First of two, the GT Cup is off to Donington Park

First of two, the GT Cup is off to Donington Park

Two weekends down, three to go as the GT Cup heads to Donington Park for the first of two visits for the 2020 season.

Twenty-seven cars across six groups will line up on the grid this weekend for rounds 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the 2020 Championship. Ben Clayden and Sam Randon still hold a slim lead in the overall points tally just five points ahead of fellow Team Hard entrants Josh Jackson and Simon Orange. John Dhillon and Aaron Scott have slipped down the order and now sit third overall, just over 30 points behind Clayden and Randon.

Group GT3 has grown somewhat since Silverstone and will now see five entries battling it out on the circuit. Group leaders John Seale and Marcus Clutton will be looking to build on their Silverstone success and keep Grahame Tilley and Will Tregurtha at bay in the battle for points. Three invitational entries join the group this weekend including two returning cars from last season. Team Abba Racing's Richard and Sam Neary are back with their monstrous Mercedes AMG GT3, along with fellow British GT competitors Shamus Jennings and Greg Caton of G-Cat Racing. The third invitational entry is Ultimate Speed – Matt Manderson and Mike Brown will be bringing an Aston Martin to the GT3 group. Watch out at the sharp end of the field though, Richard Chamberlain also returns this weekend and despite being in a different group, you can expect to see him battling with the GT3 cars.

Some new faces will be joining Group GTC this weekend too. John Dhillon has swapped Aaron Scott for Phil Quaife as he endeavours to defend his lead on the Group GTC title. A second Scott Sport entry with a Lamborghini Huracan for Jim and Glynn Geddie also joins the grid. The Team Webb Lamborghini has finally been released from the stable and James Webb will be contesting his first GT Cup race of the season as an invitational entry.

In Group GTB, Top Cats Racing will be bringing both Marcos Mantis' out to play with Jensen Lunn and Warren Gilbert in the #3 and Andrew Goord and Charlotte Gilbert back in the #99. They'll be bringing the fight to group and overall points leaders Ben Clayden and Sam Randon in their Team Hard Porsche. David Frankland in his 24-7 Motorsport Porsche rounds up the list of full season entries, but there is a newcomer on the grid this weekend. Saxon Motorsport are joining as an invitational entry with Tom Barrow in their BMW M3 GTR.

Another strong looking group this weekend is GTH as it too gains a few invitational entries. Ron Johnson and Tom Ingram will be competing in a Toyota Supra GT4 with Speedworks Motorsport, while Newbridge Motorsport are entering an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 with Matt Topham and Alex Toth-Jones sharing driving duties. Our third invitational entry Motus One are bringing a Ginetta G55 GT4 with David Scaramanga and Will Powell aboard. That brings the total number of Ginettas in the group up to three, alongside Scott Sport's Craig Wilkins and Feathers Motorsport's James Guess.

Current GTH points leaders and 2019 champions Steve Ruston and John Whitehouse will be looking to keep hold of their advantage, but will face plenty of competition. Wilkins and Guess are sitting second and third in the standings, but Whitebridge Motorsport's Chris Murphy and Steve Birt aren't far behind them in fourth. Whitebridge will only be running one car this weekend as Steve Birt continues to recover from his accident last time out at Silverstone.

This weekend, Group GTA will consist of four Ginettas and a lone Lotus. Stanbridge Motorsport's Fraser Smart and James Simons will continue to wring as much as they can from their Lotus Evora as they endeavour to hold onto third in the points standings. Team Hard's Josh Jackson and Simon Orange currently lead the group points, almost 50 points clear of Callum Jenkins and Ollie Brown behind them. Having a full GT Cup weekend in their new car under their belts, Alex Stevenson and James Kellett will be looking to fight for the top spots in the Century Motorsport Ginetta and perhaps begin to close the points gap to Russ Lindsay and Patrick Collins ahead of them.

Full coverage of our Donington Park weekend will be available across our Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Track action kicks off on Saturday morning with free practice at 10am.