Race Report from the Last Round of the GT Cup at Snetterton
Well, the last round of the GT Cup Championship has come around really quickly and we are lying in fourth place in the GTH class and second place in the sporting challenge, mathematically the top spot is out of reach, but we can still finish in P2 with some hard racing and a bit of lady luck.
Saturday Sprint Race
We had a great sprint race on Saturday and was lying in P2 when the championship leader and the car in front of us retired from the race with a technical fault propelling use into the lead and allowing us to bring the car home in P1, more importantly moving us up to P3 in the GTH class standings.
Saturday Endurance
The afternoon endurance race started off in torrential rain and I could hardly see the car in front, even with the rain lights on, but we carried on and I was pushing as hard as I could in the atrocious conditions. We had a couple of safety car call outs before the pit window opened and I handed the car over to Moh in P2, but we had a 15 second success penalty for our podium at Donington to take. The second stint got underway with Moh at the wheel joining in P8 but within one lap the safety car was called out and then the race got red flagged due to the dangerous conditions with lots of standing water and the cars aquaplaning etc.
Sunday Sprint Race
We went into the sprint race with us just 1 point behind the number 90 car of Balfe Motorsport and the P2 spot in the championship. I had managed to qualify in P3, and they had qualified in P4 so it was going to be a good old scrap.
The race got underway and by turn 3 I had grabbed the lead but was being pushed hard by the championship GTH leading car of Jackson & Orange. I was having to defend pretty much on every corner as they had more grunt than us down the straights which was a concern, but I managed to hold them off until the last corner on the final lap when I made a slight mistake allowing him to get alongside me down the finish straight and with that, he managed to take the win, but we finished P2 and more importantly our main rival the number 90 Balfe car had an accident and did not finish the race. This put us into P2 in the GTH Class.
Sunday Endurance
We got away to a great start and managed to hold station for most of the first stint but Moh got a 5 second penalty for track limits which was now putting us on the back foot as the Balfe car was hot on our heels to reclaim the P2 position. I took over the second stint and just pushed as hard as I could trying to maintain a top 3 finish which was what we needed and to finish in front of the number 90 Balfe car. This I managed to do bring it home in P3 but more importantly in front of the Balfe car that managed to finish in P5.
With that we had accomplished our mission and had gone from P4 at the start of the weekend to finish runners up in the GTH class and stayed runners up in the Sport challenge.
Thank You
I have had an absolutely fantastic rookie season in GT racing, and I cannot believe what we have managed to achieve. I want to thank each and every one of you for your continued support, it truly is amazing given what you guys have gone through in these very difficult times, to still want to partner with me I am truly blessed.
I am doing the Donington round of the Mini JCW Challenge as a one off, which is part of the BTCC package and this can be watched live on Sunday on ITV4, the first race is at 10.30 and the second race is 15.55 . Wish me luck…….
Bring on 2022.
With thanks to Jakob Ebrey, Stephen Fisher and Ricky at Sprite Photography for the imagery.
