NEW WINNERS TAKE TO THE TOP
Despite losing a nailed-on win to a penalty, Century Motorsport BMW duo Will Burns and Gus Burton stretched their GT4 championship lead as two new crews took to the top step of the podium at Snetterton.
Team Rocket RJN Mclaren driver Alain Valente dominated qualifying for race one and had a clear lead over Burns when a flat left-front brought the Swiss to the pits on lap eight. RJN team-mates James Kell and Jordan Collard took up the fight, Kell close enough to Burns to ensure that Collard would jump Burton after the BMW had served its five-second success pitstop penalty from Spa.
Such was his pace advantage that Collard would likely have won anyway, finishing over 21s clear as Burton – who didn’t change tyres at his stop – came under heavy pressure from Pro-am leader Scott Mckenna’s Speedworks Toyota.
Mckenna was gifted fourth when Matt Cowley spun the Academy Motorsport Mustang started by Will Moore onto the Coram infield, then fought past Harry Hayek’s third RJN Mclaren. He cruised up behind Burton, but couldn’t breach the BMW’S staunch defences and settled for third. “I was shouting as I was crossing the line; it was three laps of white-line defending basically,” said Burton.
Mckenna was again in the thick of the action at the start of race two. While diving around the outside of leader Darren Turner into Wilson, he made contact that punctured the Newbridge Aston’s left-front and sent him wide, rejoining on a collision course with Jake Giddings (Ciceley Mercedes) and the Assetto Ginetta of Charlie Robertson, who was judged at fault by the officials.
Through the chaos, Collard led from Burton, while Cowley dropped to fifth behind Valente’s team-mate Michael Benyahia and the second Century BMW of Andrew Gordon-colebrooke after an off at Turn 3. It didn’t look like being Academy’s day but, after taking over from Cowley, Moore crucially followed Burns past Chris Salkeld (in for
Gordon-colebrooke), then was in line to profit when leader Burns had to serve a drivethrough penalty for a fractionally too short pitstop.
Sole remaining Pro-am runner Nick Halstead (Fox Mclaren) had taken advantage of a 14s shorter stop than anybody to vault into the lead, but Moore soon passed him and the Mustang drifted to victory on the increasingly drying track. Valente took too long to clear Kell to stand a chance of catching Salkeld for second.
Halstead’s gradual slide nullified the impact of his 40s post-race penalty for a mechanic dropping a wheelnut into the fast lane during his stop.