British GT – Snetterton Preview
Wet, Dry Or In Between?
© Mark Howson

In 2006, the British GT Championship – the Cup cars at least - upped sticks and spent a few days in the wonderful town of Pau, mixing it with the FFSA runners around the street circuit against the glorious backdrop of the snow-topped Pyrenees.  One year on, and the view is not quite so hilly, as the championship contenders reassemble after a six-week break at Snetterton. The previous meeting at Donington Park was notable chiefly for Barwell Motorsport’s domination of the weekend, and for a remarkably destructive Saturday. Since then, we have witnessed the decimation of the FIA GT3 field at Bucharest, and it is to be hoped that the coming weekend in Norfolk is considerably less costly for all concerned.

Indications are for a field of somewhere between 25 and 30 cars for the two hour race (the first of two this year), potentially comprising a dozen marques in the two classes. In addition, there are a number of very interesting debutants among the driver ranks joining in the fun.

Guy Harrington and Ben de Zille Butler head to Snetterton as championship leaders in GT3, after their win in race three and third place in race four, closely followed by the unlucky Jonathan Cocker and Paul Drayson; who are themselves just ahead of round four victors Tom Alexander and Michael Bentwood. There is obviously still a long way yet to go in the series this year, but such an early and impressive lead gives the Barwell team a strong advantage as their drivers gain more experience with the mighty Aston Martin DBRS9s. However, the concession of softer-compound tyres for several of the opposing teams (if confirmed), and the potential for fuel consumption to be a factor in Sunday’s race, may keep the team in range of its pursuers.

Back at full strength after their Saturday morning Donington disaster are the two Ferrari 430s of Christians in Motorsport and VRS Motor Finance. Hector Lester was remarkably gracious in allowing Phil Burton to harvest parts from the CiM machine to allow his own car to race; but his substitution of Stephane Daoudi for the Le Mans-bound Tim Mullen shows that he is taking his racing very seriously and is looking for a repeat of his round one win. Daoudi has shown his pace in the FIA GT3 championship this year (and bagged a win at Bucharest) and will no doubt be highly entertaining on his Snetterton debut. Adam Wilcox will surely be relishing the opportunity to go head to head with the Frenchman in the quest for glory.

A full strength RPM team is expected in Norfolk with two Vipers and two Porsches (Peter Bamford and Matt Griffin returning to the scene of their recent Britcar effort – almost victorious) continuing to attempt to close the gap to the front runners. Alex Mortimer brings with him the experience gained in four FIA GT3 races since Donington and it will be interesting to see how much closer to the pace the Vipers are on softer rubber.

Two Ascari KZR1s are again present, and the drivers will be relishing the prospect of racing on softer compounds. The Jones twins are currently the closest challengers to the Barwell drivers in the points and will be looking for a podium finish (at least) on the fast Norfolk track; while Damax will be hoping for a repeat of last year’s GT3 wins. Tommy Erdos is still currently on the entry list, alongside Stephen Keating, but the Brazilian is surely required for duty at the Le Mans test day?

Just the one Mosler is on duty this weekend, but Elliott and Craig Cole will be hoping for local support from the factory as they seek to extract the most advantage from the circuit in the (softly tyred) Eclipse car.

Two cars debut in GT3 this weekend; the long-awaited Lamborghini Gallardo of Team Modena, and the surprise entry of the Multimatic Ford Mustang. As reported on DSC earlier, Gunnar Jeannette and Eric De Doncker will put aside their GT4 rivalry for the weekend as they become the first ever American/Belgian driver pairing in the series, while Adam Jones and Rob Wilson return to the BGT to see what the Italian car can do.

Fergus Campbell’s search for a co-driver in the Team 4Car Porsche has resulted in yet another Radical driver testing the BGT water; this time Lee Atkins. Together, this duo hopes to see the team’s fortunes improve after a frustrating start to the season.

Likewise for Moore Racing; whose experience with the Viper in the early stages of the season has been wretched, with a car that proved to be undriveable at Oulton Park, and no match for the pit wall at Donington. Mike Gardiner and Paul Fenton need a confidence boosting run this weekend.

Brookspeed’s Viper is one of two GT3s currently being pedalled by the enigmatic TBA twins, the other being the second Trackspeed Porsche. The first is again shared between David Ashburn and Tim Sugden, the former fresh from a cracking stint in the second Bucharest GT3 race and the latter fresh from a cracking stint as a commentator in the FIA race on the same day.

This duo’s main Porsche competition is likely to once again come from Tech 9 as Matt Harris and Ollie Bryant seek to put Donington behind them and get back onto the podium; Piers Masarati will be hoping that the interruption to his honeymoon is worth the sacrifice.  

In GTC, things are looking a bit more encouraging in terms of numbers after the low point of Donington. The Team Tiger Mantis may be gone (for now?), but back come the Richmond Racing Ginetta G20 GTR, the David Dove Ferrari, and two cars making their first appearance of the season; the second Beechdean Ferrari 360 and the Toyota Supra RZ of Maxspeed Engineering. The Supra was unsuccessful in its attempts to join in the racing last year, and hopefully the gremlins have been banished over the winter.

Andrew Howard probably hasn’t stopped smiling in the six weeks since Beechdean’s perfect weekend, but he and Aaron Scott will have to knuckle down once more to fend off the challenge from Team Aero and RSS Performance; with both teams looking for their first wins of the year.

One team notable for its absence from the entry list is Lotus Sport Cadena. After a start to the season that it would no doubt prefer to be erased from the records, forum gossip suggests that at least one Exige will be seen on its home turf. BGT3 without a Lotus doesn’t seem right; but has there been enough time to fix the engine problems? All will be revealed on Saturday - a much more leisurely day, incidentally, for the teams; with just free practice and qualifying and none of the stresses of a race later in the day.

The only other question concerns the weather. Newmarket has rain forecast, while Norwich is looking forward to a sunny day - Snetterton is bang in the middle. On the evidence of the past month, it would be a brave team that doesn’t prepare to use lots and lots of grooved rubber.

The race starts at 13.15 on Sunday - and as before (last season) when there's been a two hour race, two qualifying sessions are listed... We make it eight different GT3 marques, nine if the Cadena Exiges appear.