Marcus Clutton has topped the time sheets, in the Enduro Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 he shares with Morgan Tillbrook, during first practice for the final round of the 2021 Intelligent Money British GT Championship. The margin of superiority? 0.007 seconds, how very James Bond.
Annoyingly for fans of the least secret government agent in history, it wasn’t even an Aston Martin which claimed second place! That honour went to the championship leaders Leo Machitski and Dennis Lind in the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO from Barwell Motorsport.
GT4 was topped by the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK entry, the #15 Toyota GR Supra GT4 of John Ferguson and pace setter Jamie Caroline. 4th in the title fight for the GT4 Pro/Am, the Toyota bested 3rd place Assetto Motorsport to claim the top spot by a more suitable margin of 0.508 seconds.
GT3: Enduro Atop Times as Title Leaders Show Pace
The championship leading Lamborghini of Dennis Lind and Leo Machitski had an almost perfect start to the weekend when, if all goes well, they will claim the GT3 Pro/Am and Overall titles. A 1:26.480 is faster than the qualifying lap record at Donington Park but one car blotted the copybook for the Barwell run machine, Enduro Motorsport’s McLaren on a 1:26.473.
Also spoiling a great Barwell session was the solitary Porsche 911 GT3 at the meeting. The time was set by F3 legend and British GT veteran Scott Malvern in the machine he shares with Nick Jones, and was less than 2 tenths off the McLaren at the head of the pack in a session where the top ten were covered by less than a second. Fifth quickest in the session, behind the fourth placed Barwell pairing of Sandy Mitchell and Adam Balon were returning round by round GT4 graduates, Mia Flewitt and Euan Hankey in their Team Rocket RJN McLaren 720S GT3.
Phil Keen and Michael Igoe in the WPI Motorsport Lamborghini set an identical time to the Team Rocket RJN #21, rounding off the top six of the session, separated by just 0.422s
Credit: Nick Smith/RacingPhotographic.co.uk
GT4: Toyota Gazoo Racing UK outpaces the competition
In GT4 the gap between cars was not as close knit as in the GT3 class, as Jamie Caroline took no time at all to get the TGRUK Toyota Supra GT4 out to the front of the GT4 pack, where it remained for the rest of the session. Teammate John Ferguson held his own throughout his stints in the session, in the end leaving the car over half a second clear of second quickest, Assetto Motorsport‘s Ginetta G56.
Charlie Robertson and Mark Sansom‘s run in the eponymous #56 was going well with consistently quick laps, and the closest challenge to the class leaders, until the car at that moment driven by Sansom, left the circuit and beached in the gravel, causing the session to ultimately be red flagged with just a couple of minutes to go.
Third quickest in the session was the third Century Motorsport entry which is guesting this finale weekend, and takes the form of the #71 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4. Driven by GT Cup alumni David Holloway and 2019 British GT3 Silver Cup champion Bradley Ellis, this car was showing some impressive pace, which saw them just 0.077s slower than the Ginetta, and just edging ahead of Steller Motorsport, who are also sporting changes to their livery this weekend.
Both Richard Williams and Sennan Fielding put the Audi R8 LMS GT4 through it’s paces to take the fourth quickest spot ahead of Newbridge Motorsport, who currently lead the Pro-Am GT4 Championship. Ashley Marshall and Jack Brown in the #5 Balfe Motorsport McLaren 570S GT4 were sixth quickest.
Also joining the GT4 lineup for the weekend is a second Ginetta G56, of CWS Racing, with Colin White making a welcome return to the championship, ahead of what he hopes to be full involvement in next years Intelligent Money British GT Championship. Partnered with Mike Simpson, the pair took the #78 round tenth quickest in their first session.