PB Racing And Triple M Motorsport Do Doubles On Day One At Snetterton
PB Racing by JMH and Triple M Motorsport had days to remember in Saturday's action at Snetterton, as Peter Erceg and the combination of Charlie Digby and Felix Livesey snagged overall spoils.
Erceg took his Donington Park form into the second event in Norfolk, converting a fine pole position into a second overall triumph alongside two group GT3 successes. Triple M Motorsport meanwhile did doubles in two groups, a feat also achieved by SVG Motorsport in GTA and AF Corse UK in GTO.
Qualifying
Saturday morning's weather defied the forecast with bright sunshine and a gentle breeze in place instead of the gloom and damp predicted. The warmth in the air was exceeded by the scorching laps being put in by the field in the first competitive action of the weekend in Norfolk.
Immediately, there was a captivating back-and-forth between Team Brit's Jamie Falvey and PB Racing's Erceg for the Overall and GT3 pole position. For most of the session, it looked like it was going to go the way of Falvey's BMW M4 GT3 but then Erceg magicked up a storming lap in his Audi R8 - a 1m47.486sec putting him almost a second clear of the rest of the field.
GTC also featured a two-way battle for the top between the Lamborghini Super Trofeos of DWG Motorsports with Topcats Jack Gadd and Triple M's Digby. Each improving lap-on-lap, it was Digby who was sat in the hot seat as the music stopped.
The fight for GTH pole was much more one-sided, as Charlie Benson lit up the timing screens in his 24-7 Motorsport Ginetta G56 and, despite pressure from SVG Motorsport's Cameron Pratt-Thompson, kept improving to eventually log a 1m54.733sec to take a well-earned pole for Saturday's opening sprint.
Sean Ran scored GTO pole on his GT Cup debut in his AF Corse UK-run Ferrari 296 Challenge, whilst Innovation Racing took the GTA honours.
Sprint Race
Early that afternoon marked the first of the year's shorter 25-minute Sprint contests, for which Erceg made no mistake from pole position in a near faultless display.
The Audi driver charged into the opening corner with his lead intact, while Paul Fullick alongside him went the opposite way as he was usurped of second by Digby, and then third by Gadd in another Lamborghini. That swiftly became sixth, as AF Corse UK driver Sean Ran and Luke Bennett's Innovation Racing Ginetta also pinched the Team BRIT BMW down by the Agostini hairpin.
Erceg maintained a strong pace out front, which was enough to continue his fine run of form and take a second overall and GT3 victory of the campaign from three races, edging out a winning cushion of 3.8s despite a charging Digby on his tail.
The latter gave Triple M Motorsport a much-deserved GTC triumph, the #4 Lamborghini tailed by closest group rival Bennett and the GTO-winning Ferrari. Fullick was sixth in the GT3 BMW, ahead of Paul Bailey's SB Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG which also clinched second in GTO. Frank Morris rounded out the GTC podium for FHM by JMH Auto in his Lamborghini.
GTH was dominated by 24-7 Motorsport's Benson, who went from taking GCSEs on Friday to taking a pole and a race victory after a commanding performance - on the road, at least. A technical infringement post race cruelly meant their hard work was unrewarded. Triple M Motorsport's Harry Yuill meanwhile got his reward, taking a maiden win of the season for the #65 Ginetta squad.
A mighty recovery drive from the pit lane to victory in GTA was the story of Ian Astley's race. He charged through the pack in the #24 SVG Motorsport BMW M4, first passing their Raceworks Motorsport rivals at the Agostini hairpin and then catching and passing Innovation Racing's Kyle Wells in traffic to seal the deal in a superb battle.
Pitstop Race
From pole position, Erceg set about his attempts to do the double on day one, bursting off into the early lead of the afternoon's 50-minute Pitstop race. Coming closest to the GT3 leader was the best GTC opposition, in Triple M's Digby - now sharing with Ginetta racer Felix Livesey who made his GT Cup debut in the Lamborghini.
While the two leaders remained close throughout the opening stint, it really came to life after the mandatory stops cycled through. Erceg held a lead of just under three seconds, which ended with Livesey chipping away at the Audi driver and eventually taking the lead when Erceg, battling with a gremlin underneath him, was relieved of the overall top spot by the red and yellow machine of Livesey.
The latter cruised home to a famous win for himself, Digby and Triple M Motorsport, with Erceg coming home behind to clinch the GT3 win once again.
Behind them in third overall - and second in GTC - were the flying FHM by JMH Auto duo of Frank Morris and James Pickford. Fastest laps came rolling in from a determined Pickford late on, as he swept by the similar Lamborghini of Jack Gadd at Coram to confirm a fine result for the #63 crew.
Fourth overall went to the GTO winners, AF Corse UK. Sean Ran started the car and put himself out of reach of the chasing Bailey, giving Josh Steed the tools he needed to bring the Ferrari home for a second group win of the day despite David Brabham's attempts to close the deficit.
A GTH double was the reward for Yuill and Rob Garofall, on an exceptional day for Triple M. The Ginetta pairing kept their nearest rivals at arm's reach in the early going, but jumped away in the closing stages as Ginetta claimed a sweep of the top four places with Innovation Racing, SVG Motorsport and 24-7 Motorsport all in tow.
SVG Motorsport could celebrate another GTA victory with Neil Wallace and Ian Astley, followed by Innovation Racing and the Ginetta of newcomers JTM Engineering Ltd, with Daniel Perry at the wheel of the third-placed car.
#4 Felix Livesey
“It feels good, team did a phenomenal job all day. The car just felt like it was on rails. Charlie did a mega job to bring it in P1 and I brought it home from there. The team have been phenomenal in helping me learn the car and get to grips with everything. It’s a vert different style of racing but it’s been thoroughly enjoyable and I’m looking forward to tomorrow just as much.”
#63 Frank Morris
“It’s been an eventful first two races, in testing we broke our driveshaft so the lads worked quite late to fix it which got us back out on the grid. Then in qualifying, our wheel came off! That was a shattered wheel nut, luckily we got a spare wheel and got back out to set a lap time. It could have been the worst event, but it was a very good first Sprint Race. My lap times aren’t quite where they were last year believe you me, but when you’ve got someone like James Pickford who can pick up the pieces - especially in this second race - then you’re thankful for that. I have to say, the standard of GTC this year has definitely gone up a notch. The two young lads in the Triple M car look like they’ve been on an Arnold Schwarzenegger training course! They come out and they look so buff and they drive it like they look, proper hard! I mean they won the race so full credit to them - that’s the gold standard, but it was thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyable.”
#65 Harry Yuill
“It’s been amazing really, two wins in two races so you can’t really ask for much more. We’ve done quite a bit of testing now together and I think we’re really gelling together which has been shown off in the last two races. It’s been competitive, which is quite nice - hopefully we can do the same again tomorrow, that would be amazing.”
#17 Daniel Perry
“It was eventful, it was a very, very tough race. The weather was making it unpredictable, some corners you were going in questioning where you can brake, how much grip you’ll have on the apex and doing that while fighting with the guys from Raceworks Motorsport just made that an enjoyable podium for me. This first day of racing in GT Cup has been a learning curve, even though there’s only four cars in our Group it’s not at all easy, it’s very, very high levels of competition and everyone is at such a high level. It’s been a lot to learn very quickly and I’m surprised I’m standing here with a trophy in my hand.”
