The Avon Tyres British GT Championship will bring the curtain down on a terrific 2010 season at Donington Park next Saturday (16 Oct) in fitting style, with the first-ever “twilight” round of the series. The championship’s concluding endurance race will see the grid under starter’s orders at 3.30pm, with the race brought to a dusky conclusion two hours later.
A two-hour race format means the added excitement of mid-race refuelling in addition to the driver-change pit stops for which British GT is famous, adding a further element of unpredictability to proceedings.
A superb grid of the latest GT machinery is expected at Donington, headed by the Trackspeed Porsche 997 GT3R of the newly crowned British GT Champion, David Ashburn, and his co-driver Glynn Geddie. Ashburn, who clinched the title last month at Brands Hatch, will be bidding for his and Geddie’s fifth win of the season.
“David and Glynn won the last of the two-hour races, at Silverstone, in August,” said championship manager Benjamin Franassovicci, “but their Porsche was carrying a lot less ballast then and I think that Trackspeed will have their work cut out at Donington Park. Refuelling stops always make for great unpredictability and, with the race due to end in failing light, I think it will be a really exciting end to the season.”
The new champion will face the onslaught of several Ferraris, including the 430 Scuderia of Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin, which is prepared close to Donington by the MTECH team. The venue is home track also to the outgoing British GT champions, David and Godfrey Jones, whose Team Preci-Spark Ascari was a winner last time out.
Aston Martin is to be represented by the Vantage Racing team, who enjoyed a promising British GT debut at Silverstone with their Tom Black and Stuart Hall-driven DBRS9. Martin Short and Gregor Fisken will be back with their Mosler also.
G4 class champions Jamie Stanley and Christian Dick will be hoping to end their season on a high note with a fifth class win for the Speedworks Motorsport team and their Ginetta G50, but will face a tough challenge from Century Motorsport, which will field two Ginettas, and Team Osborne Racing. Further G4 entries are also in the pipeline.
A number of Invitation and Cup class cars are expected, including a modified Speedworks-prepared Ginetta for Piers Johnson and Ron Johnson, and a KTM X-Bow from ABG Motorsport for father-and-son pairing Colin and Sam Mowle. The Chevron GR8 will meanwhile be making its long-awaited British GT debut.
British GT is sponsored by UK tyre manufacturer Avon Tyres and is further supported by Sunoco Racing Fuels, Anglo American Oil Company and The Independent.
Provisional race weekend timetableFriday 15 Oct: 1600-1700 practiceSaturday 16 Oct: 0910-1010 practice; 1220-1250 qualifying; 1530 race
Provisional UK TV scheduleSunday 24 Oct: 0700 Channel 4 & 1905 Motors TVFull UK & Euro TV schedules: http://bit.ly/bbb0c9
Provisional championship standings after round 12GT3 & Overall1 David Ashburn 91 points2 Glynn Geddie 653= Matt Griffin/Duncan Cameron 635 Philip Walker 466 Hector Lester 457 Allan Simonsen 438 Tom Ferrier 419= David Jones/Godfrey Jones & Richard Westbrook 40 etc
G4 Class1= Christian Dick/Jamie Stanley 60.53= Rory Butcher/Benjamin Harvey 385= Simon Mason/Chris Bialan 32.57= Nathan Freke/Vibe Smed 299= Benji Hetherington/Freddie Hetherington 24 etc
