Photo: British GT Championship / JEP Photography
After an opening weekend of unseasonably warm weather and close, competitive on-track action at Oulton Park, the 2019 British GT Championship visits Snetterton for Rounds Three and Four over the weekend of May 19 – 19.
A bumper grid of 36 cars are entered with 13 in the GT3 class and 23 in the GT4 category.
Changes from the entry list for Oulton Park include the withdrawal of the #6 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Ian Loggie and Callum Macleod. The #6 crew did not finish Race One at Oulton Park and finished seventh in Race Two. Ian Loggie has suffered a cycling accident which has resulted in the withdrawal of the #5 car for the Norfolk rounds.
In the GT4 category there is a guest driver line-up change for the #19 Multimatic Motorsports Europe Ford Mustang GT4. Piloted by Chad McCumbee and Jade Buford to a fourth and eleventh in class at Oulton Park, the #19 car will, for Snetterton, be driven by Alistair MacKinnon and Ben Devlin. MacKinnon previously drove in the British GT Championship in 2015, driving the RAM Racing Mercedes-SLS AMG GT3, alongside teammate Lewis Plato, to 16th place in the GT3 Drivers Championship. The Cromer, Norfolk-based driver competed in the 2018 SAP Spa Six Hours, finishing 14th with teammate David Cooke in their Shelby Cobra. Norwich-based Ben Devlin drove the #70 Mazda Motorsports entry in the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
There will be two additions to the GT4 grid. Steller Performance has entered its #29 Audi R8 LMS GT4, to be driven by Richard Williams and Sennan Fielding. Team Principal Gary Blackman is looking forward to representing the German manufacturer on the GT4 grid.
“I have fond memories of my time with the Audi UK British Touring Car and Le Mans programmes,” said Gary Blackman. “It’s great to be reacquainted with the brand. Audi always builds a competitive and reliable race car, so we hope and expect to be in the mix in GT4 very quickly.”
GT Marques will also be joining the championship for Rounds Three and Four with its Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport, the #88 car to be driven by Chris Car and Dino Zamperelli.
There will be a change of Am driver in the #44 Invictus Games Racing Jaguar F-TYPE SVR GT4, Paul Vice taking over the seat from Steve McCulley for rounds Three and Four.
After finishing fourth in Round One and taking the victory in Round Two, the #69 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO pairing of Sam De Haan and Jonny Cocker heads the GT3 drivers standings on 37 points, seven ahead of the sister #72 crew of Adam Balon and Phil Keen. Unsurprisingly, Barwell Motorsport has a considerable lead in the GT3 teams’ standings, on over double the points of Century Motorsport who have 32 points and lie second.
The GT4 drivers’ standings are a four-way split between HHC Motorsport’s #57 McLaren 570S GT4 pairing of Dean Macdonald and Callum Pointon and the #15 Multimatic Motorsports Europe crew of Scott Maxwell and Seb Priaulx, all of whom are on 25 points each after a win and non-points-scoring finish for both driver pairings in the opening rounds.
Track action for Rounds Three and Four of the 2019 British GT Championship gets underway at 09:30 local time on Saturday May 18 for practice with qualifying starting at 15:50 local time late in the afternoon. The lights go out for Race One at 11:10 on Sunday May 19.
After an enthralling opening weekend, action from premier domestic GT championship should not be missed. Streaming from qualifying and the two 60-minutes races can be found at GT World on YouTube while live timing can be found here.
