GT Cup opens up it’s 2019 season

GT cup took it’s first races of 2019 to Donington Park with a large varied grid of some fantastic machinery.

Richard Chamberlain returned to the GT cup after a short break last season. The car suffered a rather warm fiery failure at Silverstone back in 2017 and has been being rebuilt and modified to run smoother than before. The classic Porsche 935 in Chamberlains hands set a blistering pace to hold off the BMW M6 GT3’s of Century Motorsport.

Race 1

Chamberlain took pole by 0.6 secs and retained that position heading through Redgate corner. It was quick pace they ran but Chamberlain secured the win in a lights to flag victory over the chasing BMW M6 of Adrian Willmott. John Seale had a much tougher race, as he spent the 25 minutes battling and holding off the two Mclaren’s of Gibson and Simon Green Motorsport.

GTH class was claimed by Steve Rushton in the New but very retro looking Mclaren 570 that showed great pace and is proving he’ll be a strong contender this year.

Race 2

50 Minutes was on the cards for the 2nd race of the weekend. Once again Chamberlain took the win making it 2 from 2 so far in the season. Race 2 wasn’t as simple though for Chamberlain as a fantastic start from Adrian Willmott as he took the lead from Chamberlain into Redgate.

A few safety car interruptions slowed down the pace of the race but chamberlain was well prepared as he tucked up behind the M6 of Willmott coming down the pit straight to sweep around the outside and take the lead that he would hold onto.

Race 3

For the third race of the weekend, we had to wait for Sunday. Qualifying would take place in the morning but this time with considerably less cars.
The 2 BMW’s from century Motorsport had withdrawn from the weekend. The GT Marques Porsche Cayman had also withdrawn from the Sundays action. These 3 teams are in due to be in action next weekend for the first round of the British GT at Oulton Park. With all three of them withdrawn from Sundays action, my guess is that the teams learnt as much as they needed to before risking the cars too much.

With CTR Developments Porsche on pole once again the grid came down to the start line. The National Motorosport Academy Mosler of Gareth Downing got a mighty launch to swoop in and take the lead into Redgate. The Porsche and Mosler continued to battle until the midway point of the race where downing began to lose pace and the Porsche of Chamberlain fought back past and took the lead. The Mosler began to drop back and soon was lapped by the car it was once chased by.
Chamberlain in his Porsche once again held the lead until the end to claim his 3rd victory of the season in the first three races.

Race 4

The Mclaren of Gibson lined up next to the Porsche of Chamberlain and came across the line for the 4th start of the weekend. The final race would be a 50 minute endurance race once again featuring a lead battle with the Porsche involved. Dan Gibson go the drop on Chamberlain into Redgate and continued to make his Mclaren wide as Chamberlain tried to find a way past.

Further back in the pack a rather eye catching green Lamborghini in the hands of John Seale was keeping himself in touch with the leaders.
This strategy was working well for the team on Saturday before the race was cut short. Could this same strategy work out for them in the final race of the weekend?

The mandatory pitstops began to cycle through with it’s success seconds making the difference. As the Porsche returned to the circuit, soon to be in the battle with the now even quicker Lamborghini with the freshly inserted Jamie Stanley setting the pace.
Stanley made quick work of the Porsche and set about challenging Gibson in his Mclaren for the lead. Once again making quick work, Stanley simply drove away to take the 1st non Porsche overall win of the season so far.

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