Race Report for Round Twenty-One- Sprint Race
Red flag drama in Saturday sprint
Sam Neary took a commanding victory in Saturday’s GT Cup Sprint race at Donington Park. Bolting off the line, the Mercedes GT3 appeared to leave its rivals standing, and even after a red flag period took the chequered flag over twelve seconds clear of John Seale in second place.
Jim Geddie made a great start to take fourth from James Webb, though Webb quickly fought back in an excellent all-Lamborghini battle. Geddie held on and looked ready to continue the challenge, but a mistake saw the ABG Motorsport seemingly stranded on the kerbs at the hairpin, bringing out the red flag.
Neary and Seale side by side on the restart was a sight to behold, but all eyes were quickly drawn to the blue Webb Lamborghini. James Webb fired his Huracan round the outside of the first corner in an attempt to disrupt the front runners. Seale and Neary were both unphased, but Webb forced his way in front of Grahame Tilley who wisely backed off into fourth. It wasn’t to last for Webb, and Tilley took third back later in the lap.
With a restart period of just six minutes, it wasn’t long before an untroubled Neary took the chequered flag, ahead of John Seale and Grahame Tilley. James Webb did his best to challenge the Nissan GT-R but had to settle for fourth. And the GTC group win of course. Second in GTC went the way of Graham de Zille in the #19 FF Corse Ferrari.
Saxon Motorsport looked to have GTB sealed up, but shortly before the end of the race, a great move from Jensen Lunn took the Marcos Mantis into the lead of the group. Third in group GTB went to the Porsche 991 of David Frankland.
Team Hard continued their run of good performance with another GTH win for Josh Jackson in the #21 Ginetta. Jackson ran a clean race, and wound up ahead of the Feathers Motorsport Ginetta G55 and John Whitehouse in the #44 McLaren. Chris Murphy and Brent Millage finish off the group in fourth and fifth.
The #8 Geoff Steel Racing BMW in the hands of Richard Marsh claimed the group GTA victory, finishing tenth overall and four positions ahead of their group rivals Stanbridge Motorsport.
