British GT Championship - Round 4 - Adam and Petrobelli dominate in Spa for Blackthorn's debut British GT victory!

A commanding drive from the #7 Blackthorn Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Jonny Adam and Giacomo Petrobelli sees a lights-to-flag win in Belgium, while Ramyead and Robertson claim GT4 honours in their attempt to claw back their points, as the championship battles intensify ahead of Snetterton.

QUALIFYING

Giacomo Petrobelli opened qualifying one with a 2:17.533 in the #7 Blackthorn Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, a time that held firm at the top despite a few late challenges from the #67 Orange Racing powered by JMH McLaren 720s GT3 Evo of Simon Orange, and the #77 Optimum Motorsport McLaren of Morgan Tillbrook. In qualifying two, Marcus Clutton briefly put the #67 McLaren on provisional pole with a 2:16.825, but was soon beaten by Marvin Kirchhöfer’s 2:15.692 in the #77 Optimum McLaren. However, despite this rapid lap from Kirchhöfer, Jonny Adam had a composed and consistent run in the #7 Aston Martin, and set a 2:16.207, securing overall pole position with a combined time narrowly ahead of the #77 of Kirchhöfer and Tillbrook, with Clutton and Orange settling for third. The #97 Beechdean Motorsport Aston Martin of Andrew Howard and Tom Wood claimed pole position for Silver-Am, placing twelfth overall.

In GT4 qualifying, the #84 Mahiki Racing Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo duo of Josh Miller and Jack Mitchell delivered a dominant performance to take pole position as Miller set the tone early in Q1 with a 2:27.493, over 1.3 seconds clear of the #17 Optimum Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 of Harry George. Ravi Ramyead steadily climbed to third in the #71 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 Evo, keeping his pairing alongside Charlie Robertson in good contention. In Q2, Mitchell briefly lost a flying lap due to track limits, but bounced back to post a 2:27.140, securing the top spot with a strong and quick combined time. Robertson’s 2:27.366 put the #71 BMW into second, while the Harry George and Luca Hopkinson McLaren Artura completed the top three.

RACE

British GT’s fourth round at Spa-Francorchamps kicked off with a great start from Giacomo Petrobelli in the #7 Blackthorn Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo on pole position, and immediately started to build a commanding lead, which within just two laps, he had pulled over four seconds clear of the chasing pack, with Morgan Tillbrook in the #77 Optimum Motorsport McLaren and Simon Orange in the #67 Orange Racing McLaren initially holding the second and third positions. However, soon after, Orange made a move and passed Tillbrook to take the chase to Petrobelli, but the Aston Martin had relentless pace, and continued to stretch his margin to over fifteen seconds by the time the pit-stops started.

Further back, the GT4 battle began to take shape as the #71 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 Evo of Ravi Ramyead pushed through to third in class, as well as leading the Pro-Am field, while the #84 Mahiki Racing Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo, driven by Josh Miller continued to control the pace after a commanding qualifying. Incidents began to unfold within just fifteen minutes, with the #9 Paddock Motorsport McLaren of Mark Smith spinning into the gravel after Blanchimont, and the #8 Team Abba Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Richard Neary followed him off into the grass, and nearly collected the wall. Both managed to rejoin, though their races were compromised from there on out.

Track limits soon became a major storyline when Ramyead, Rob Collard, Alex Martin and Morgan Tillbrook were all handed drive-through penalties, shaking up the order. Simon Orange unfortunately lost control while going through Blanchimont, and hit the wall while in second position overall. Damage to the McLaren sent the car straight into the pits, but they were also handed a drive-through penalty for track limits soon after too.

At the halfway point, the #7 Aston Martin of Petrobelli had an advantage of over fifty seconds, aided by the mistake from Orange in the #67 McLaren. Petrobelli handed the car over to Jonny Adam just before a full course yellow was triggered for the stopped #14 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 Evo of Branden Templeton just after Blanchimont, which evolved into a safety car, erasing the Aston Martin’s healthy lead, and bunched the field back together.

On the restart, Petrobelli led the field to green, but was immediately attacked by Matt Griffin in the #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari 296 GT3, who muscled his way into the lead at La Source. Petrobelli held his composure, and knew not to battle with a professional, settled back into a rhythm and stayed close.

The #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 of Alex Martin went side-by-side at Les Combes with Matt Topham in the #3 Optimum Motorsport McLaren and gained a position into fourth. However, slight contact in the side-by-side moment saw the #3 McLaren gain damage and was into the pits soon after.

With just under an hour to go, Griffin and Plowman made their way into the pits from first and second, while Kirchhöfer in the #77 McLaren overtook Patrick Kujala in the #78 Lamborghini for fifth position. Duncan Cameron soon came back into the pits with around thirty minutes remaining, further dropping the previously race leading #55 Ferrari down the order.

A three-way battle for second position ensued between Mark Smith, Hugo Cook and Kirchhöfer, which saw Kirchhöfer overtake Cook and Smith up to second in the matter of minutes. Meanwhile, the two Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini’s were battling for third and fourth, when team principal Mark Lemmer said “don’t do anything stupid” over the team radio.

As the clock wound down to zero, and the chequered flag was waved, it was the #7 Blackthorn Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Jonny Adam and Giacomo Petrobelli who took a lights to flag victory from pole position at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit, followed behind was the #77 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720s GT3 Evo of Marvin Kirchhöfer and Morgan Tillbrook, and the #1 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 of Rob Collard and Hugo Cook. Silver-Am class honours went to the #97 Beechdean Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Andrew Howard and Tom Wood, who finished an impressive fifth overall, followed by the #86 Bridger Motorsport Honda NSX GT3 Evo of Jay Bridger and Chun Cheong Ip in ninth position overall.

GT4 honours went the way of the #71 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 Evo of Ravi Ramyead and Charlie Robertson, followed by the #12 Team Parker Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Ed McDermott and Seb Morris, which runs in the Endurance Cup in twelfth position overall, and the sister #30 Mercedes-AMG GT4 of Jon Currie and Phil Keen in third GT4, second in GT4 Pro-Am. Silver victory went to the #17 Optimum Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 of Harry George and Luca Hopkinson in fourteenth overall, followed by Mahiki Racing’s #84 Ginetta of Josh Miller and Jack Mitchell in seventeenth overall.

CHAMPIONSHIP IMPLICATIONS

Charles Dawson and Kiern Jewiss lead the championship with 94 points, but their lead has been closed to just 2.5 points by the race winning #7 Blackthorn Aston Martin of Jonny Adam and Giacomo Petrobelli with 91.5 points. Optimum Motorsport’s #77 crew of Marvin Kirchhöfer and Morgan Tillbrook sit third in the standings with 88 points, as the #18 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes crew of Maximilian Götz and Kevin Tse have fallen to fifth in the championship after a poor result of tenth in Spa.

Andrew Howard and Tom Wood continue to lead the GT3 Silver-Am cup in the #97 Beechdean Motorsport Aston Martin with 148.5 points, while the Bridger Motorsport Honda sits on 131 points, 17.5 points behind.

Jack Brown and Marc Warren continue to lead the GT4 Pro-Am championship with 137 points after a third position finish at Spa, while the race winning Ramyead/Robertson duo sit thirty-five points behind in second, still attempting to claw back as many points as possible after their accident in race one at Oulton Park, and subsequent withdrawal from race two.

Despite their retirement, and subsequent disqualification from the Spa-Francorchamps round due to breach of parc ferme regulations, the #14 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 Evo crew of Chris Salkeld and Branden Templeton are tied on 107.5 points with the #17 Optimum Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 of Harry George and Luca Hopkinson, while the #84 Mahiki Racing crew sit a large twenty-eight points further back.

SPRINTS AT SNETTERTON

The next two rounds of the British GT Championship head to the Snetterton Circuit on the 12th - 13th July, where two one-hour races will continue the championship, albeit without the additional endurance cup entries in the GT4 category.

Images © SRO/JEP