30 YEARS ON TOP FORM

The Intelligent Money British GT Championship celebrated its 30th anniversary in style by producing another barnstorming campaign across both its GT3 and GT4 classes. Sure, Ian Loggie finally secured the overall title he so craved by leading from start to finish, but that didn’t tell the whole story of a season in which GT4 often upstaged the senior class. Tom Hornsby tells the tale...

In GT3, the battle for the overall race win was seldom predictable. Seven different overall winning combinations across nine races ensured four GT3 crews headed to the Donington Decider still in championship contention.

Jules Gounon and Callum Macleod both helped Ian Loggie win races in 2022, but it was the Am driver’s consistency elsewhere that ensured RAM Racing’s #6 Mercedes-AMG scored double digit points in all but one of the rounds.

Only at Donington’s finale did the wheels threaten to fall off a title tilt that began in thrilling fashion on Easter weekend at Oulton Park where Gounon’s stellar performance was matched only by Adam Carroll’s defensive masterclass aboard Balfe’s Audi. The positions were reversed in race two to leave both entries level pegging at the top of the standings.

But non-scores at Silverstone would allow others to claw back ground. Chief among them was Barwell’s Lamborghini of Adam Balon and Sandy Mitchell which held off Garage 59’s guesting McLaren en route to victory in British GT’s blue riband three-hour race.

The first of two trips to Donington also lasted 180 minutes, and it was another manufacturer – McLaren – that made it four different winners in as many races. Morgan Tillbrook and Marcus Clutton announced themselves as championship contenders by recording the second largest winning margin in series history, although theirs and Enduro’s cause was aided by fortuitous safety car timing that scuppered the chances of 2 Seas’ James Cottingham and Lewis Williamson in particular.

Loggie had bounced back from Silverstone with a podium and added a second win of the season – this time alongside Macleod – in the first of Snetterton’s two sprint encounters. It would turn into a Red Letter Day for RAM as well as John Ferguson and Ulysse De Pauw who scored their maiden British GT wins in race two.

Spa also produced first-time GT3 winners in Fox Motorsport’s Nick Halstead and Jamie Stanley. But with that particular crew no longer in title contention, it was Loggie – partnered this time by Gounon – who left Belgium happiest after extending his points lead by finishing third overall.

He could – and possibly should – have become the first driver to win the GT3 title with a race to spare since 2010 next time out at Brands Hatch. But after sustaining damage in an incident with Balon, RAM’s attention shifted to banking more solid points. Instead, it was another MercedesAMG that appeared on course for victory until Abba’s machine encountered a fuel pump issue on the penultimate lap.

That handed a second win of the campaign to Enduro’s Tillbrook and Clutton, who – along with Balon/Mitchell and Cottingham/Williamson – travelled to Donington with an outside shot of stealing the title from Loggie.

Finishing first or second while also relying on Loggie’s capitulation meant beating RAM always appeared unlikely. But the door was suddenly ajar when the Mercedes-AMG completed lap two stone last after unrelated early incidents.

It wouldn’t remain that way for long, though, after each contender encountered problems of their own while Loggie atoned for his early dramas by fighting back. Gounon emerged from his pitstop in second place and behind only Century’s BMW shared by Darren Leung and Alexander Sims who went on to collect the new M4’s maiden British GT3 victory.

Second place, meanwhile, was more than enough for RAM and Loggie, while debutants Redline Racing collected the Silver-Am crown courtesy of the impressive Alex Malykhin and James Dorlin.

same weekend at Oulton Park. The maximum Success Penalty and Silver weight prevented an even rarer hat-trick next time out at Silverstone, but their third place was still sufficient to establish a sizeable advantage at one-third distance.

Newbridge’s Matt Topham and Darren Turner, meanwhile, were only just getting into their stride and became the first crew in any class to win the Silverstone 500 back-to-back. That should have propelled them towards the middle part of the season, but instead – and just like Steller – this period coincided with other teams upping their game.

First, Academy’s Matt Cowley and Marco Signoretti looked set to mount a championship challenge by winning at Donington before Josh Miller and Jamie Day became the youngest crew in terms of combined age ever to win a British GT race.

Next, Jack Brown and reigning champion Will Burns won Snetterton’s second race aboard Century’s BMW, but it was Miller and Day who vaulted firmly into title contention when they topped the podium again next time out at Spa.

Newbridge and Steller had to respond, and they did just that by finishing one-two at Brands Hatch. Topham and Turner thus headed to the season finale leading from Williams and Fielding, while Miller and Day also remained in contention but had the added bonus of racing Success Penalty-free.

And it was that points-on-the-board verses time-still-to-be-served scenario that delivered yet another classic GT4 finale in which all three crews topped the standings at some point across the final hour.

With two wins and another podium across the first three races it’s hardly surprising that Steller’s Richard Williams and Sennan Fielding delivered Audi’s first-ever British GT title.

However, it is testament to two Aston Martin crews – Newbridge and R Racing – that the GT4 championship’s destination remained in doubt until the final laps of the 2022 campaign.

There was no stopping Steller at the start of the season thanks to a rare double victory on the

R Racing was initially in the box seat thanks to its shorter pitstop time but ultimately lost out first to Newbridge and then Steller whose Audi was on a mission in the hands of Fielding. His spirited drive to second – behind only Toyota Gazoo Racing UK’s Tom Edgar and Jordan Collard – was enough to leapfrog Newbridge in the final reckoning.

Topham and Turner retained their Pro-Am crown, while Fielding’s contribution was also recognised with the Allan Simonsen Award.

In what may be W Series’ final outing, Jamie Chadwick took her third consecutive crown in dominant style. They look back on the championship’s globe-trotting swansong.