Graham Johnston and Jonny Adam are the 2016 British GT champions after a dramatic finale at Donington Park.
Adam becomes the first driver ever to retain his title after he won it last year with Andrew Howard.
The TF Sport pairing lead the race initially from pole with Derek Johnston at the wheel and were in front until the pitstops when their success penalty gave the Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse Mclaren of Rob Bell and Alisdair McCaig the lead. Jonny Adam had taken over from Johnston in the TF Sport car and tried to hunt down Bell but the Mclaren managed to keep ahead to take their first win of the year.
But second place was enough for the TF sport duo to win the title.
The Team Parker Bentley was third which was not enough for Rick Parfitt Jr and Seb Morris to challenge for the title, only a win would have given them a chance at championship honours.
Still, they had a much better time than the other championship contenders, Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen in the Demon Tweeks Barwell run Lamborghini. Minshaw made a mistake in the Craners while passing a back marker. The car ended up with two wheels on the grass and he went into a high speed spin which ended with an impact with the tyre wall at the old hairpin. This was before the pit stop for the driver changes meaning Phil Keen never even got to sit in the car during the race. It was a gutting end to what had been the pairing’s strongest ever season. They had been the championship leaders going into the weekend and were running in the top four at the time of the accident.
Last year’s champion, Andrew Howard was fourth with Rory Butcher in the Beechdean Aston Martin having briefly led halfway through the race when they were the last GT3 car to stop.
The second Barwell Lamborghini of Liam Griffin and Alexander Sims was fifth having fallen to last place in the opening laps after contact with the second TF Sport Aston Martin. The TF Sport car was out on the spot.
Sixth was the Team Abba BMW of Martin Short and Richard Neary, the result giving them the amateur drivers championship.
In GT4 it was again a Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse Mclaren taking the win with the 570S GT4 taking it’s second win in the hands of Sandy Mitchell and Ciaran Haggerty. But again, as in GT3, it was a different podium finisher taking the title. In this case it was the third placed PMW World Expo/Optimum Ginetta G55 of Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson with the final podium spot giving them enough points for the GT4 title.
In second place was the Generation AMR Aston Martin of Mathew Graham and Jack Mitchell.
The champions nearest rivals, the Beechdean Aston of Jack Bartholomew and Ross Gunn dropped back in the closing stages and seventh place in class was too far back for them to have any chance of a championship victory.
Abbie Eaton was one of the drivers to pass the fading Beechdean car in the closing stages as she took fifth on the road with Marcus Hoggarth in the Ebor GT Maserati. Ahead of her was the Lanan Ginetta of Alex Reed and Joey Foster and with a few more laps, she may have taken another position. But after the race the Lanan car was excluded and so this gave Eaton and Hoggarth fourth.
Anna Walewska had a fighting drive from close to the back with her team mate Nathan Freke. Walewska made up several places in her stint before handing over to Freke to bring it home in sixth. This became fifth after the Lanan exclusion
Jamie Chadwick was thirteenth in the second Beechdean GT4 Aston. Her team mate, Bake off star Paul Hollywood left her with too much to do after his stint and further problems them down the order despite Chadwick lapping 3 seconds a lap faster than her team mate. They inherited two places in the post race judicial decisions when both the Lanan Ginetta and the RCIB Insurance Ginetta of William Phillips and Jordan Stilp were excluded.
A longer report will follow later. By Marc Waller
