The opening round of British GT, which is exclusively supplied by Pirelli, hosted some compelling racing over the course of the weekend with GT record lap times sent tumbling.
The race on Sunday at Brands Hatch was won by the TF Sport entry of Jonny Adam and Derek Johnston, but there were also cars from BMW, Bentley and Lamborghini in the top five. The top GT4 team was the PMW World Expo Racing/Optimum Motorsport pair of Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson.
The race itself ended 22 minutes early following a red flag. Earlier in the race drivers were forced to follow full course yellow restrictions for 45 minutes after an incident involving Phil Dryburgh’s Aston Martin, Nick Jones’ Ginetta and Matty Graham’s Aston Martin. All drivers were uninjured, but extensive time was spent repairing damage caused to the barriers on the circuit.
Prior to the early finish Jonny Adam posted the fastest ever race lap time in British GT at Brands Hatch, setting a benchmark of 1m24.695s.
Team Parker Racing’s Rick Parfitt Jnr and Seb Morris had lined up on pole position on Sunday after topping both the GT3 Am and Pro qualifying sessions on Saturday.
The qualifying time of 1m22.907s by Seb Morris was in fact the quickest GT lap ever recorded at Brands Hatch, beating the previous record of 1m23.268s set by Laurens Vanthoor during the British round of the Blancpain Sprint Series (which is also exclusively supplied by Pirelli).
Despite the threat of rain, particularly on Saturday, racing remained dry. Pirelli supplies a single compound of slick tyre, the P Zero DHC tyre for the GT3 class and the DH tyre for GT4.
Seb Morris, Team Parker Racing Bentley Continental GT3 driver, said: “I knew from my GP3 experience with Pirelli that if I could really nail the first lap we’d have a chance, and it paid off. There are very few laps I’ve driven in my career when I’ve thought ‘That was about as good as I can do’. But this was one of them!”
Anna Walewska and Nathan Freke headed the GT4 contingent in Qualifying in their Century Motorsport Ginetta.
Freke, driving a Century Motorsport Ginetta G55 GT4, added: “I managed to find a gap at the start of the session, banked a decent lap but lost maybe four tenths trying to pass the Beechdean car. Then on my next lap I had a couple of fuel surges, when the team came on the radio to say it was good enough for pole. We were tight on fuel but the car was sublime. The amount of grip from the Pirellis was just ridiculously good, and the set-up was spot on, too.”
Jonathan Wells, Pirelli race engineer for British GT, concluded: “We saw exciting racing throughout the weekend with teams really pushing on with our tyres. There were notable improvements in lap times compared to the same round last year, and this was despite cool temperatures at the circuit on both Saturday and Sunday. Tyre performance was consistent over the race distance. With our products already a proven quantity in GT racing, it has been a seamless move so far into British GT.”
Expanding into British GT extends the commitment that Pirelli has made to GT racing worldwide, supplying major championships in Europe and the United States and prestigious races on famous circuits like Bathurst and Macau.
The next British GT round is at Rockingham on April 30th.
