This weekend saw the Avon Tyres British GT Championship and the Cooper Tires British F3 International Series race at the new Snetterton 300 circuit. United Autosports Matthew Bell and Michael Guasch took a fantastic win in British GT however despite an unfortunate weekend for Nasr he still retains his lead in the Sunoco Daytona Challenge.
The Avon Tyres British GT Championship had one two hour race this weekend at Snetterton and light rain prior to the start caused a slippery circuit for the drivers.
Despite two pit lane penalties, Matthew Bell bought the #23 Audi R8 LMS to finish in top spot after long-time leader Glynn Geddie was forced into the pits with his CRS Racing Ferrari 458 after being shown a black and orange flag for damage to the front of the car.
Qualifying saw CRS Racing set pole and driver Glynn Geddie take 20 points towards the Sunoco Daytona Challenge. However Jim Geddie who was first in the car slipped down into fourth place.
In the opening lap Stuart Hall climbed from fourth to first in the Vantage Racing Aston Martin DBRS9 building a lead of over two seconds with Michael Guasch’s Audi and Charles Batemans Ferrari charging on behind.
The #23 Audi was first to make the mandatory pit and slipped down into 14th place, however as the other cars pitted Bell made up good pace and appeared to be going to emerge at the head of the field when a penalty was handed out. Bell was given a 6 second stop/go penalty due to a pit lane infringement in which the Audi left the pit lane to early. A second penalty was then given to the Audi for a yellow flag infringement, which saw Bell forced to take a drive through the pits; this then dropped him further back from the lead.
Glynn Geddie then found himself leading the field with Matt Griffin giving chase; Bell having now dropped behind Michael Lyons into fourth place once his penalty was completed.
The fight for third came to an end on the 43rd lap when Bell managed to get alongside Lyons on the infield only for side-by-side contact between the pair causing damage to the suspension of the Ferrari forcing it into retirement. The battle for the lead between Geddie and Griffin also came to an abrupt end as Griffin was forced to retire after damage to the radiator from contact with the Aston Martin in seventh place. As the pair came up to lap the Aston it suffered a spin causing contact with Griffin.
This now meant Geddie was in the lead with almost 30 seconds between him and Bell however damage to the Ferrari was becoming more visible and the last lap saw Geddie handed a black and orange flag. Geddie’s car was quickly repaired but he exited the pit just as the Audi took the checkered flag meaning the Ferrari took second place and 75 points towards the Sunoco Daytona Challenge
Third place went to Allan Simonsen and Hector Lester in their Rosso Verde Ferrari 230 Scuderia. Simonsen took over the wheel in eighth place; he gradually worked his way up the order and secured a place on the podium in the closing minutes when he got ahead of Godfrey Jones in the Preci-Spark Mercedes AMG SLS GT3. The Jones brothers settled for fourth place and 40 points towards the Sunoco Daytona Challenge.
The second United Autosports Audi R8 clinched fifth place with Jay Palmer taking 30 points towards the Sunoco Daytona Challenge. Chad Racing’s Iain Dockerill and Steven Kane drove their Ferrari 430 Scuderia into 6th place, followed by the Beechdean Aston Martin in seventh, the MTECH Ferrari in eighth, the GT4 ABG Motorsport KTM in ninth and Predator CCTV Ferrari in tenth.
In GT4 the #44 KTM was leading at the 50 min mark however took the mandatory pit stop late for a driver change. As a result a penalty was incurred as Marcus Clutton got into the car and couldn’t drive for the full mandatory 50 minutes. The team was handed a stop-go penalty of 71 seconds, which Clutton then took whilst leading the class; dropping him behind Freddy Nordstrom’s Lotus into second place. However lapping consistently quicker, Clutton was able to reel in the Evora GT4 before retaking the lead near the end.
This weekend also saw registered racers in the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series have another chance to score points towards the challenge.
Qualifying saw Felipe Nasr on pole again and take 20 points towards the Sunoco Daytona Challenge.
Nasr took an early lead however a safety car period, due to an accident involving Fahmi Ilyas, saw Felipe’s advantage wiped out. Kevin Magnussen at this stage had overcome his bad getaway and was now in second as he over took third placed Riki Christodoulou. As the restart came Magnussen was able to take advantage and drive around the outside of Nasr into turn one to take the lead.
Magnusssen took first place however due to contractual issues cannot be part of the Sunoco Daytona Challenge. Nasr went on to take second and 75 points towards the challenge still leaving him at the top of the score board. He also set a fastest lap scoring another 20 points; this was a new outright lap record for the Snetterton 300 circuit of 1m 40.103s snatching away the record for MSV F3 Cup driver and Sunoco GRAND-AM 200 challenger Aaron Steele.
Carlos Heurtas started fourth and took over third taking the 55 points when Christodoulou ran wide out of Oggies on the fifth lap. Rupert Svendson-Cook was next up to take fourth and 40 points towards the challenge with Christodoulou recovering and taking fifth/30 points ahead of his team mate Pietro Fantin who ended sixth with 25 points.
Hywel Lloyd finished seventh ahead of Harry Tincknell, Will Buller and Lucas Foresti who completed the top 10.
The last race of the Formula 3 gave racers another chance to score points towards the challenge. Nasr made a great start however Magnussen followed up his maiden win with a second victory.
Nasr had a good start into turn one with Magnussen in full charge behind, however as Hywell Lloyd and Will Buller made contact, sending Buller into the barriers and out of the race, the safety car came out for 3 laps.
Mindful of losing out in the first race, leader Nasr backed the field up for the restart in order to gun it down the straight, however he was no match for Magnussen who did just as he did in the first race and and passed Nasr into Riches corner.
Nasr lost time to leader and came under threat from Heurtas. Felipe slowly lost places and due to a slow puncture was forced into the pits. He was then handed a drive through penalty by race stewards who judged him to have transgressed the restart rules.
Carlos Heurtas also profited from the restart and went on to take second place and 75 points towards the challenge. Riki Christodoulou fought back Jazeman Jaffar and claimed a great third place with 55 points towards the challenge with his Hitech team mate, Pietro Fantin, placing fifth taking the 30 points towards the challenge.
Double R drivers Pipo Derani and Scott Pye took sixth and seventh places. Harry Tincknell, Lucas Foresti and Yann Cunha rounded off the top 10 for Fortec and T-Sport. Nasr continued to 17th place.
Current top 10 standings:
Standings/ Driver Name/ Team/ Series/ Average Points Per Round1 Felipe Nasr Carlin F3 952 Javier Morcilo Azteca Britcar Class 1 & 2 83.33 3 Matthew Bell United Autosports British GT3 76.67 4 Michael Guasch United Autosports British GT3 76.67 5 Keith Robinson MJC Britcar Class 1 & 2 68.33 6 Sean Mclnerney Eclipse Motorsport Britcar Class 1 & 2 66.666677 Michael Mclnerney Eclipse Motorsport Britcar Class 1 & 2 66.666678 Jay Shepherd Hawthorns Britcar class 3 63.166679 Morgan Jones Eurotech Britcar class 3 59.8333310 Gareth Jones Eurotech Britcar class 3 59.83333
