New Aston (this is Sorensen/Howard)
is likely to be a big threatAdam says it’s taken
teams a while to
adapt to new carsKeen thinks it’s the
strongest grid for years50 AUTOSPORT.COM 18 APRIL 2019BRITISH GT PREVIEW
CALENDAR
DATE VENUE
20/22 April Oulton Park
18-19 May Snetterton
8-9 June Silverstone
22-23 June Donington Park
20-21 July Spa
3-4 August Brands Hatch
14-15 September Donington Parkstronger, but I still think you’ll see the few older names that are
quick anyway come up to the top,” says Adam. “You can have the
fastest car on the grid with the fastest team-mate but it’s about
execution. To win many races over a season in British GT is
difficult, but the bad weekends where you still finish fourth or
fifth are the ones that you win championships on, like last year.”
The upcoming Easter weekend at Oulton Park can always be
relied upon to supply drama, and points banked there could
prove crucial later in the year. It won’t take long to see who
has taken Adam’s mantra to heart.GT3 ENTRY LIST
NO DRIVERS TEAM (CAR) CLASS
2 Nicki Thiim/Mark Farmer TF Sport (Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT3) Pro-Am
47 Jonny Adam/Graham Davidson TF Sport (Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT3) Pro-Am
3 Ben Green/Dominic Paul Century Motorsport (BMW M6 GT3) Pro-Am
9 Jack Mitchell/Adrian Willmott Century Motorsport (BMW M6 GT3) Pro-Am
6 Callum Macleod/Ian Loggie RAM Racing (Mercedes-AMG GT3) Pro-Am
7 Ryan Ratcliffe/Glynn Geddie Team Parker Racing (Bentley Continental GT3) Silver
8 Adam Christodoulou/Richard NearyTeam ABBA Racing (Mercedes-AMG GT3) Pro-Am18 Adam Wilcox/Michael Igoe WPI Motorsport (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) GTC (Pro-Am)22 Rob Bell/Shaun Balfe Balfe Motorsport (McLaren 720S GT3) Pro-Am
31 Seb Morris/Rick Parfitt Jr JRM Racing (Bentley Continental GT3) Pro-Am
33 Greg Caton/Shamus Jennings G-Cat Racing (Porsche 911 GT3-R GT3) Am-Am
69 Jonny Cocker/Sam de Haan Barwell Motorsport (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO) Pro-Am
72 Phil Keen/Adam Balon Barwell Motorsport (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO) Pro-Am
96 Bradley Ellis/Oliver Wilkinson Optimum Motorsport (Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT3) Silver
99 Marco Sorensen/Andrew Howard Beechdean AMR (Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT3) Pro-AmThe only man to topple Macleod’s time on media day – by
0.024s – was Lamborghini factory driver Phil Keen, who is joined
at Barwell Motorsport by new co-driver Adam Balon. A GT4-class
winner at Oulton Park in each of the past two seasons, Balon will
benefit from the raft of changes made to the Huracan Evo, which
follows the current trend for GT3 cars – started by the Mercedes in
2016 – to be easier for amateur drivers to handle on the limit. The
latest iteration of the Huracan produces less power but more torque,
boasts reworked aerodynamics to improve its pitch-sensitivity and
tyre life, and more subtle details such as electro-hydraulic power-
steering that give the drivers greater feedback.
With over 3000km of testing completed, Barwell Motorsport
boss Mark Lemmer is confident the team will be quickly on the
pace with its new Lambo, but Keen expects the same to apply
elsewhere too. “We’ve got the strongest grid we’ve seen for quite
a while this year,” he says. “There are some good drivers, good
teams and I don’t think they’ll need much help getting going.”
Adam agrees that the grid has taken a step up this year, and
believes that the Aston contingent – again the most common
marque on the grid with four cars – may not have it all its own way.
“It has taken a few teams a while to adjust to the new car because
it’s quite different to set up and drive,” he says. “It’s going to be a
new process for all the teams going to most circuits for the first time.”
That much may be true, but the cream always rises to the top in
such situations and the same familiar faces will still be expected
to challenge at the sharp end. Along with Adam and Davidson, TF
team-mates Nicki Thiim and Mark Farmer will hope they have used
up all their bad luck from last year, while at Beechdean AMR Marco
Sorensen – who clocked the fastest lap in half the races last year –
and double champion Andrew Howard will be in the mix too.
“You’ll see guys that have changed teams and cars be a bit