TURNER DEFENDS PRO-AM PIT ADVANTAGE VERSUS SILVERS
British GT4 championship leader Darren Turner has defended Pro-Am entries’26-second pitstop advantage over Silver Cup rivals that was vital in his Newbridge Aston Martin winning at Brands Hatch.
The result means three-time Le
Mans winner Turner and partner
Matt Topham have a 12.5-point title advantage for Donington Park’s finale next month. At Brands they vaulted from sixth place to a lead they kept after three safety car periods kept them close to Silver rivals before the pitstop round.
In two-hour races Pro-Am cars have a 26s shorter minimum stop time than the all-Silver-graded Silver Cup pairings, while in one- and threehour races the advantage is 14s.
Turner told Motorsport News: “I’m not even at the pace of the Silvers this [Brands] weekend. If they want to have both Pro-Am and Silver-Silver in the championship hunt there has to be some mechanism in the race that balances out the performance of a Silver and a Bronze [Am], and that’s what they’ve got.
“There would be no conversation now if there hadn’t been three safety cars, because we wouldn’t have even been near the podium.”
Topham/Turner would become the first Pro-Am effort to win British GT4’s overall crown since 2016. Earlier this year they lost Pro-Am entries’usual 25kg weight advantage over Silver Cup cars.