British GT heads to Donington for Season Finale

The 2021 Intelligent Money British GT Championship reaches its season finale at Donington Park on October 16 – 17 with Barwell Motorsport’s Leo Machitski and Dennis Lind looking clear favourites to take the GT3 drivers title.

27 cars will take to the grid at Donington with 12 entries in the GT3 class and 15 cars entered in the GT4 category.

In the GT3 class, the #21 Team Rocket RJN McLaren 720S GT3 driven by Mia Flewitt and Euan Hankey rejoins the grid. The #21 duo has enjoyed two outings in the championship so far, the first year for Mia Flewitt in the GT3 category. Flewitt and Hankey finished 10^th at Silverstone in June.

Also joining the grid for the final round is the #84 Tolman Motorsport / Ian Stinton Bentley Continental GT3. Having last raced in the British GT Championship in 2016, at the wheel of the Tolman Ginetta G55, Ian Stinton is looking forward to his return.

“I was supposed to race elsewhere on the Donington weekend but when those plans fell through I started looking around at other options and they don’t come any more exciting than this,” said Ian Stinton.

“The Bentley is an absolute brute, just like some of the British GT cars I used to race against all those years ago when we didn’t have ABS or Traction Control. There’s something about those raw race cars that really appeals to me and I guess the Bentley is the closest we have to that now even though I imagine it’s still a much more refined experience.”

There are two additions to the GT4 grid from the previous rounds at Oulton Park. Century Motorsport has entered the #71 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 for David Holloway and Bradley Ellis.

With Nathan Freke’s team having wrapped up the GT4 titles at Oulton Park and with Holloway and Ellis, who finished 5^th in the GTH class in this year’s GT Cup, looking for an opportunity in British GT, the #71 Aston Martin will be competing at Donington.

David Holloway is looking forward to returning to the British GT Championship.

“British GT’s been on my radar since I tested Century’s first championship-winning BMW back in 2018 while I was racing for the team in GT Cup,” said Ian Holloway.

“I really couldn’t have a better co-driver than Brad for the outing. He’s been there, done it and got British GT’s T shirt and was also a GT4 regular for a few seasons not all that long ago.”

Also joining the GT4 field is the #78 CWS Racing / Colin White Ginetta G56 GT4, to be driven by Colin White and Mike Simpson. Reigning GT4 Supercup Pro-Am champion Colin White is making his first British GT outing since 2014 and is using the Donington Park outing to test the water ahead of a possible full-season entry for 2022.

“It’s been a long time since my name was last on the British GT entry list but it’s great to be back and continue my long association with Ginetta,” said Colin White. “I know the G55 inside-out after racing for so many years in GT4 Supercup but I’ve only heard good things about the new car and can’t wait to get out there.

“We’ve made it clear to SRO that Donington is very much a precursor to CWS re-joining British GT full-time next season. But it’s also an opportunity to see how much the class and series has changed over the last seven years. I’m under no illusion about the level of GT4 or the other Pro-Am crews we’ll be up against but I’m hopeful we can hit the ground running with Mike who has more recent experience of the championship.”

With an 18.5-point lead in the overall GT3 drivers standings, Leo Machitski and Dennis Lind approach the final round as clear favourites to lift the title, aided by the fact that both second and third-placed contenders have Success Penalties to contend with. If Machitski and Lind remain at the top of the standings after Sunday, it will be the first time that a non-British driver pairing has lifted a title since 2012.

Ian Loggie and Yelmer Buurman are the closest rivals to the Barwell pairing. The #6 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 pairing are 18.5 points behind in second and will have to serve a 10-second success penalty courtesy of finishing third at Oulton Park last time out. Loggie and Buurman need to finish no lower than third to be in with a chance of clinching the title that has eluded them for so long.

Michael Igoe and Phil Keen, teammates in the #18 WPI Motorsport Lamborghini, lie third in the GT3 standings, just two points behind Loggie and Buurman. Igoe and Keen won last time out at Oulton Park so a 20-second success penalty will not help in their search for victory at Donington. However, with 22.5 points available for third place, there is all to play for at the season finale.

With the overall GT4 drivers title already decided, the battle is on for the runners-up spot with three crews in contention. Team Rocket RJN’s #2 McLaren 570S GT4 pairing of James Kell and Jordan Collard are currently second in the standings on 107.5 points, 6.5 points ahead of Century Motorsport’s #9 BMW M4 duo of Chris Salkeld and Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke.

9.5 points behind Salkeld and Gordon-Colebrooke is the #27 Newbridge Motorsport pairing of Matt Topham and Darren Turner. Topham and Turner also lead the GT4 Pro-Am standings on 143 points.

Track action for the final round of the 2021 Intelligent Money British GT Championship gets underway at Donington 09:40 on Saturday October 16 with the first of two practice sessions. The first of the four ten-minute qualifying sessions begins at 16:15 later on Saturday with the lights going out for Sunday’s two-hour race at 13:00.

Live coverage can be found on the SRO Motorsports Group’s YouTube channel; ‘GT World’.