British GT Championship Donington Decider

Flick Haigh and Jonny Adam made history at Donington Park last Sunday (23rd September), with Haigh becoming the first woman to win the overall British GT Championship, and Jonny Adam becoming the series’ only three-time champion. Fourth place was enough to seal the title for the Optimum Motorsport duo, despite the efforts of their main challengers.

Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen did everything they could to win the title, taking the race victory in their Barwell Motorsport run Lamborghini Huracan. The pair finished second on the road, but a 30-second time penalty given to Nicki Thiim for abusing track limits elevated them to the top step of the podium. The TF Sport Aston Martin was demoted to second place by the penalty, with the ERC Sport Merecedes AMG GT of Lee Mowle and Yelmer Buurman taking the final podium spot in third place.

The Demon Tweeks Lamborghini of Minshaw led the field away from pole position, ahead of team mate Sam De Haan, who soon had most of the GT3 field queued up behind him. De Haan did a wonderful job of holding up the field, allowing Minshaw to surge into a huge lead in the early stages. Graham Davidson eventually forced his Jetstream Motorsport Aston Martin past De Haan, but contact during the move sent Davidson to the pits to repair the damage.

Minshaw’s lead was wiped out by a safety car deployed at the 30 minute mark, but once the clean up was complete he was able to rebuild his lead ahead of the pitstops. Flick Haigh kept the Optimum Motorsport Aston Martin inside the top 5 during her stint, knowing that a seventh placed finish was good enough to take the championship.

A flurry of pitstops at 60 minutes heralded the midpoint of the race. Minshaw handed over to Phil Keen, and kept the lead through the pitstop cycle. Jonny Adam took over from Flick Haigh, and quickly set about making up time following his 20 second success penalty. A storming opening part of the stint saw Adam rise to fourth place, just behind the Team Parker Racing Bentley of Ryan Ratcliffe.

The ERC Sport Mercedes jumped from seventh to fifth during the stops, and the car began charging up the order with the rapid Yelmer Buurman at the helm. Buurman quickly got past Adam and Ratcliffe to take third place, before Adam also slipped by Ratcliffe to put himself back in fourth place.

Nicki Thiim was on a charge in the TF Sport Aston Martin, reeling in leader Phil Keen and setting a new British GT lap record in the process. Thiim took the lead in the final 15 minutes of the race, but was handed a 30-second time penalty for abusing track limits, dropping him to second in the final results. TF Sport still took the GT3 teams championship despite the penalty.

In GT4, the title battle swung one way and then another throughout the two-hour race, with the top three crews being separated by just two points in the final championship standings.

Century Motorsport’s Jack Mitchell emerged from the chaos with the GT4 drivers title, and Century took the team’s championship in their first season with the new BMW M4 GT4. Second in the championship by just one point were the other Century pairing of Ben Tuck and Ben Green, with McLaren drivers Michael O’Brien and Charlie Fagg taking third just further point behind. The Pro/Am title went to the Team Parker Racing duo of Scott Malvern and Nick Jones.

On the track, victory went to the Equipe Verschuur McLaren 570S GT4 of Finlay Hutchison and Daniel McKay.

Full results can be found here.

Words and photography by Rich Crawford.

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