18/19th SeptemberThis is the 6th Round of The GT Cup Championship and the second time it has visited the popular Grand Prix Circuit at Brands Hatch. This is ‘multi-marque’ GT racing at its best with Porsche, Ferrari, Lotus, TVR, KTM, Ginetta and BMW all represented. The cars run in three Groups with the quicker cars in Group One and the ‘less quick’ ( there are no slow cars in GT Cup!) running in Group Three. The Groups are decided by a combination of a power to weight formula and the overall specifications of the cars. ‘Professional’ drivers are not allowed into the Championship and all the cars run on Pirelli Tyres, Pirelli being the sole tyre supplier to the Championship. There will two 25 minute races.
There is an enormous 36 car entry for this round making The GT Cup one of the most popular places to race a GT car competively in the UK.. The GT Cup Championship is now entering the second half of what has been another fantastic season. The Overall Championship positions could not be more finely poised. Keith Webster in his Group Two #10 BMW M3 E36 has a very slim nine point lead over fellow Group Two driver Marco Pullen in his #13 Ferrari 360 GTC. But just one point behind Pullen is Alex Martin in his #87 Group One Porsche 997 GT3 Cup car. So with this round and two more to go none of these front runners can afford to make even the smallest mistake.
The two drivers who have tended to dominate Group One this year have been Alex Martin in his Porsche 997 GT3 Cup car and the wonderfully spectacular Danny Winstanley in his lurid green TVR Tuscan. But Gary Eastwood in his Ferrari 430 GTC is really getting to grips with the leading bunch and with his first race win under his belt he could cause an upset this weekend. There is also the welcome return of Ian Hartley in another Ferrari 430 GTC and he is certainly capable of a podium finish. It is also unwise to ignore Andy Ruhan who had an extraordinary weekend at Oulton Park at the previous round and in race two he charged from dead last on the grid through to 3rd in Class 5th overall!
Group Two is developing into a straight fight between Championship and Class leader Keith Webster in his BMW M3 E36 and Marco Pullen in his Ferrari 360 GTC.
But last time we were at Brands Hatch the Group Two battle raged throughout both races so it won’t be easy.
In Group Three Tom Andrew in his KTM XBow has a fairly comfortable cushion over Dan Norris-Jones in his Lotus Exige. However they crossed the line a few inches apart last time they were here so watch out for them.
So with a huge grid and close racing all the way through the field you can expect a impressive show from the GT Cup .. winners? It is now becoming very hard to predict the overall and class winners so we can look forward to some great scraps everywhere!
Overall Championship points:-
#10 Keith Webster BMW E36 261 points
#13 Marco Pullen Ferrari 360GTC 253 points
#87 Alex Martin Porsche 997 GT3 Cup 252 points
Class points:-
Group One:-
#87 Alex Martin Porsche 997 GT3 Cup 252 points
#18 Gary Eastwood Ferrari 430 GTC 225 points
#88 Leon Price Ferrari 430 GTC 195 points
Group Two:-
#10 Keith Webster BMW E36 261 points
#13 Marco Pullen Ferrari 360 GTC 253 points
#31 Michael Symons BMW E36 228 points
Group Three:-
#7 Tom Andrew KTM XBow 217 points
#73 Dan Norris-Jones Lotus Exige 195 points
#8 David Botterill Porsche 944 Turbo 175 points
The next round will be at Spa Francorchamps on October 2nd/3rd .
