Keen believes title bid is still alive despite DNF

Phil Keen believes his British GT championship challenge is not over, despite a costly retirement for his Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan at Brands Hatch that leaves him and team-mate Jon Minshaw facing a 17.5-point deficit with one round to go.

The pre-event championship leaders were battling for third when debris in the radiator caused the engine to overheat, although Keen and Minshaw were still classified in eighth due to a reduced entry.

The six points collected ensure they remain second, but need to win at Donington with new series leaders Jonny Adam and Flick Haigh (Optimum Motorsport) finishing fourth or lower.

However, Optimum’s ongoing protest into the result of the first race at Snetterton, when the pair was hit with a post-race 30-second penalty in lieu of a drivethrough for contact with Andrew Howard’s Beechdean Aston and lost 10 points, could also have implications for the championship. If the result is overturned, Adam/haigh could afford to finish sixth and still win the title, regardless of where Keen/minshaw finish.

“It’s not over yet. I think if they win this appeal it’s over, but you never know, let’s see what happens,” Keen said.

“Unfortunately we got some debris in the radiator, I kept going for as long as I could until it started to boil, so that’s all we could do unfortunately. It’s just standard Phil and Jon British GT luck!”

Meanwhile the second Barwell Lamborghini of Jonny Cocker and Sam de Haan took its best result of the season in second place, the first podium for de Haan in his maiden year of car racing.

“Sam has done an incredible job, it’s easy to forget that this is his first year of racing,” said Cocker, the 2004 British GT champion. “He’s very intelligent, so you tell him to do something and he gets it done. I think in that company we’ve got here, [second] is a massive achievement.”