British GT: Balon And Keen Win Race Two

Adam Balon and Phil Keen, driving the #72 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, won Race Two of the opening weekend of the 2020 Intelligent Money British GT Championship at Oulton Park.

The 60-minute race finished behind the safety car with the sister #78 Lamborghini piloted by Sandy Mitchell and, taking the chequered flag, Rob Collard finishing second. Taking the final podium position was Sam De Haan in the #69 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 he shared with Patrick Kujala.

Victory in the GT4 class went to the sole Pro-Am entry of Euan Hankey and Mia Flewitt in the #21 Balfe Motorsport McLaren 570S GT4 which was followed home by the #97 TF Sport Aston Martin AMR Vantage GT4 of Jamie Caroline and Daniel Vaughan.

Phil Keen led the grid from pole position and, after two laps, the #72 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini was beginning to extend its lead over Sandy Mitchell in the sister #78 car. Marcus Clutton in the #55 Lamborghini was third.

There was drama for Michael O’Brien, winner of Race One in the #2 2 Seas Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 who was relegated down the grid after contact on the opening lap.

Yelmer Buurman, having lost a place at the start, was putting Clutton under pressure for third as the front-running pair pulled out a gap of nearly 11 seconds over the rest of the field.

Buurman passed Clutton on lap 13 and set about chasing down the leaders while Matt Griffin in the #51 AF Corse UK Ferrari F488 GT3 he shares with Duncan Cameron suffered and had to call in to the pits for repair.

After the driver changes had cycled through, Balon retained the lead in the #72 Lamborghini with Collard in the #78 car nearly four seconds behind.

A safety car was called when contact between the #95 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 driven by Connor O’Brien and the #66 Team Parker Racing Bentley Continental GT3 piloted by Nick Jones resulted in both cars stationary at the side of the circuit. At the same time, the #9 McLaren driven by Angus Fender had also stopped at the side of the circuit and required recovery.

Running in third, Ian Loggie in the #6 RAM Racing Mercedes was served with a two-second stop-go penalty for a pit stop time infringement. Loggie continued running in third behind the safety car but the subsequent time penalty would take the #6 car out of the running for the podium position it was guaranteed.

With the #9 McLaren still waiting for recovery, the reminder of the 60-minute race ran under the Safety Car, allowing Adam Balon in the #72 Lamborghini to take the chequered flag ahead of Rob Collard in the sister #78 car.

In the GT4 battle, pole sitter Euan Hankey had lost out to Jamie Caroline in the #97 Aston Martin at the start but teammate Mia Flewitt was able to rejoin at the head of the field after the driver changes and maintained the lead throughout the extended safety car period.

The 2020 Intelligent Money British Championship now moves to Donington Park for Rounds Three and Four on August 15 – 16.