Near Double For Neary At Donington As Abba And G-Cat Share Spoils
Team Abba Racing almost made the perfect start in the opening day of the 2024 GT Cup Championship season at Donington Park, Richard Neary denied a double win by G-Cat Racing at the line on a thrilling Saturday (20/04/2024).
The 1.96-mile circuit in Leicestershire was the venue for the opening two races of the season, with a strong grid covering five groups lining up to compete for silverware.
What followed was a sensational day of racing as Richard Neary romped to victory in the Sprint contest in the afternoon, before being pipped to the line by a charging Greg Caton who won an intense Endurance race later in the day.
It confirmed double wins for Abba Racing in GTO and G-Cat Racing in GT3, with Topcats Racing's two Lamborghini Huracan entries sharing GTC wins. GTH honours were split between Forsetti Motorsport and Team Parker Racing in two epic chases, while GTA wins went to newcomers Jolt Racing.
Qualifying
A rapid start was made by the #6 Team Abba Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the first part of Qualifying. Neary took the wheel of the group GTO machine and a lap time of 1m04.860s proved the key moment as he grabbed pole position for the first race of the season.
The multiple GT Cup race winner held off a mightily impressive effort from the first of the two Topcats Racing Lamborghini Super Trofeo entries, as Tom Rawlings qualified on the front row as the fastest GTC car.
GT3 spoils went to G-Cat Racing who were right on the tails of both, with Warren Gilbert completing row two in the second Topcats Lamborghini.
In a well-represented GTH group, it was Forsetti Motorsport who started strongly with a one-two in their session. The #9 Aston Martin of Mikey Porter was fastest ahead of the sister #10 car of Rianna O'Meara-Hunt. Charles Dawson was a close third for Team Parker Racing.
Sprint Race
The opening 25-minute Sprint race of the season was action-packed. A rapid start from Neary up front was enough to make the difference however, as he led the field into turn one for the first time.
A consistent stint followed for the #6 Mercedes-AMG, and Neary romped home to victory by 27 seconds ahead to confirm the first win of the campaign and success in GTO.
Second place went to the ever-improving Lotus Evora of the National Motorsport Academy. Jay Shepherd started in seventh place, and began a rapid climb through the field with a bold overtake around the outside of Paul Bailey's Lamborghini at Redgate.
Second place came his way as Rawlings was forced to retire from the race, surrendering the GTC lead as a consequence. Luckily for Topcats Racing, this played into the hands of the sister Lamborghini of Gilbert, which took the chequered flag first in GTC and fourth overall after a spectacular battle with Bailey's GTO Huracan that ended with the pair 0.1s apart at the line.
Former UK Legends Racing champion Miles Rudman enjoyed a mightily impressive debut in GT Cup meanwhile by finishing a close second in GTC in his Team Parker Racing Porsche 911 Cup car, Chris Murphy's BMW M3 GTR third in the group. The GT3 win went to G-Cat Racing's Shamus Jennings, who also grabbed third place overall.
The Forsetti Motorsport Aston Martins battled it out in the early laps for GTH spoils, but a mighty stint from Porter meant he broke away to confirm a first win of the year from O'Meara-Hunt. Dawson again gave chase, and narrowly came short of snatching second by just 1.7s. Jolt Racing took the GTA group spoils from pole position.
Pit Stop Race
A barnstormer followed in the 50-minute Endurance Race later that afternoon.
With Ian Loggie starting the Abba Racing Mercedes from pole position, he kept the advantage during the first half of the race with a lead of just over six seconds before handing over to Neary in the mandatory pit stops.
The chasing car became the G-Cat Racing Porsche 911 GTR GT3 and, after Jennings handed over to Caton, the gap was soon whittled down to nothing with three laps left to run.
A close call in traffic gave Neary a small buffer, but on the final lap a neat cutback exiting the final chicane gave Caton a dramatic victory by just 0.146s on the run to the chequered flag - the team's second Donington win in under a year.
GTO success still went to Abba Racing, while GTC this time went to the rapid Topcats Racing Lamborghini of Charlotte Gilbert and Rawlings after their race one disappointment. Rudman and Parker Racing were once again close behind, second ahead of Woodrow Motorsport's Murphy.
GTH was a tight battle to the flag. This time, Team Parker Racing showed their muscle as Dawson passed Matthew Higgins for second and intercept the Forsetti one-two. Handing over to Seb Morris, the Mercedes-AMG caught and passed the #9 Aston Martin Vantage of Porter for a brilliant group victory, third going to the second Forsetti Motorsport duo of the flying O'Meara-Hunt and early leader, Jodie Sloss.
Jolt Racing meanwhile doubled their GTA success for the day with Rupert Williams and John Ingram.
#33 Greg Caton
“A great run. We got a little bit of a break, because I think it was eight or nine seconds after the pitstop [where the second safety car came out] so I probably would have closed some of the gap but not all of it. Couple of seconds behind him, bit of pressure on him - I wasn’t going to do anything silly but he was making his car very wide so I got the message! I just set him up for the last lap really, ran to the outside, let him go to the inside and he went deep, got a little wobble and that was it!”
#3 Warren Gilbert
“It was a great way to start, this is the car I wrote off in 2022, we rebuilt over the winter and the first time it turned a wheel was in practice this morning and that’s the first time I’ve turned a wheel too. I haven’t driven here for over a year and qualifying was the first time out, so I’m pretty pleased with that! I love being back behind the wheel again, I adore it. I really enjoy the championship and it was great to have a dice with Paul Bailey and getting him by 0.1 or something at the line.”
#10 Rianna O’Meara-Hunt
“Amazing day, I couldn’t be happier! My debut out in the UK with two podiums and driver of the day, I’m really, really stoked! I’m so happy for Forsetti, they’ve put in so much time to prep these cars and Matt our driver coach has done an amazing job. Jodie did a mega first stint in the Pitstop race and I’m excited to see what the season comes for us, I want to change the second step for the top step but we’re going to get there! Donington is a very cool track, I love the fast flowing tracks so there’s a lot of risk here and I like that. I’m really looking forward to Brands Hatch for the next round!”
#9 Mikey Porter
“Really good race, we’ve done a lot of work over the winter. Really enjoyed it, got a gap at the start and just went from there - managed the gap, kept on pulling and got the win!”
