, while Michael Igoe and Dennis Lind in the RPI Lamborghini held off Phil Keen and Adam Balon in the second Barwell Huracan.

Ross Gunn and Andrew Howard were sixth in the Beechdean Aston Martin ahead of the JRM Bentley duo of Rick Parfitt Jnr and Seb Morris, with Ben Green and Dominic Paul completing the top eight.

It was another disappointing day for the lapped Mark Farmer and Thiim, with Farmer once more having a difficult opening stint after further contact on the opening lap dropping him to the GT4 pack, with further spins eventually seeing the Aston Martin drop a lap behind.

In GT4, it was another pole victory as Seb Priaulx and Scott Maxwell converted top honours on Saturday into victory on Sunday, although the MultiMatic Mustang duo did it the hard way.

That was thanks in no small part to the Tolman Motorsport #4 of Josh Smith and James Dorlin making the early running as they did in Silverstone two weeks ago.

As with Silverstone, trouble was never far away as contact with a GT3 Lamborghini broke a toelink and ended their race from the lead of GT4.

Maxwell had fallen back behind the HHC Motorsport McLaren of Callum Pointon, with Jan Mathiassen in the 42 Century BMW also proving a nuisance.

Pointon would eventually be dealt with by both men and Maxwell set about Smith in the McLaren before handing over to Priaulx.

Matthiasen would hand over to MArk Kimber and the BMW would emerge ahead of the Mustang, where Kimber would stay for much of the race.

The 17-year-old was putting up a fight despite having never driven the circuit before, but it took one mistake to allow Priaulx through with ten minutes left.

It would unravel for Kimber from there as brake failure ended his race on the penultimate lap to lose second place to Dean MacDonald in the #57 Championship leading McLaren while Lewis Proctor and Jordan Collard took third for the #5 Tolman McLaren.

Jonny Adam and Graham Davidson took a hard-earned pole position for the first of two British GT two-hour enduros at Donington Park in 2019.

The TF Sport Aston Martin driver pairing were over two tenths clear of their nearest rivals for overall pole position, with the driver’s times combined to set an aggregate qualifying time.

Dennis Lind and Michael Igoe will start second tomorrow after an excellent effort from Lind took the Lamborghini Huracan pairing from sixth to second, while Rob Bell and Shaun Balfe in the Balfe Motorsport McLaren 720S will start third tomorrow afternoon.

Phil Keen and Adam Balon complete GT3 row two ahead of Barwell Lamborghini teammates Jonny Cocker and Sam De Haan in fifth.

Ross Gunn replaced Marco Sorensen in the Beechdean Aston Martin and took himself and Andrew Howard to sixth ahead of Bradley Ellis and Ollie Wilkinson, Nicki Thiim and Mark Farmer will start eighth ahead of Ben Green and Dominic Paul.

Seb Morris and Rick Parfitt could only manage tenth on a difficult circuit for the JRM Bentley, while Tom Onslow-Cole (Guesting for the absent Adam Christodoulou) and Richard Neary go from 11th ahead of Jack Mitchell and JR Litmann.

The pacey RAM Mercedes of Callum Macleod and Iain Loggie will start from 15th and last after Macleod came to grief at the Fogarty Esses following Loggie’s fourth place in AM qualifying.

 Meanwhile for Maxwell and Priaulx it was the second pole position in the GT4 class this year.

James Dorlin and Josh Smith were second, after coming so close to victory at Silverstone two weeks ago before technical issues saw them retire, while  GT4 championship leaders Dean MacDonald and Callum Pointon in the Tolman Motorsport McLaren 570 will start from third in class tomorrow.

Mark Kimber and Jacob Mathiassen are fourth ahead of Scott Malvern and Nick Jones, Malvern and Jones leading the GT4 Pro/Am entries.

Next on the GT4 grid is the second Pro/Am entry of Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher in the Beechdean Aston Martin entry, while Jordan Collard and Lewis Proctor in the Tolman McLaren are seventh ahead of Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke and Angus Fender.

 

IMAGES – INKED HAND IMAGES