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Round 6 - Brands Hatch 4th August 2019
I arrived at Brands Hatch, my local track, full of confidence. I knew the track very well and had previously held a lap record from when I raced here in the Ginetta GT4 Supercup. I had discussed some setup ideas with the team after Spa and we were going to try these ideas to see if they worked. As soon as i left the pits for the first practice session the car felt better than it had done all year, I knew at that moment we had made a positive improvement to the cars setup and we would be on for a good weekend.
Through practice 1 and practice 2 we managed to gather a large amount of data and knowledge of the tyre life on the new setup and felt we were in a good place for both qualifying and the race. In qualifying Dom was held up behind a Lamboghini GT3 (the current championship leader) for the first few laps of qualifying, by the time Dom got past the tyres had started to wear out but he managed to put a good lap together. I then went out for qualifying and set a much faster than expected lap time, just 0.6 seconds shy of overal pole position, which for the team and myself was a big achievement.
We knew we had a strong car for the race and it would be a case of waiting for the right moment to launch an attack on the car ahead around the very fast and twisty Brands Hatch GP circuit. Dom started the race from 8th position and made a great start, overtaking a Bentley (previous British GT champion, Rick Parfit JNR) around the outside of Turn 1. He maintained his position and set his sights firmly on the next car, a Mercedes AMG GT3. Dom hunted him down and pressured the Mercedes driver into a mistake and managed to get past. Dom continued his lightning pace and for a while was the fastest car on track, he caught up to the championship leader in 5th place and followed closely for a few laps, trying to find a way past. Unfortunately a safety car was called as another driver had gone off into the barriers and this somewhat stopped Dom's progress through the field. Nevertheless after the safety car came in Dom continued pushing and made a great start challenging the Lamboghini into turn 1 for an overtake. The move didn't work but everyone was very close together at this point so we were sure there would be other opportunities. As Dom began to lap back markers the field closed up and the Bentley managed to force it's way through a gap that wasn't really there, scuffing the side of our M6 GT3. A few laps later the Mercedes went for an ambitious overtake and put his car on the inside line into a 4th gear corner, unfortunately there was contact and Dom ended up in the gravel. Unable to recover the car we were forced to retire from the race and i did not have a chance to show my pace in the race. It was a great shame as I feel we really could have challenged for a podium.
Overall we learnt a huge amount and are now confident the car has good pace and we can challenge for a podium at the final race of the year, Donington Park on September 15th.
I arrived at Brands Hatch, my local track, full of confidence. I knew the track very well and had previously held a lap record from when I raced here in the Ginetta GT4 Supercup. I had discussed some setup ideas with the team after Spa and we were going to try these ideas to see if they worked. As soon as i left the pits for the first practice session the car felt better than it had done all year, I knew at that moment we had made a positive improvement to the cars setup and we would be on for a good weekend.
Through practice 1 and practice 2 we managed to gather a large amount of data and knowledge of the tyre life on the new setup and felt we were in a good place for both qualifying and the race. In qualifying Dom was held up behind a Lamboghini GT3 (the current championship leader) for the first few laps of qualifying, by the time Dom got past the tyres had started to wear out but he managed to put a good lap together. I then went out for qualifying and set a much faster than expected lap time, just 0.6 seconds shy of overal pole position, which for the team and myself was a big achievement.
We knew we had a strong car for the race and it would be a case of waiting for the right moment to launch an attack on the car ahead around the very fast and twisty Brands Hatch GP circuit. Dom started the race from 8th position and made a great start, overtaking a Bentley (previous British GT champion, Rick Parfit JNR) around the outside of Turn 1. He maintained his position and set his sights firmly on the next car, a Mercedes AMG GT3. Dom hunted him down and pressured the Mercedes driver into a mistake and managed to get past. Dom continued his lightning pace and for a while was the fastest car on track, he caught up to the championship leader in 5th place and followed closely for a few laps, trying to find a way past. Unfortunately a safety car was called as another driver had gone off into the barriers and this somewhat stopped Dom's progress through the field. Nevertheless after the safety car came in Dom continued pushing and made a great start challenging the Lamboghini into turn 1 for an overtake. The move didn't work but everyone was very close together at this point so we were sure there would be other opportunities. As Dom began to lap back markers the field closed up and the Bentley managed to force it's way through a gap that wasn't really there, scuffing the side of our M6 GT3. A few laps later the Mercedes went for an ambitious overtake and put his car on the inside line into a 4th gear corner, unfortunately there was contact and Dom ended up in the gravel. Unable to recover the car we were forced to retire from the race and i did not have a chance to show my pace in the race. It was a great shame as I feel we really could have challenged for a podium.
Overall we learnt a huge amount and are now confident the car has good pace and we can challenge for a podium at the final race of the year, Donington Park on September 15th.
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