CENTURY SNATCH GT4 VICTORY
GT3: Collards’ Compensation Time tips the balance in team-mates’ favour
GT4: Final lap pass hands Ramyead and Robertson victory
Alex Martin and Sandy Mitchell led a Barwell one-two, and extended their British GT Championship lead, by claiming a third victory of the season in the first of Snetterton’s two one-hour races this morning.
Further back, Ravi Ramyead and Charlie Robertson’s Century BMW – rebuilt following its hefty shunt at Spa – made a fairytale return by claiming victory on the final lap.
DTO Motorsport’s Freddie Tomlinson and Aston Millar looked set to celebrate until Robertson – who’d only relieved Seb Morris of third two laps earlier – drew alongside the Ginetta down the start/finish straight and completed the move into Riches. Team Parker’s Mercedes-AMG also featuring Charles Dawson completed the GT4 podium.
Ahead, the Collards’ Compensation Time handed victory to the sister Lamborghini after Rob led the opening stint from pole. But he and Ricky still collected solid championship points in second, while another father/son pairing – Nearys Richard and Sam – completed the overall top three and celebrated Silver-Am victory.
GT3: BARWELL BASKS IN SNETT SUNSHINE
The race began in orderly fashion with Collard converting pole into an early lead from Martin. Barwell's Lamborghinis then ran together initially while pulling clear of Richard Neary who passed Ian Loggie at Riches on the opening lap.
Collard was 3.5s clear when the pit window opened – not quite enough to negate the five seconds of Compensation Time accrued for finishing third at Spa last time out. The Huracans pitted together and duly resumed with the order reversed in favour of Martin and Mitchell.
The latter was able to edge clear thereafter to claim the #78 car’s third win of the season and extend its crew’s championship lead.
Ricky Collard finished 6.4s behind his team-mate but comfortably ahead of Sam Neary whose father enjoyed a fantastic scrap with Loggie, Giacomo Petrobelli and Sacha Kakad in the opening stint. Abba’s and 2 Seas’ Mercedes-AMGs went side-by-side for several corners, but Loggie was never on the optimum line and dropped behind both Blackthorn’s Aston Martin and the J&S Racing Audi as a result.
The quartet remained nose-to-tail thereafter before Petrobelli’s co-driver Jonny Adam emerged ahead of Neary after the stops. That, however, was due to a one-second-short pitstop, which earned the Vantage a frustrating stop-go penalty.
Neary therefore took third overall and maximum Silver-Am points after keeping Loggie’s co-driver Phil Keen in check over the final 30 minutes.
Kakad and Hugo Cook earned theirs and J&S Racing’s best-ever British GT result in fifth, while RAM Racing’s BMW shared by John Ferguson and debutant Max Hesse rounded out the top six.
GT4: ROBERTSON AND RAMYEAD BOUNCE BACK WITH BIG WIN
Century’s Ramyead and Robertson bounced back from the disappointment of Spa in the best possible fashion by scoring a thrilling victory in the first race at Snetterton.
Having kept the car within the top 10 before the pitstops, Ramyead handed across to Robertson who produced a tremendous second stint to snatch his and his co-driver’s first-ever British GT wins literally as the chequered flag fell.
The early stages of the race were more sedate than the second half, as pole-sitter Millar led the way in DTO’s Ginetta from Mikey Porter’s Forsetti Motorsport Aston Martin. The top two began to pull clear when third-placed Will Moore was caught in a close battle with Jack Brown’s Optimum McLaren and the second Academy Mustang driven by Marco Signoretti.
Millar and Porter both ran deep into the pit window, albeit with the Aston stopping one lap before the Ginetta. Century’s Pro-Am entry, on the other hand, had stopped at the first opportunity. And it was Robertson’s fast laps immediately after the change combined with the Silver crews’ longer stops and Forsetti’s Compensation Time that brought the BMW firmly into play.
The same scenario also benefitted Team Parker’s Mercedes-AMG which, thanks to Dawson, had been the leading Pro-Am contender in seventh overall before the window opened. His co-driver Morris duly vaulted up to second behind DTO’s Ginetta, now driven by Tomlinson, once Paddock’s Mercedes-AMG was penalised for its considerably short pitstop.
Robertson filtered back out in third, setting up a tense final 20 minutes as the top three ran nose-to-tail.
After making several attempts to pass Tomlinson, including dislodging his Mercedes badge in the process, Morris was forced to focus on defence as Robertson attacked. He eventually found a way past on the entry to Coram with three minutes remaining.
Robertson then put in a superb penultimate tour, closing onto the tail of Tomlinson and getting a run alongside the Ginetta out of Murrays, nosing ahead underneath the chequered flag that was shown for the GT3-winning Barwell Lamborghini right behind, and then putting the car ahead for good into Riches.
Morris hung on to third ahead of Jamie Day who fought hard to finish fourth after taking over the #7 Forsetti Vantage that served extra Compensation Time from Spa. The sister car of Marc Warren and Will Orton came home right behind, ahead of Matt Nicoll-Jones/Moore’s Mustang.
Adam Hatfield and Alex Walker were seventh for Paddock Motorsport ahead of Zac Meakin/Brown’s Optimum McLaren, which dropped back after the pitstops.
