National reports: Donington Park; Brands Hatch; Anglesey; Oulton Park
It’s a stock phrase on the list of a racing commentator’s cliches that races are never won at the first corner. But last weekend at Donington Park proved to be the exception as Richard Neary’s Team ABBA Mercedes-amg somehow emerged from Turn 1 in second, having started
10th and last in GT3 after an exploding brake disc in free practice two had caused major damage to the front-right corner that prevented the car from qualifying.
A decisive move on Ian Loggie’s RAM Mercedes 10 laps into the two-hour contest set Neary’s son Sam up for their family team’s first-ever British GT win, and the first for a father-and-son pairing in series history.
“I didn’t expect to be able to get to the front so easily,” Neary Sr said, perhaps in the understatement of the year. “In the track time we’ve had this weekend, we have had good pace, we’ve just been a bit unlucky. But eventually our luck turned a bit and we got through [Turn 1] cleanly.
“The team has worked tirelessly to put that car back together. It was 50/50 last night whether we could repair the car or not, so all credit to them.”
Neary Sr made a punchy getaway at the rolling start, taking advantage of a slow launch from Adam Balon that held up both Morgan Tillbrook and Kelvin Fletcher, to take sixth into Redgate. But the path ahead opened up for him when Michael Igoe’s
WPI Lamborghini was nudged into a spin by Nick Jones, forcing the Porsche driver and Andrew Howard’s Beechdean Aston Martin wide in avoidance, while Stewart Proctor (Balfe Mclaren) also had to check up.
Following a safety car to clear away Igoe’s stranded car – its left-rear deranged after being hit by erstwhile points leader Leo Machitski’s Barwell Lamborghini, putting both out – Neary was caught napping by Loggie at the lap-five restart. But he made no mistake when a GT4 pile-up at Mcleans necessitated another caution period, and immediately seized the lead by diving up Loggie’s inside at Redgate.
Neary’s advantage stretched to almost four seconds as Loggie staved off pressure from Fletcher before being whittled back to a little under a second prior to the
pitstops, but a 10-second success penalty carried over from Silverstone meant
Loggie’s team-mate Yelmer Buurman was always going to face an uphill task to get back on level terms.
In the end, it proved academic. As if to prove the point that he could have beaten his Mercedes rival even without its longer stop, 19-year-old Sam Neary extended his gap from 12s after the stops to cross the line 15.9s ahead.
“Rich won me that race, he was incredible in that first stint, especially that first corner – it was just unbelievable,” Neary Jr said. “I started pulling the gap straight away and then from there [it was] just managing the tyres and listening to every single noise from the car to make sure nothing was wrong.”
Fletcher had made good progress in the early stages of the stint to pass Jones – who later retired with gearbox issues after a spin – Balon and Proctor, but couldn’t maintain his pressure on Loggie and began to struggle. Balon’s sole-surviving Barwell Lamborghini spent 20 laps stuck behind the Paddock Motorsport Bentley before finally slipping up the inside at Goddards, Howard following shortly afterwards on the exit of Redgate.
But the time lost behind Fletcher was especially costly for Balon and Sandy Mitchell because of the 20s success penalty they carried from Silverstone. When Mitchell finally left the pitlane, the 2020 champion was down in seventh with any chance of a podium seemingly gone.
Howard’s team-mate Jonny Adam was therefore promoted to third ahead of Fletcher’s co-driver Martin Plowman and Marcus Clutton – in for Tillbrook, who had fought back onto the tail of Fletcher prior to the stops after a lap-one off at Mcleans required him to charge back through the GT4 pack. Clutton was immediately on the pace and soon disposed of Plowman with a cutback move exiting the Melbourne Hairpin, before cruising up to Adam.
But try as he might, Clutton couldn’t find a way past and spent the rest of the race trying to force the four-time series champion into a mistake that never came – Adam’s cause aided by the decimated GT4 field of five cars reducing opportunities for Clutton in traffic.
Adam’s lack of pace in the final stint made for a tense finish as Mitchell – having overcome Lewis Proctor and Plowman – stormed onto the back of the train and began to pressure Clutton, who edged Mitchell onto the grass exiting Redgate with three laps to go. At the flag, just 0.651s separated Mitchell from the podium after a fine drive, with Proctor claiming sixth from Plowman at the Old Hairpin late on.