ASTON MARTIN RULES AT SNETTERTON
BRITISH GT ACTION FROM NOR FOLK
Since 2015, only Aston Martin and Lamborghini have shared British GT race victories at Snetterton. Therefore, when you remove one of those brands from contention, the other is likely to dominate.
With five of the 11 starters being mounted in the British brand’s Vantage GT3, and with all of them boasting a factory racer, Astons were in a league of their own in Norfolk – especially the ones run by the TF Sport team.
Both Mark Farmer/nicki Thiim and Derek Johnston/marco Sorensen topped the podium across the weekend, as both races largely became an Aston benefit.
The proven Vantage GT3 may be the oldest design on the grid, but it’s always been at home at Snetterton. The car enjoys strong traction for the drive out of the tight stuff, and a good aero balance to keep the speed up through the faster, flowing sections.
On Saturday morning, both TF Sport cars suffered from understeer, prompting a series of changes across the practice sessions to find an improved balance. The increased track temperature for qualifying helped too, and Farmer/thiim annexed pole for both races when each driver topped their respective Am and Pro sessions.
In contrast, the other brands just couldn’t keep up. Jon Minshaw/phil Keen’s Lamborghini Huracan has been the only interloper in the Aston stranglehold in recent years, but was undone by weight this year.
With the Huracan faring well in Europe at the moment, their car arrived wearing an extra 35kg of lead compared to last season, which hampered its pace and set-up. The car would start third and second respectively, with team head Mark Lemmer insisting he was “surprised we could even get that close, considering the Balance of Performance [equalisation grading] this weekend”.
Snetterton has never been a happy hunting ground for Bentley. The Continental GT3 doesn’t enjoy great traction, meaning it lags in the speed traps on both long straights, which are a significant portion of the lap.
When the lights went out for race one, Farmer bolted away, followed by Graham Davidson’s Jetstream Vantage, Minshaw and Rick Parfitt in the lead Bentley. Minshaw had to make a move early, and snatched second at Murrays, but then lost ground with a mistake at Riches and dropped to fourth, finally allowing the Aston brigade clear.
Davidson made a move for the lead at Wilson, and Parfitt also managed to demote the rattled Farmer just before the safety car was called for a stranded GT4 Mclaren on the infield. The caution period coincided with the pit window, meaning all of the leaders pitted together.
The race in the pits was decisive. TF got Farmer changed for Thiim in better time, and the polesitter rejoined just ahead of Maxime Martin, who relayed Davidson. But things were worse at Team Parker. Parfitt dived into the pits after a late call, and was then hit by what was described as “a cluster-f *** of issues”, including a tyre mix-up and traffic. The Bentley’s race was lost there and then.
Once ahead, Thiim starred, putting in a storming stint to win by over seven seconds from Martin.
“Nicki is just superhuman,” said Farmer. “I was pleased with my stint, even if it didn’t go fully to plan. But Nicki’s pace was unbelievable! We’ve really managed to settle the car down and get it to rotate as we want. Things are looking good this weekend.”
Keen salvaged third, ahead of the sister Barwell Lambo of Sam de Haan/
Jonny Cocker, which recovered from a spin at the start.
With the flying Thiim at the head of the grid again, things looked straightforward for race two. The Dane’s mission was to pull out a gap sufficient enough to overturn the extra 10 seconds the car would have to spend stationary during its pitstop after the earlier win.
He made solid inroads early on, pulling a handful of seconds clear of Sorensen in the sister car, who had jumped ahead of Keen on the rolling start. But that work was then undone by a safety car called to help extricate Ben Barnicoat’s stricken Mclaren after a clash at Agostini.
After that, Thiim/farmer’s hopes of the win were gone, but a solid result was still on.
Sorensen shadowed Thiim until the pit window and then followed him in. With no additional stop time after a disappointing run to fifth after a few spins in race one, Johnston took over and emerged in the lead ahead of Andrew Howard, who had taken over the Beechdean Aston that Darren Turner had brought in from fourth.
Howard was never more than a few tenths from the tail of Johnston, but the 2016 champion managed to resist the 2015 victor to the flag.
“It was an intense final 20 minutes!” said Johnston. “The traffic was terrible and it never did me any favours as I’d find the gap and Andrew would just follow me through each time. I couldn’t make a single mistake.”
Farmer capped his weekend with another podium as Astons swept the board. Flick Haigh/jonny Adam’s Optimum Vantage was fourth, having cured a straight-line speed issue from race one. Davidson would have made it an all-aston top five, but was demoted back to ninth for punting Minshaw into a spin at Wilson late on.
Lee Mowle and Yelmer Buurman still lead the championship, but could only manage a best of sixth in race one as their Mercedes-amg struggled on the straights after a power restriction.