Maiden Overall GT Cup Wins For Greystone and Orange Racing Powered By JMH

Dramatic late victories were the order of the day for Rounds three and four of the 2022 GT Cup Championship at Donington, as Greystone and Orange Racing Powered By JMH collected their first GT3 and overall race wins.

RAM Racing's Ian Loggie started the second day in the same manner he did on Saturday with pole position, but he was usurped of victories by Simon Orange and Oli Webb in two intense races around the Leicestershire national circuit.

GTO spoils were taken twice by Raw Motorsport's Radical thanks to Steve Burgess and Ben Dimmack to ensure the team take the overall championship lead, while the GTC honours went to Ferrari and both Racelab and FF Corse.

GTH battles were once again thrilling in a massive field, with Mercedes topping both races thanks to Track Focused and Makehappenracing.

Qualifying

Loggie continued where he left off yesterday, setting a blistering 1m04.035sec to dominate the morning's qualifying session - held in warmer conditions than the bitter cold of Saturday. 

Ben Dimmack took over the RAW Motorsport Radical RXC from Steve Burgess but still achieved the same result, as he took GTO pole. 

A tightly-fought contest for GTC's top spot went the way of Topcats Racing's Warren Gilbert as he powered the distinctive yellow and purple Lamborghini Super Trofeo to the top. Track Focused rounded out the pole-sitters, taking GTH honours in its Mercedes-AMG GT4. 

Sprint Race

Loggie made the perfect start to his defence of pole position in the 25-minute Sprint race, heading the similar AMG Mercedes of Richard Neary around as two safety cars truncated the initial running of Round Three.

A spin for Neary did not help the chaser, however, pirouetting out of the final chicane to allow Simon Orange to take up the pursuit of RAM's lead car. Chase he did and, with the leaders negotiating traffic, Orange left his lunge until the last lap as he slotted the JMH Automotive McLaren 720s inside the Mercedes at McLeans to take the lead and a maiden overall GT Cup victory.

GTC was a race-long dice that was also decided very late on. Gilbert took the wheel of the Topcats Lamborghini that started on pole, but he too succumbed to a chaser as Saturday's double winner Lucky Khera sliced the Ferrari 488 Challenge past its rival to win.

GTO was once more topped by the flying Radical of Burgess who was untroubled in his run to the group victory, finishing seventh overall in car #7. It was a case of lights-to-flag meanwhile for the Mercedes of Track Focused, as James Kell dominated the GTH group for a first GT Cup win.

Pitstop Race

Orange was rewarded with a pole position start ahead of Loggie for Round Four of the season, the second 50-minute endurance contest of the weekend. A wide moment on loose cement dust cost Loggie second to the Greystone McLaren of Iain Campbell at Craner Curves, Orange heading the trio around a frenetic opening stint.

A safety car period just prior to pitstops created a flurry of activity on track and in the pit lane as the leaders made their changes, with Loggie inheriting the lead as a solo entry ahead of the Greystone car, now with Oli Webb behind the wheel.

The gap came down and down, Webb making his decisive pass stick heading into Redgate in the closing minutes of the race to claim the team's first GT3 and overall win, Richard and Sam Neary took second after a late push from Sam, while Michael O'Brien recovered from a lengthy stop to nick third on the line from Loggie.

GTC enjoyed its second winner of the season, although it was still represented by the Prancing Horse as FF Corse's Benny Simonsen and Roy Millington surged to the head of the group for victory. A clean sweep of the GTO spoils was the reward for Burgess and Dimmack, the Radical finishing ninth in the race.

GTH was again a wide-open affair, with Valluga Racing leading for much of the race until the longer pit stop gave away their advantage to the Makehappenracing Mercedes of Chris Hart and Steve Walton - their second victory of the weekend.

#67 Simon Orange

"There weren't many laps to catch him [Ian Loggie]! I'd been following him, and I felt I was quicker, but being quicker and overtaking him are different things. Going through the Old Hairpin I noticed he was running wide all the time, unluckily for him, there was traffic there, he's gone in fast, I've slowed down to get a run out the corner and I've just got him coming out of there."

#23 Oli Webb

"To be honest, Gary our engineer is new with us this year; he's very talented so I knew I was in good hands. When I went out, I didn't ask him where I was, I didn't want to know anyone else's penalties or pitstop infringements or anything - I just wanted to push on. I heard Loggie was the car in front and I knew that he must be the leader, he's been quick all weekend. He gave me a great fight, he was clean but also aggressive but nothing I would change at all. Iain did a great stint, he had the fastest lap just before the safety car and I'm really impressed with him - this is just his first weekend in this thing, and this is a big beast to be racing!"

#56 Benny Simonsen

"We were quite lucky with the safety car really, so that equalised the gap and then we pushed from there really. Tried to drive as fast as I could every single lap, and it was good enough! It's good to see more people in GTC, it's a bit tougher than last year with some good pairings in there as well so yeah, take the fight on!"

#69 Chris Hart

“It was a busy grid, it was just great. I'm happy for the whole team, new team, new car. A lot of preparation in the pre-season, we didn't get the cars too early so we did a little bit of testing. Perhaps one of the hardest grids, it's great to see some of the youngsters out there really pushing hard. Managed to get the jump on the field in the pits, but my tyres were going off towards the end so I was backing it off and managing the gap. They closed in towards the end so I had to pick up the pace, but the front-left was shot so I had to manage it at the end."