DORLIN AND SMITH WIN AT LAST
The last three British GT rounds had followed a similar pattern for James Dorlin and Josh Smith.
By rights, the Tolman Motorsport Mclaren duo should be in the thick of the GT4 title fight, but at each of the last three rounds have been forced to retire while leading. So when Dorlin, complaining of a “severe vibration” on his right front, inherited the lead with 20 minutes to go, it was almost too much for Smith to bear.
“I was trying to keep out of the way as much as I could,” he said. “I was just sat there with my fingers crossed, I didn’t want to know because it’s been a hard time the last few months.”
But with lapped Tolman stable-mate Jordan Collard acting as a buffer behind him, Dean Macdonald’s chasing HHC Mclaren couldn’t get close enough to pass, leaving Dorlin to celebrate a long overdue win.
“It’s just been such a long time coming, we should have done this the past three races,” he grinned. “It’s nice that the first race we’ve finished in all that time, we still won.”
Dorlin had entered the fray half a minute down on Will Moore’s Academy Motorsport Aston Martin, which benefitted most from two safety cars. Moore’s team-mate Alex Tothjones was the last car on the lead lap in seventh when the safety car made its first appearance following Glynn Geddie’s shunt, so didn’t lose a place when he was then ordered to serve a stop-go for a start infringement.
Toth-jones was then the only lead lap car not to pit at the first opportunity when the window opened after 58 minutes and delayed a further three laps, which proved inspired as the safety car’s return gave Moore a handy cushion. But Academy’s hopes of a first British GT win since Donington 2015 were dashed when Moore spun off at Druids, brake failure reportedly the culprit.
Macdonald and Callum Pointon’s second place was the ideal riposte after electrical problems at Spa, and they now sit just 8.5 points off the summit after Seb Priaulx and Scott Maxwell were demoted from third to ninth by a 40-second post-race penalty for refuelling before the car was earthed (see news). The Multimatic Mustang crew had been set to extend its championship lead to 12 points, but now face a deficit of the same margin to TF Sport Aston Martin pair Tom Canning and Ash Hand.
Hand had taken the lead at the start from Smith, poleman Pointon and Maxwell. Following a 20-second success penalty for winning at Spa, Canning passed the Pro-am-winning Beechdean Aston of Martin Plowman, grappling with no power steering, and pressured Nathan Freke into a mistake at Druids, although the Century Motorsport boss was still delighted with fourth, alongside Andrew Gordon-colebrooke, on his first British GT outing since 2017.