Team BRIT brings it home for debut GT Cup victory at Donington Park
Jamie Falvey and Paul Fullick scooped a superb victory on their GT Cup Championship debut with Team BRIT, as the BMW pairing took the first spoils of 2026 at Donington Park on Saturday afternoon (11 April).
The BRIT crew gave its newest GT3 machine a first triumph in the opening 50-minute enduro of the weekend in East Midlands, opening their account in the best possible fashion.
In a thrilling encounter, battles throughout the field broke out behind the GT3 fight up front, with Triple M Motorsport earning GTC spoils after a mighty overall pole position in the morning. Paul Bailey and David Brabham scored the GTO success in SB Race Engineering's new Mercedes-AMG. GTH went the way of Innovation Racing and its #25 Ginetta, while GTA also went the way of the British manufacturer thanks to debutants Raceworks Motorsport.
Qualifying
The first crucial timed sessions of the season took place on Saturday morning, with five Groups setting their grid positions across a brace of 20-minute Qualifying contests under ever-changing conditions.
Morning showers meant the first wave of teams were greeted by a damp surface underfoot, which was hotly contested by those within GT3, GTO and GTC.
A rapid Charlie Digby put down the initial markers, setting the session's ultimate best effort of 1m35.349s to plant the Triple M Lamborghini Huracan ST on overall and GTC pole position. His closest rival would be Jamie Falvey of Team BRIT, who wrung the neck of the crew's new BMW M4 GT3 to finish 0.3s adrift in second overall - top of Group GT3 - with Peter Erceg not far back in third in the PB Racing with JMH Audi R8 GT3.
Bailey headed GTO, while a dramatic second session in drying conditions ended with Innovation Racing bursting to the top of the times in GTH thanks to Sam Branston, piloting the #25 Ginetta G56. Triple M Motorsport claimed second through Harry Yuil (Ginetta G56), with Jolt Racing third in its McLaren Artura. SVG Motorsport's BMW of Ian Astley was best of the GTA Group, the reigning group champions pipping Innovation Racing and Raceworks Motorsport's respective Ginettas.
Pit Stop Race
It all brewed down to the first of the weekend's two endurance races - starting with Saturday's 50-minute race that featured a mandatory pit stop.
Former Royal Marines commando Falvey - who battles hearing problems - started the #68 Team BRIT machine, and instantly charged to the front around the outside of the Triple M Lamborghini which was started by Mike Taylor.
From then, Falvey made a bolt and cleared off into a lead of over 25 seconds before the pit window opened, after which it was down to Fullick to take over in similar style. The latter did what was required, taking the chequered flag for overall and GT3 Group spoils by a winning gap of 23s. Second went to Peter Erceg who drove solo in his PB Racing with JMH Audi, recovering his way through traffic in doing so to confirm crucial points and the podium finish.
The GTC battle looked in the hands of Innovation Racing's Luke Bennett and Bertie Bream, after the former surged to as high as third overall in his battle with Erceg and Triple M's Lamborghini. Front end damage hindered them later in the race, dropping to fourth in the GTC Group behind a trio of Lamborghini outfits. Digby and Taylor emerged victorious for Triple M ahead of second-placed Frank Morris and Jamie Stanley for JMH Automotive, while Topcats Racing's Jack Gadd and Dan Brown rounded out that podium.
GTH was hugely entertaining throughout, with Innovation Racing's Branston and James Wareing holding on from pole to claim the success - despite a time penalty for track limits - in their Ginetta. Second went to Triple M Motorsport's Yuill and Rob Garofall in their #65 Ginetta entry, while 24-7 Motorsport were cruelly denied a comeback podium for Ben Taylor and Charlie Benson, the latter forced to retire the #247 Ginetta despite scorching pace on his car racing debut.
GTA was an equally intense contest, won by the Pink Panther-schemed Ginetta of Raceworks Motorsport. Daniel Quintero and Andrew Perry squeezed their way by the SVG Motorsport BMW of Neil Wallace and Ian Astley early on, and would never surrender the group lead as they also took a debut GT Cup triumph.
Sunday features the first GT Cup 100 event of the season, where fans are treated to 100 minutes of racing action in a real test of endurance. It kicks off from 15:00 UK time, and will be streamed live and for free on GT Cup's YouTube channel.
#68 Jamie Falvey
“Yeah they don't happen that often ironically! Quite honestly it was just a perfect execution, the team were on top of it from right from the lights going out. I knew what I needed to do in the race, I managed to get the lead at the start - Charlie’s a very good driver, he wasn’t in our class so didn’t fight it too hard. Passed enough cars in the traffic to build up a gap and the team executed I think one of the best stops I've seen them execute and Paul was absolutely on the money with passing traffic."
#68 Paul Fullick
“It hasn’t quite sunk in! It’s been 10 years in the making for us getting here today so for us to go and get that result was just a combination of having a perfect race, the team doing everything amazingly well. We were really lucky and just so happy with that result. There’s still lots to do fine-tuning wise, we’ve had five days of testing before we got out here today so we’re very much new to the car - we got very lucky today with the set-up. The team have done an amazing job getting the car ready, it’s been 10 years of working towards GT3.”
#25 Sam Branston
“It’s been amazing, first car race - I haven’t got a driver’s licence yet, I’m only 16! Went out in qualifying and poled it was one thing, got into the race and built up a five-second lead, handed it over to James and he took it all the way to P1. In qualifying we went out on slicks, but saw other people go out on wets, but then with the interruption everyone switched to slicks. Always looking forward to going racing and the 100 minute race will be a new challenge, it’ll get quite hot in the car, but I’m looking forward to it."
#135 Andrew Perry
"The first four or five laps were very interesting, we had the BMW kind of holding everyone up. It was crazy quick on the straights but very slow on the corners. Eventually, after a lot of dicing, we managed to get past and me and the other Ginetta kind of broke away a bit. And then yeah I gave it all up by running wide the old hairpin and gave up first! But other than that it was a great race. The 100 minute race tomorrow will be interesting. It looks like it might be a little bit wet, if it’s wet we’ve got that to worry about and if it’s dry we need to think about tyre management!"
