Saturday Success at Snetterton for Topcats and G-Cat
Some impressive track action saw victory spoils go to G-Cat Racing's Shamus Jennings and Topcats Racing's Fraser Fenwick following a dramatic Saturday of racing to kick off the season finale at Snetterton (5 October).
With a strong Donington Park haul pushing them towards the ultimate crown in Norfolk, the #2 Topcats Racing Lamborghini Huracan ST pairing of Gilbert and Rawlings has the title advantage heading into Sunday.
Their sister #3 car also enjoyed its own individual success as Fraser Fenwick drove a superb solo performance to win race two outright, sharing race victories with double GT3 group victors, G-Cat Racing - Shamus Jennings taking the opening Sprint.
There were also double triumphs for Kendall Developments in GTO, Paddock Motorsport in GTH, and for Jolt Racing in GTA.
Qualifying
Qualifying proved to be a demonstration of the raw speed of the championship leaders as Rawlings prevailed in a captivating back-and forth battle for overall pole with G-Cat Racing's Jennings. Swapping fastest laps with the Porsche racer, Rawlings ultimately proved the dominance of the Super Trofeo as he set the fastest lap of 1m51.754s to take overall and GTC honours.
Jennings joined him on the front-row, sitting top of GT3, with Paul Bailey taking third in his GTO pole-sitting Kendall Developments Lamborghini. Michael Orant rounded out the pole-sitters with a rapid time in the Paddock Motorsport McLaren Artura.
Sprint Race
A manic 25-minute Sprint contest followed later in the afternoon. Rawlings looked unstoppable in the early laps, fighting off the attentions of the GT3 Porsche of Jennings in the initial stages.
The change came when Rawlings emerged down the pack after taking a trip through the pitlane, giving the edge in the race to Jennings who cruised clear up front to claim a fourth victory in succession for the G-Cat Racing squad.
While the Irishman assisted his team's charge closer towards the GT3 crown, second went back to Rawlings after a superb charge through a rampant pack of rivals battling over the position.
Rawlings nicked back the GTC advantage from his Topcats Racing team-mate Warren Gilbert after the latter ran wide in his attempts to round the fellow Lamborghini Huracan of GTO winner Bailey at the final corner. Rawlings then picked off Bailey for second on the road, before Tom Walpole's KTM X-BOW (PMT Motorsport) stole second in GTC from Gilbert heading to the chequered flag, when the #3 Lamborghini ran through the grass attempting to usurp Bailey once more at Murrays.
Orant drove an exceptional race for Paddock Motorsport to confirm another crucial GTH group win for the Artura, with Jolt Racing taking the GTA spoils.
Endurance Race
Warren Gilbert handed full control of the #3 Huracan to Fraser Fenwick for the 50-minute Endurance outing, and it proved inspired as the youngster put together an asserted display to win outright in the GTC machine. He did still have to surge past team-mate Charlotte Gilbert initially on the back straight to assume a lead he would never lose.
Second on the road went to the G-Cat Racing Porsche 911, after the GT3 duo of Jennings and Greg Caton confirmed their second GT3 group success of the day thanks to the latter's late-braking efforts to dispatch Rawlings at Riches in the closing laps.
Fourth went the way of the GTO group victors, Kendall Developments, following a sterling defensive drive by Bailey and co-driver David Brabham's relentless fight through the pack - the ex-Le Mans 24 Hours winner setting the fastest lap of the contest in the #28 Lamborghini.
GTH was the setting for a great battle, won by Paddock Motorsport ahead of the Innovation Racing with Hallam Express pairing of Hadley Simpson and Simon Griffiths in their Ginetta G55. Orant held his early lead in the McLaren Artura, but extra success seconds in the changeover meant Martin Plowman had to recover and overtake his rival to confirm the double with an imperious second stint showing.
#11 Michael Orant
“It was good fun to be honest, it was a little stressful when I saw the Ginetta appearing in my mirrors and I thought I might start to struggle. Kept my head down and got some good laps down and just kept my head over the stint. I’m really happy, just got to do it all again for the rest of the weekend! I’ve been in the Artura for the full season, six rounds under my belt, I’m getting to grips with it now and learning a lot off Martin [Plowman] as well, fingers crossed we can keep it up and see what the rest of the weekend brings!”
#28 Paul Bailey
“It was so difficult keeping Warren behind me, and also the new KTM. That is so light and so good on the brakes so I just used my usual defence technique and I was having to do that for 12 corners for 10 laps and 120 times it worked! But I was very lucky and I was pleased with P3 overall finish. The Pitstop Race was a great race, David is just a remarkable driver, he has taught me so much and he’s super modest. I think sometimes he doesn’t always appreciate how quick he is. He’s a great guy, super-supportive and Kendall Developments have done a fantastic job, once again we’ve had a difficult season having to swap cars around and it’s really good that we’ll now be runners up in Group GTO.”
#37 Hadley Simpson
“It’s been amazing. Simon and Innovation Racing gave me an amazing opportunity and I’m very grateful for that, hopefully I put on a good show and they’re all very happy. It’s good to show my face I think, I hope I made a good impact - obviously I didn’t want to do anything too aggressive! GT Cup has been amazing for me so far.”
#3 Fraser Fenwick
“It was very, very difficult. It was a lot harder than I had first anticipated I have to say but a massive thank you to the team, they obviously believed in me that I was able to do it - that’s why we did [all 50 minutes] - and it helped the team in every aspect.”
