British GT: Donington delight for Adam and Davidson

By
Luke Etheridge
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The #47 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage of Jonny Adam and Graham Davidson in action at Donington Park. © Ian Cutting Photography/ Prescott Motorsport

TF Sport took their first victory of the 2019 British GT season at Donington Park from pole position.

A fantastic first stint from Graham Davidson gave the Aston Martin a comfortable advantage, with Jonny Adam bringing the #47 car home for the win.

Davidson got a superb start, taking adventure of battles behind to build a 1.6 second gap by the end of lap one.

The #2 TF Sport car of Mark Farmer had a much more difficult start, spinning early on to drop into the GT4 field.

The #9 BMW was another early spinner, after being hit by Ian Loggie’s Mercedes going into Goddards.

Unsurprisingly, this earned the #6 RAM Racing car a stop-go penalty.

Littman’s BMW would have another spin just a few laps later at the chicane, dropping him behind the GT4 leaders.

The pace differential between the two main classes meant traffic management was a constant issue.

Gaps ebbed and flowed as the leaders scythed their way through the slower cars.

The dangers of this were amplified when the #72 Barwell Lamborghini made contact with the #62 Aston Martin at the chicane.

This dropped the championship leader down to ninth position, but thankfully both were able to continue.

Michael Igoe was making good time on Davidson through the traffic, but this wasn’t without a price.

The #18 Lamborghini used too much of it’s tyres in the early stages. This allowed Shaun Balfe and Oliver Wilkinson through once they had cleared the lapped cars.

Davidson handed over the car to Adam with a 3.5 second lead, but disaster was to strike for Wilkinson.

A fuel leak occurred during his stop and  caused a fire.

The #47 Aston and the #22 McLaren traded fastest laps after the pitstops, as they pulled away from the pack.

TF Sport’s natural pace was amplified by Nicki Thiim, fighting his way up the order after Mark Farmer’s early spin.

Thiim was the fastest man on track, and soon overtook the #22 McLaren to unlap himself, and give his teammate a buffer.

This proved crucial as Adam ran wide in the latter stages, allowing Thiim through, and giving Rob Bell a fantastic opportunity to take the lead.

Unfortunately for the McLaren driver, he was badly held up in lapped traffic, allowing Adam to rebuild his advantage.

Adam held on to take the win from Bell, with Jonny Cocker bringing the #69 Lamborghini home in third place.

The #7 Bentley of Ryan Ratcliffe and Glynn Geddie finished in eleventh, which secured victory in the GT3-S class.

Dramatic final laps mix up GT4 order

Victory for Scott Maxwell and Seb Priaulx in the GT4 class keeps them in the title picture. © Ian Cutting Photography/ Prescott Motorsport

Scott Maxwell and Seb Priaulx took their second win of the season in the GT4 class.

The #15 Multimatic Motorsport’s Mustang took pole position, but found themselves behind the #42 BMW after their pitstop.

Priaulx was soon hounding Mark Kimber, and took the lead at the hairpin with half an hour remaining.

Second would have given Century Motorsport their first podium of the season, but disaster struck with four minutes remaining.

A mistake at McLean’s sent Kimber into the gravel trap, promoting the #57 McLaren and the #29 Audi into second and third respectively.

Reliability issues struck the Audi however, with Richard Williams suddenly slowing with half a lap remaining.

This allowed the #5 McLaren to take third position, with fourth place securing the GT4-PA victory for the #19 Mustang.

Sir Chris Hoy shared this car with Billy Johnson, in what was a successful return to British GT for the former Olympic champion.

Maxwell and Priaulx now have a 8.5 point lead in GT4 over Dean MacDonald and Callum Pointon.

This is also the gap at the top of the GT3 standings, with Jonny Cocker and Sam de Haan closing up on Adam Balon and Phil Keen.

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