Louis Sharp produced a near-perfect weekend at Donington Park to give himself clear daylight in the GB3 title race heading into the deciding round at Brands Hatch later this month.
The Rodin Motorsport driver mastered changeable conditions across the two days to record his third and fourth victories of the campaign and extend his points advantage over his main championship rivals.
The foundations of his double triumph were built in a damp qualifying, where the British-born New Zealander edged Tymek Kucharczyk, who came into the weekend third in the standings, to take pole for both races one and two.
With the circuit having mostly dried out for the opener, Sharp led from lights to flag after building an early 1.5-second advantage. Kucharczyk halved that gap in the closing stages but got sideways on a wet kerb into Old Hairpin on the final lap and slid through the gravel, crucially giving away points by dropping to fourth.
The Pole’s Hitech GP team-mate Gerrard Xie was promoted to second and JHR Developments’ John Bennett kept his championship hopes alive with third. Noah Ping and Freddie Slater – the Italian Formula 4 dominator making his GB3 debut for Rodin – both challenged the recovering Kucharczyk before the finish but had to settle for fifth and sixth, ahead of Hitech’s Will Macintyre.
Wet tyres were required for Sunday’s sequel, where Sharp again led throughout on a drying circuit to finish over two seconds clear of Kucharczyk. Behind them, Slater initially scored his first GB3 podium, having made his way past Xie early on, but was handed a one-place penalty afterwards for forcing Ping onto the grass at the start.
The VRD by Arden driver was promoted a position as Rodin’s Arthur Rogeon and Xie completed the top six, the latter having also been relegated two places due to a track-limits penalty.
Having lost out in an early squabble with Ping and Rogeon at the Melbourne Hairpin, Bennett finished down in seventh, ahead of the improving Colin Queen, and slipped to third in the standings behind Kucharczyk.
Rogeon completed a Donington clean sweep for Rodin in race three by taking his third reversed-grid win of the season. The Frenchman was never headed, resisting early pressure from McKenzy Cresswell before edging clear.
Queen held off a fast-starting Macintyre on lap one and maintained third on the road from there, but he was another to lose a maiden podium finish as a 5s track-limits penalty demoted the Fortec driver to eighth.
Bennett followed Macintyre home to take fourth and reclaim second in the standings, while Sharp climbed from 12th to sixth behind Slater but, much to his frustration, could not find a way by his new team-mate.
Kucharczyk shadowed Sharp in seventh, losing further ground to his two main rivals in the championship. Four drivers remain mathematically in contention for the crown heading to the deciding round, with Sharp holding a 33-point buffer to Bennett, Kucharczyk three points further behind and Macintyre still has an outside chance.
British GT3: Collards win again to bring title in reach
Barwell Motorsport’s Rob and Ricky Collard dominated British GT’s two-hour race at Donington Park, extending their championship lead with just one round remaining. The father-son pairing won by 3.2 seconds from pole ahead of Blackthorn’s Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam, while Garage 59’s Shaun Balfe and Adam Smalley completed the podium.
It means the Lamborghini drivers will arrive at the Brands Hatch finale with a 24.5-point advantage – with 37.5 up for grabs – over second-placed Sandy Mitchell and Alex Martin, who finished fourth in the sister Barwell entry last weekend.
“That’s first blood going towards Brands Hatch – we needed that,” said Ricky Collard, as Barwell claimed the teams’ crown. “We’d gone in a completely different direction with set-up, we’re trying something new, and it worked really well.”
Race conditions were dry despite a wet qualifying, where 2 Seas duo Kevin Tse and Maximilian Gotz split the Barwell drivers inside the top three. The Huracans started cleanly, but disaster struck the Mercedes as Tse was spun at Redgate after contact from RAM Racing’s John Ferguson, who started fifth. Though 2 Seas continued its race at the back, the RAM BMW was forced to retire because of a driveshaft failure.
It left Barwell 1-2 and Rob Collard was eager to pull clear of Martin, knowing his Lamborghini had to serve an extra 15s in the pitstop for its runner-up finish at the previous Snetterton round. But the former touring car star could only gain a second during a dominant first 15 minutes for Barwell, as third-placed Petrobelli, who started seventh, was 16.5s off the lead in his Aston Martin. The racing was closer further back, though, as just 3s separated fifth to 10th.
In the battle for seventh, Mark Radcliffe’s Optimum McLaren hit Matt Topham’s Aston Martin after a failed overtake down the inside of the final corner, causing the former to retire. Others struggled to keep it on track, Morgan Tillbrook losing fourth when his McLaren was squeezed onto the grass by GT4 runner Will Moore, while Mike Price went off at Turn 3.
Balfe was the big beneficiary of this as he’d risen from eighth to fourth, but his McLaren then dropped to fifth at the 40-minute mark when Richard Neary moved down the inside at Redgate.
At this point, Collard Sr led Martin by 7.7s, which was still close enough for the #78 Lamborghini to overtake during the pit window, which opened just past the hour mark. But everything suddenly went wrong at 45 minutes when the second Huracan clipped the tyre stack at the Fogarty Esses, causing a front-left puncture.
Martin pitted and dropped to sixth but, with a scheduled pitstop still to come, it left one side of the garage hoping for a safety car as their Barwell team-mates now led the second-placed Blackthorn crew by 28s.
The possibility of a full caution occurred just before the hour when Sacha Kakad skidded off at Starkey’s Bridge but, to Collard Sr’s relief, the Audi R8 eventually rejoined the circuit. This allowed the 55-year-old to pit around the hour mark with a very healthy advantage. He claimed “I did what I needed to do”, as Collard Jr began his stint with a 13s lead.
The BTCC convert initially maintained that gap over Adam, in for Petrobelli, while Mitchell had a difficult start to his stint after swapping with Martin. He rejoined a couple of seconds behind Phil Keen (still sharing with Ian Loggie, but the pair having traded their Mercedes for a Porsche). Keen's 2 Seas team-mate Gotz was two laps down but between the pair battling for fifth – something Mitchell described as “cheeky”.
Once the 2020 British GT champion finally got past 2021 DTM conqueror Gotz, Mitchell attacked Keen and, with 35 minutes remaining, overtook around the outside of the Melbourne Hairpin. Fourth-placed Smalley was 15s ahead, so something significant needed to happen for the Barwell driver to have a realistic chance of making further gains. But that occurred with 25 minutes to go when GT4 driver Freddie Tomlinson crashed at the Melbourne Hairpin, causing a full-course yellow, which turned into a safety car.
The race restarted with only one and a half minutes left, leaving little time for Mitchell to make any on-track overtakes. But he still gained a position on the final lap as a brake disc failure caused Sam Neary to crash from third at Turn 7, before his Team Abba squad received a post-race disqualification due to working on its Mercedes under parc ferme conditions.
Collard Jr had been helped by a GT4 runner between himself and Adam at the restart to claim a second victory of the season. Behind, the #87 Blackthorn Aston Martin achieved its first podium of the year as GT3 Silver-Am champions Balfe/Smalley made it seven class victories in eight races.
British GT4: Ramyead and Robertson battle to victory
A superb opening stint by Ravi Ramyead helped him and Century Motorsport co-driver Charlie Robertson claim victory in British GT4’s two-hour contest at Donington Park.
The BMW M4 pair started ninth but were fifth come the driver change and no compensation penalties helped them leapfrog into first for their second win in three races. Team Parker’s Charles Dawson and Seb Morris and the second Century BMW of Ian Gough and Tom Wrigley completed the podium at the season’s penultimate round last weekend.
Forsetti Motorsport’s Aston Martin Vantage went quickest in a wet qualifying, but that rain did not continue into race day - scuppering the wishes of polesitters Jamie Day and Mikey Porter. The latter stayed ahead of Aston Millar’s DTO Ginetta G56 at the start, but Porter’s team-mate Marc Warren dropped to the back as he was hit by erstwhile championship leader Zac Meakin, sharing with Jack Brown, at the Old Hairpin.
Forsetti controlled the early stages as Porter led after 30 minutes, but Millar was less than a second behind following numerous overtaking attempts. The Ginetta driver finally took the lead on the inside of Melbourne Hairpin 10 minutes later while, shortly afterwards, Meakin jumped Marco Signoretti’s Ford Mustang for third.
Such close racing eventually proved costly, though, as it prevented cars from pulling away and Millar led by only five seconds when the pit window arrived at the one-hour mark. Silver crews were required to spend an extra 24 seconds in their pitbox and Pro-Am pairing Ramyead/Robertson started the window only 10s behind.
It meant Robertson began his stint with a 17s lead over Freddie Tomlinson – in for Millar – while Team Parker jumped from seventh to third as its Pro-Am Mercedes pairing also profited.
“I just found the rhythm, did a few track limits because the car was a bit heavy, but it was great,” said Ramyead. Robertson added: “I couldn’t have asked Ravi to do a better stint. I popped out a good chunk ahead and really just had to stroke it home.”
The #71 BMW was then left unchallenged, as it led by over 30s when a brake failure caused Tomlinson to crash from second at the Melbourne Hairpin with 25 minutes remaining. The full course yellow and subsequent safety car meant Robertson gained an entire lap ahead of runner-up Morris. Meakin’s co-driver Brown finished third on track, but a post-race 30s penalty for speeding under the FCY demoted the Optimum McLaren to 11th.
The result means Day/Porter claimed the championship lead by 3.5 points over the Optimum duo despite only finishing seventh, because of a slow pitstop and Day being pushed into the Redgate gravel by Beechdean GT3 driver Jessica Hawkins.
