British GT: Balon And Keen Win Race Two At Snetterton

Adam Balon, behind the wheel of the #72 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 he shared with Phil keen, took the chequered flag to win Race Two, Round Eight, of the 2020 Intelligent Money British GT Championship.

Second across the line, and 9.935 seconds behind, was the #18 WPI Motorsport Lamborghini which was brough home by Michael Igoe, after Andrea Caldarelli had driven the opening stint. Completing the overall podium positions was Sam De Haan in the #69 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG.

The GT4 category saw victory go to the #58 Jordan Collard / Patrik Matthiesen-crewed McLaren 570S GT4 which Collard brought home nearly 10 seconds ahead of Jamie Caroline in the #97 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4. TF Sport rounded out the podium positions when Connor O’Brien finished third in the sister #95 Aston Martin he shared with Patrick Kibble.

GT3:

Phil Keen in the #72 Lamborghini got off to a flying start and was past teammate and pole-sitter Sandy Mitchell in the sister #78 entry at the first corner. Keen then set about building a substantial to hand the #78 car over to Adam Balon with as big of an advantage as he could. After 20 minutes the Lamborghini factory driver was over seven seconds ahead of Mitchell with Yelmer Buurman in the #6 RAM Racing Mercedes in third, 9.475 seconds further back.

At the driver changes, a seatbelt issue for the #78 crew meant that Rob Collard emerged from the pit lane outside of the top three.

Balon drove a steady race for the final 20 minutes with the battle for second place allowing the pilot of the #78 car some breathing room. Michael Igoe, running in third in the #18 Lamborghini, was putting pressure on Ian Loggie in the #6 Mercedes. Loggie seemed to have the measure of the #18 car until he ran wide and dropped back to fourth.

Igoe then set about catching Balon but with the minutes ticking down was unable to make up the nearly 10 second gap to the leader.

De Haan’s third place finish means that he and teammate Patrick Kujala, now on 136.5 points, now have a six-point advantage over Rob Collard and Sandy Mitchell. Balon and Keen’s win mean that the #72 crew now have an 11.5-point deficit to de Haan and Kujala and with 37.5 points available to the winner at the final round at Silverstone, the title hunt is still wide open.

GT4:

Jamie Caroline, at the wheel of the #97 TF Sport Aston Martin, mastered the tricky trick conditions at Snetterton to move up to take the lead with teammate Patrick Kibble in the sister #95 entry slotting in to take second. Caroline pulled out a comfortable lead over Kibble by the pit-stops , knowing there was a 10-second success penalty to serve.

After the driver changes had cycled through the #21 Balfe Motorsport McLaren, with no penalties to serve, emerged in the lead, Mia Flewitt at the wheel, but Daniel Vaughan in the #92 car was soon past the Pro-Am drivers standings leader.

It was Jordan Collard in the #58 HHC Motorsport McLaren , however, that was on a charge and, after emerging from the driver changes in fourth, was soon past Connor O’Brien and Mia Flewitt and set about chasing down Daniel Vaughan. Collard eventually passed Vaughan and went on to win the class by nearly 10 seconds.

Caroline and Vaughan now lead the GT4 drivers standings on 143 points with the HHC duo of Jordan Collard and Patrik Matthiesen in second, just 2.5 points behind. O’Brien and Kibble lie third in the standings on 130 points.

The final round of the 2020 Intelligent Money British GT Championship, already dubbed the ‘Silverstone Showdown’ takes place on November 7 – 8.