The Oman Racing Team heads east to Norfolk’s Snetterton 300 circuit for rounds seven and eight of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship this coming weekend (22/23 August) with the sole aim of closing the gap on the championship lead.
Returning to the hour long sprint format for Sunday’s two races and with a total of 50 points on offer the weekend will be pivotal for the Motorbase-run squad as it looks to add to its points tally and keep its championship challenge on track.
Following an impressive start to the season, with one race win and two podiums from the opening four rounds, the Oman Racing Team has had a difficult time of late with a run of bad luck that has thwarted its progress. However, David Bartrum’s outfit are confident that a return to form on the Norfolk circuit will see the squad’s title campaign re-ignited.
“This weekend should be great for the Championship;” commented Oman Racing Team Principal David Bartrum. “Snetterton always turns up some interesting racing. It seems like yesterday that we were at Oulton Park starting the season and here we are already at the penultimate round with it all still to play for.”
Just 21 points separate the Oman Racing Team from current Teams’ Championship leaders Barwell Motorsport heading into Sunday’s double-header event, whilst Rory Butcher and Liam Griffin lie in third place - still in contention for the overall title albeit with a tough task ahead of them. This weekend also sees Silver Cup challenger Ahmad Al Harthy joined by Alex MacDowall in the #2 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 as Daniel Lloyd steps away from the championship.
“Whilst we have a hard task ahead of us to stay in the hunt for the overall Championship, we are still very much in the battle for the Teams’ Championship;” added Bartrum. “We need to work extra hard as a team this weekend. Both cars need to get any many points as possible so we can try and overhaul Barwell and head into the last round at Donington with a chance of taking back the title. I know that everyone in the Oman Racing Team will give it their best this weekend.”
Following two free practice sessions on Saturday (22 August) qualifying for rounds 7 and 8 is scheduled for 3.25pm local time. Sunday’s first 1 hour race gets underway at 12.55pm local time with race 2 set to follow at 4.30pm.Driver quotes: Liam Griffin: “It's all about the championship this weekend and we have to leave having closed the gap to less than 37.5 points. It will therefore be an all-out effort and total commitment in races which should make it exciting, one way or another!
“We’ve shown good pace over the last few rounds but things just haven't gone our way. Perhaps that will change at Snetterton. Testing went well there last week and the car is feeling strong so let's try and put the pressure on.”Ahmad Al Harthy: “We know what we have to do at Snetterton and we’re all unbelievably determined to get back on the podium, that’s our focus. It’s been very unfortunate the way the last two races turned out, at Brands GP we had a great chance of finishing on the podium but it wasn’t to be unfortunately through matters out of our control.
“The positives from Brands, and Spa before that, are how well the car has been working and the set-up we’ve been able to achieve which has meant we’ve been competitive. Snetterton is a track which has good memories; hopefully we can take away some big points and silverware at the weekend.”MotorsTV will feature live coverage of both races from 12.35pm and 4.20pm with Channel 4 set to broadcast its highlight programme at 7am on Sunday 30th August. A full TV schedule can be found on the official British GT Championship website here. MotorsTV can be found on the following channels: Sky 447, Virgin 545 and Freeview 71 & 240.
