Adam claims record British GT win as Blackthorn dominates while rivals crumble at Spa

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs… Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam’s imperious performance to win British GT’s Spa round last weekend, ahead of chaos behind them, fell into that category.

It wasn’t quite rewarded with the Earth and everything that’s in it, but it did vault the Blackthorn Aston Martin pair into the thick of a now-tantalising title fight wherein the top three crews are separated by three points. The fine win also, fittingly, put Adam on his own as British GT3’s record race winner.

The triumph of the Vantage duo – which also was the first in British GT for Petrobelli and Blackthorn – was one that looked likely from the moment a wheel was turned at the Belgian meeting. Petrobelli and Adam have been strong this season, perhaps not quite getting the results to reflect this, and the flowing Spa track suits the Aston and Petrobelli.

The Italian proved so by qualifying three-quarters of a second clear of his Am counterparts – which set the Blackthorn Aston up for pole – and come the race his advantage was, if anything, even greater. After one lap Petrobelli was 2.8s clear, after two it was 4.4s. After 45 minutes of this three-hour race, Petrobelli was 20s up the road.

Then his lead more than doubled when Simon Orange, comfortably his closest challenger, got too wide at Blanchimont and spun his Orange Racing McLaren backwards into the barriers, leaving him to crab slowly into the pits for lengthy repairs.

Also at around the same time, a succession of chasers picked up drive-through penalties for track-limits abuses: the two Barwell Lamborghinis of Rob Collard and Alex Martin plus Optimum McLaren man Morgan Tillbrook (Orange was set for one too before his spin). Meanwhile, Kevin Tse’s 2 Seas Mercedes developed brake problems – from a suspected calliper leakage – and first spun then also pitted for lengthy repairs.

It all put championship leader Charles Dawson up to second, who – after looking after his tyres early on – charged through impressively in his 2 Seas Mercedes, with a pass of Collard on the outside of Blanchimont one for the ages.

But no matter your lead in modern motor racing, safety cars can wipe out your advantage instantly, and a lengthy caution did arrive – a full-course yellow followed by a safety car deployment – just after the hour mark as Branden Templeton’s Century BMW GT4 had run out of fuel (see GT4 section below) and eventually ground to a halt at Blanchimont. Race control also opted for a lengthy caution so gravel and the like could be cleared from the track.

And, as if to show that everything was going for Petrobelli and Adam, the FCY did for their nearest rival as Dawson – stopping slightly later than others – didn’t get the full time saving of pitting under the FCY as it turned into a safety car halfway into his stop. Then Kiern Jewiss, having taken over, went too quickly under the caution and got a drive-through.

The caution did wipe the Aston’s lead, but the team made the sensible call of making one of its mandatory stops under it, putting Petrobelli back behind the wheel even though he’d only recently relayed the car to Adam. It left the crew with only one stop to do, after which Adam could be given the maximum 65-minute stint to the flag.

It worked perfectly, and only left the minor irritation of Matt Griffin’s Spirit of Race Ferrari getting ahead and Martin Plowman’s Paddock McLaren running close behind. But it was all illusory as neither had pitted under the caution so they both had an additional stop to do, as well as more remaining drive time for their Am. They duly dropped from the sharp-end running.

Petrobelli then Adam brought the Aston home for the win, having rebuilt a lead of 25s. Adam said Petrobelli’s performance was no surprise: “I know his pace and we’ve been working really well together, not just this year, but last year as well. But last year, we had a bit of bad luck, [it] was a bit of a learning year for the team and Giacomo. And then this year it was like let’s come back and go again and the whole structure of the team is really good now.”

Tillbrook’s partner Marvin Kirchhofer, rapid every time he was behind the wheel, charged impressively past both Barwell cars to finish second. The Barwell duo was next home, with the Collard/Hugo Cook car just ahead after the Martin/Patrick Kujala machine got another penalty, 10s added to its final stop for contact.

Dawson/Jewiss salvaged sixth. They remain on top of the standings, but – having taken maximum scores from the first two rounds – their points advantage is down to two from Petrobelli/Adam, while Tillbrook/Kirchhofer are another point back.

Ramyead and Robertson bounce back in GT4 after double whammy

Even two drive-through penalties could not derail the Century crew

Photo by: JEP

That Ravi Ramyead and Charlie Robertson won the British GT Spa GT4 contest despite serving two separate drive-through penalties for track-limits infringements indicates that this was no usual race.

Bouncing back from an Oulton Park double-header no score, Century BMW duo Ramyead/Robertson clawed back almost half of the 50 points lost in Cheshire to the title-leading Optimum McLaren pair Jack Brown and Marc Warren with their Belgian success.

And vital to the BMW prevailing was the other big story of this race: Mahiki Racing again not converting its crushing speed into victory. The team’s bosses, frustrated by persistent Lotus Emira problems, switched to Ginetta G56s for Spa. Mahiki’s pace remained with now reliability added.

Josh Miller now paired with Jack Mitchell in Mahiki’s pacesetting #84 entry took pole by not far off two seconds. Balance of Performance changes overnight contributed to the car not having that advantage in the race, but the Ginetta looked comfortable in first. But then a massive error was made by not making one of its pitstops under the mid-race full-course yellow.

This left it – in a now-bunched pack – with an extra stop to make compared with rivals, and that stop lost a lap. Miller/Mitchell ultimately finished seventh. Mahiki owner and driver Steven Lake admitted it was a simple mathematics error by engineers, believing the driver stint times didn’t add up.

The caution also meant Ramyead/Robertson’s two penalties – accrued by Ramyead in stint one – didn’t especially matter as the safety car wiped out the time loss.

The mid-race caution came about as Ramyead/Robertson’s team-mate Branden Templeton ground to a halt on track. The BMW was out of fuel, but not for the usual reasons. The team believed the car still had eight litres, but in the high ambient temperatures and running in traffic, it verged on its limp mode and it transpired it had a safety mechanism to dump fuel into the engine to cool it. Ten litres more than expected was used in the stint.

Ramyead/Robertson’s BMW jumped into second place when the two Optimum McLarens served success penalties at their final stops, and from there the Bimmer was sitting pretty, with only the Ginetta ahead that faced the ticking timebomb of its earlier strategy error.

As for Brown and Warren, they had a subdued run to fifth. They said there was no conspicuous delay along the way (aside from the success penalty), they just lacked pace, with what they reckoned was a harsh BoP.

Change in car did not lead to a change in Mahiki’s fortunes at Spa

Photo by: JEP