British GT, Donington – Saturday Morning
Incident Free

A cool, overcast, but still quite bright Derbyshire morning was the setting for the start of proceedings at the final meeting of the year.

The latest version of the entry list revealed some changes to the provisional list. Oliver Morley – whose Roller was taking up a large area of real estate outside the SRO hospitality tent in the paddock – was in the Tech 9 Gallardo alongside Tom Ferrier; Jamie Robinson joins Nigel Moore in the #51 RPM Ginetta; and Maxi Jazz joins Derek Palmer in the Nissan.

Sadly, the #21 Team Modena Gallardo has been withdrawn, still being repaired after Piers Johnson's oil-induced Silverstone crash, leaving a 24 car grid.

The day began, as ever, with the 75 minute free practice session and - in contrast to 2007, which saw several major shunts – was remarkably incident free. Aside from minor rear end damage to the Chad Ferrari towards the end of the session and a spin into the gravel for Jamie Robinson’s G50, all was well.

The times were perhaps more significant. Adam Wilcox set the fastest lap of the session on only his eighth lap in the VRS Ferrari – 1:09.057 – suggesting that he is a good bet for a second consecutive Donington pole.

Michael Bentwood similarly clearly likes the circuit in the 22GTRacing Aston Martin, and he came closest to deposing Wilcox; falling just four thousandths shy on his 15th lap. Allan Simonsen was next on 1:09.108, and then Matt Griffin put in a series of fast laps late in the session to finish fourth fastest on 1:09.235. “He was baulked by a Ginetta at the end of the lap, which cost him a half second,” said Piers Masarati, “otherwise he’d have done a 1:08.7.”

The #4 Chad Ferrari wouldn’t be challenging for pole in the afternoon as Peter Bamford had been handed qualifying duties; meaning a mid-pack start was the likeliest outcome.   

The 16 GT3s were separated by just 2.088, with Steve Tandy’s and Richard Evans’ 1:11.145 far from a disgrace, given that this was their first time out in the #7 Viper.

In GT4, Joe Osborne and Phil Bailey topped the times in the #50 Ginetta with 1:15.709, ahead of the GT4 champions Stewart Linn and Matt Nicoll-Jones.