Flick Haigh made history alongside her team mate Jonny Adam at Donington Park on Sunday when she became the first ever female winner of the British GT championship title.
Having already become the first woman to win a race overall at the start of the season she’s now the first and so far only woman to take the overall title. Previously a female had only won in the GT4 category with Zoe Wenham becoming the first ever female British GT4 race winner and Jamie Chadwick the only ever female British GT4 champion.
Jonny Adam made history alongside Flick Haigh as he becomes the first ever driver to win three British Gt titles.
Such was their points advantage that as long as they finished in the top six in Sunday’s deciding round then they would be champion.
Their main rivals Jon Minshaw and Phill Keen in the Demon Tweeks Lamborghini had to win to have any chance of stealing the title. This they managed but only after the initial race winners Mark Farmer and Nicki Thiim were given a thirty second time penalty post race for track limits dropping them to second. But with Haigh and Adam fourth even the win was not good enough, leaving the Demon Tweeks duo as runners up once again.
Haigh and Adam spoke after the race, Haigh was very complimentary about her team mate.
“It’s fantastic, the best day of my life. Jonny is really easy going, he has taught me in the car and he is so knowledgeable. He knows it inside-out and he’s helped the team as much as he’s helped me. He’s won three different championships with three different teams and that’s a special driver coach right there. This morning I was a bit nervous but once you’re in the car you know what you’ve got to do and if he’s calm, then I’m calm and the team’s calm.”
Adam was happy to take another title after a race which he hadn’t found easy;
“It’s a great feeling to win another championship. The team have been really good this year and Flick has done a really great job. It just fits so well; the final race for this car and to win a championship. It was hard-fought and definitely wasn’t easy. Flick had a great fight with the #69 Lamborghini and I found it really difficult to get past the Bentley. We got there though and once we were in fourth, it was a case of not trying to make any mistakes. We got it home and that was the key thing.”
Minshaw and Keen had lead the race from the start with a group of GT3 cars battling behind including Flick Haigh. A Safety car cut the Lamborghinis lead and then the TF sport Aston of Farmer and Thiim got past as the pitstops played out.
Despite their penalty, Farmer and Thiim’s second place help secure the teams championship for TF sport.
In GT4 it was the Century Motorsport BMW of Jack Mitchell that claimed the title. Mitchell claimed the title alone as he hadn’t had the same team mate the whole season. The GT4 class win in the race was taken by Finlay Hutchinson and Dan Mckay in their Equipe Verschuur Mclaren.
Mckay was happy to finish the year with a win;
“My stint had gone really well to begin with. Me and Ben [Green] didn’t want to hold each other up and he let me go a little bit which I was thankful for. I wasn’t thankful for heading through the gravel at turn one though so it wasn’t the most straightforward way of winning a race.
“I knew we had the pace beforehand and the safety car helped us a lot. Ultimately, I put faith in the car and faith in the team and I think we did a good job.”
The Pro/Am GT4 title was taken by Nick Jones and Scott Malvern of Team Parker Racing in their Mercedes.
Century narrowly took the teams title by 1 and a half points from Tolman Motorsport who put two cars on the podium to come within a whisker of stealing the title from Century.
Michael O’Brien and Charlie Fagg took second on the podium with David Pattison and Joe Osbourne third after Osbourne mounted an incredible fight back drive up the field.
Jack Mitchell spoke after the race on how it went and on winning the title;
“It was a bit of a rollercoaster! When I started we were in a good position and I knew we just had to keep the pace. Then I found out we had a stop/go penalty and I didn’t know where that would put us. Fortunately I came out not far behind the Jaguar but I didn’t know right until the end that that was the position we needed. The last few laps were quite tense.
“I’m really happy with the result and I can’t thank the team enough. Century Motorsport have done an amazing job with the help of BMW, too. I can’t thank my team-mates enough too as without them I wouldn’t be stood here as champion. I can’t wait to let it all sink in.”
The Gt4 category’s sole female driver, Anna Walewska was tenth in GT4 and fifth in Pro/am alongside her team mate, Tom Canning. The duo only in their third meeting together after Walewska formed her own team, Protechnika. Budget issues slowed their pace at Donington or they would have had a chance at a podium. Walewska hopes to return with her team in 2019 with a full budget to have a full attempt at the title.
British GT will return in 2019 as the championship begins at Oulton Park on April 20 & 22nd. By Marc Waller
