Barwell Motorsport’s Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen made it three wins out of a possible four as they took the win in race one at Snetterton earlier today following an extremely close battle with Macmillan AMR’s James Littlejohn and Jack Mitchell.
“I had a lot of fun! James [Littlejohn] is an old friend – we raced together in Radicals – so it was good to have a battle together.” Said Phil keen afterwards. “I was in no rush – there was a big gap back to Sam [Torfoff] – so I didn’t need to take any risks and just waited for his tyres to go off a bit. After that I got a run out of Hamilton and into Oggies so it was fairly straightforward.
Barwell and Lamborghini have done a great job with the car, which makes our lives easier. Snett seems to suit the Lambo – we went well here last year, but we’re using all our good circuits up early in the season!”
The GT4 was just as close, but there was no stopping HHC Motorsport’s Will Tregurtha and Stuart Middleton who extended their championship lead after overcoming the full 10-second success penalty to claim their second consecutive class victory in a 60-minute contest that saw plenty of close, hard but fair racing.
Stuart Middleton was pleased
“There was some GT3 traffic coming through at the time so when the opportunity to pass Pittard arose I didn’t waste it. I’m amazed by the result. It was always going to be close – I had Haggerty’s McLaren right behind me after the pitstop so had to play it cool, gap him a little bit and catch Pittard. To catch him in the time we had felt awesome! I’m really, really pleased with the team’s, Will [Tregurtha]’s and my performance today.”
In race two Jonny Adam equalled the record for most ever British GT3 wins after the Scottish driver and fellow TF Sport co-driver Derek Johnston capitalised on Barwell Motorsport’s drive-through penalty to win Race two at Snetterton.The Demon Tweeks car had looked set for a second win before receiving the drive through for a pitstop infringement.
“At last! The record’s been a long time coming.” Said Jonny Adam afterwards “But at the start I knew I had to pass at least one of the Lambos because their race pace is so fast and Phil [Keen]’s qualifying lap was pretty special. I’m not sure how much time we lost in the pits but at least we were in a position to push Barwell into an error. Derek [Johnston]’s probably the happiest guy in the pitlane just now! All of my victories have been in Astons – nine in this baby [the V12 Vantage] and two in the DBRS9 is a nice personal achievement, but we’re focused on the championship and desperately trying to claw points back against Barwell.”
In GT4, Black Bull Garage 59’s Ciaran Haggerty and Sandy Mitchell claimed their first victory of the season after over hauling the Tolman Motorsport Mclaren. This allowed them to take full advantage of HHC Motorsport’s non-finish to give their title aspirations a big boost.
Mitchell spoke after the race;
“That was equally as good, if not better than my first win here last season! After the pitstops I came out in P4 and had to make a few moves before the Safety Car appeared. Then, when racing resumed, I made a good restart and got past Alex [Reed] into Turn 2 with a good move up the inside, and then managed to switch back on Will [Tregurtha] just after he’d passed the leader. It was all about managing the traffic after that – I probably did more overtaking in that stint than any other! Will was unlucky when trying to get back past me, but his DNF helps us in the championship.”
A more detailed report will follow later in the week. By Marc Waller
