Demon Tweeks dominate British GT3 at Snetterton with GT4 wins for Ecurie Ecosse and Beachdean

Race one start (Photo by Marc Waller)

Race one start (Photo by Marc Waller)In a dramatic day at Snetterton, both overall race wins have been claimed by the Demon Tweeks Barwell Lamborghini duo of Phil Keen and Jon Minshaw.

In GT4, the Mclaren 570S Gt4 took it’s first even win in the hands of Sandy Mitchell and Ciaran Haggerty while in race two it was the Beachdean Aston Martin GT4 of Jack Bartholomew and Ross Gunn. Gunn returned to GT4 for this weekend while his GT3 machine is fixed and showed why he was last year’s champion alongside Jamie Chadwick.

Race one started with the TF sport Aston Martin of Mark Farmer and Jon Barnes leading but they were soon overhauled by both the Demon Tweeks Lamborghini of Jon Minshaw and the AMD BMW of Lee Mowle. Those two cars re-joined in the lead two positions after the pitstops with Phil Keen and Joe Osbourne now driving the Lamborghini and the BMW respectively.

Osbourne eventually found a way past the Lamborghini but they collided while the pass was happening. The AMD car went on to pull out a sizeable lead until around eight minutes from the finish when they were given a drive through penalty for the contact. Osbourne only had three laps to go and so crossed the line still in the lead without taking the drive through. The stewards then added the time on at the end leaving them in fifth place on the results sheets.

This gave the Demon Tweeks duo the race one win from TF Sports Mark Farmer and John Barnes with the Team Parker Bentley of Rick Parfitt and Seb Morris in third.

In GT4 Mclaren had a historic first win in the hands of Mitchell and Haggerty, the first time a GT4 Mclaren has ever won a race of any kind. Behind them was the Bartholomew and Gunn Beachdean Aston with the Generation AMR Aston of Mathew Graham and Jack Mitchell third.

Race two saw the Demon Tweeks Lamborghini lead away from pole, after which it was never headed to complete an impressive weekend for the Barwell duo, they now lead the championship going into the final round at Donington. Behind them there was controversy once more. The second Barwell Lamborghini of Liam Griffin and Alexander Sims found itself battling with the AMD Tuning BMW being driven by Joe Osbourne. Osbourne was no having a good day with Barwell cars and the two collided. The Barwell car eventually retired but the AMD car continued, now moving into second place.

AMD looked set for second when they managed to hold the position after Lee Mowle got on board but the TF Sport Aston Martin with Derek Johnston at the wheel started hunting him down and with around fifteen minutes to go the Aston found it’s way past demoting the BMW to third.

Race two start (Photo by Marc Waller) It was a Historic first GT4 win for Mclaren (Photo by Marc Waller) Difficult weekend for Walewska and Freke (Photo by Marc Waller) AMD had a controversial weekend (Photo by Marc Waller) Demon Tweeks toook two wins (Photo by Marc Waller) Abbie was the best of the female drivers today (Photo by Marc Waller) Jamie Chadwick joins forces with Paul Hollywood (Photo by Marc Waller)

 

 

 

They finished in that order with Derek Johnston and Jonny Adam taking second ahead of Lee Mowle and Joe Osbourne. As things stand the collision is being investigated so check out our Facebook page for the latest news which will then be reflected in the final detailed report on the weekend’s two races.

In GT4 Jack Bartholomew and Ross Gunn took the win from the World Expo racing Ginetta of Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson. Third was the Lanan racing Ginetta of Alex Reed and Joey Foster.

It was a mixed day for the championship’s female racers. Jamie Chadwick was racing with tv personality Paul Hollywood in a second Beachdean Aston Martin GT4. They took eleventh in race one and sixth in race two. Chadwick having to push extra hard to try and compensate for Hollywood’s lack of experience. Her fastest laps were actually quicker than some rivals ahead and on her pace alone she deserved a much better result. Anna Walewksa and Nathan Freke had a difficult weekend in their Century Motorsport Ginetta. Lots of technical probles saw them much further down the grid than they hoped. They fought to ninth in class in race one but further problems saw them only thirteenth in race two. Abbie Eaton and Marcus Hoggarth took seventh in race one and fifth in race two, another pairing where the female driver is the quicker of the two! They were closing on fourth in race two when the chequered flag fell.

We will cover the races in more detail in a report coming soon. Keep an eye on our Facebook for any changes to today’s results. By Marc Waller

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