Lamborghini & Aston Martin top Free Practice sessions at Rockingham

The #33 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen lead Free Practice 1, before the #1 TF Sport Aston Martin V12 Vantage of Derek Johnston and Jonny Adam took control in the second session.

Free Practice 1 saw the #33 storm to a 1m 17.255, clear of the 2nd place #21 Spirit of Race SA Ferrari 488 GT3 of Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin by 0.407. Only 0.114 behind them, however, was the sister Barwell car of Liam Griffin and Sam Tordoff in the #6. The #1 Aston Martin took 4th place, whilst Bentleys rounded out the top 6 in GT3, the #31 Team Parker Racing car of Rick Parfitt and Seb Morris ahead of the #7 of Ian Loggie and Callum Macleod. GT4 was headed by the #501 PMW Expo Racing/Optimum Motorsport Ginetta G55 GT4 of Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson, a 1m 23.480 saw them 0.331 ahead of the #56 Tolman Motorsport McLaren 570S of David Pattison and Joe Osborne. Just 73 thousands behind was the #66 Team Parker Racing Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport of Nick Jones and Scott Malvern, whilst 4th place went the way of the Lanan Racing Ginetta of Alex Reed and David Pittard. The biggest news, however, was that the #33 stopped just on the entrance of Turn 1. Coming over the line to take the chequered flag, the car was running slowly, but stopped moments later. Later, it was discovered that the car had to have an engine change. Looking strong, but fragile? Tomorrow’s 2-hour race will soon shake any niggles the car might have.

Free Practice 2, meanwhile, was another busy session, with a couple of red flags to make a stop-start session. Firstly, the #42 Macmillan AMR Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4 of William Phillips and Jan Jonck spun at Gracelands, getting themselves stuck in the gravel with around 10 minutes gone. Later on, the #29 In2Racing McLaren of Marcus Hoggarth and Matty Graham halted out at Deene. With the car recovered, it was back to business, and the #1 TF Sport crew set about piling in the flyers. With numerous laps set in, they eventually finished on top with a 1m 17.885. The #6 Barwell Lamborghini would take 2nd, 3rd went to the second TF Sport Aston, the #11 of Mark Farmer and Jon Barnes, whilst 4th was the #30 AMDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts Mercedes AMG-GT GT3 with Lee Mowle and Ryan Ratcliffe, 0.668 behind the leaders. GT4 was another tight affair, with 8 cars covered by almost a second. The #501 took the lead again in FP2, ahead of the #51, the #56, and the #53 UltraTek Racing Team RJN Nissan 370Z of Richard Taffinder and Martin Plowman.

Qualifying for the 3rd round of the 2017 British GT Championship, the first of the 2-hour races, at Rockingham will be held later, and it looks rather interesting indeed!

Photos c/o Nick Smith/theimageteam.com
Full result photograph c/o tsl-timing.com