British GT: Cottingham/Adam & Brown/Clark secure wins in Donington Park
29th May 20232 Seas Motorsport’s James Cottingham and Jonny Adam, alongside Optimum Motorsport’s Jack Brown and Charles Clark, secured wins at British GT’s visit to Donington Park.
How the race unfolded…
As the lights went out, it was a great launch away from the rolling grid for Barwell Motorsport’s Shaun Balfe who managed to edge out the field by half a second – in his Lamborghini Huracan – as the pack ploughed through the opening lap.
After the opening lap, Balfe led the GT3 field ahead of Beechdean Motorsport’s Andrew Howard and James Cottingham. Further back, Raceway Motorsport’s Freddie Tomlinson topped the race order for the GT4 cars ahead of DTO Motorsport’s Josh Rowledge and Brown.
The drama unfolded during, and after, the first 10 minutes. RAM Racing’s John Ferguson blasted his Mercedes over the sausage kerbs at the Fogarty’s Esses, turns nine and 10, ahead of Enduro’s Morgan Tillbrook. The Mercedes driver peeled his car back to the pit lane and later retired.
Shortly after, Mike Price (Greystone GT) had a spin at the same corner slight contact with Garage 59’s Alex West. Both drivers were able to continue without issue, despite Price’s visit across the gravel.
After 10 minutes, on the clock as Race Lab’s Iain Campbell found himself in the gravel as the McLaren driver lost rear traction around the fast right-hander of turn four. Fortunately, the following pack were able to avoid contact with the McLaren 720S.
Howard relinquished the lead away from Balfe, with an hour and 47 minutes remaining, as the Aston Martin GT3 driver broke later than the Lamborghini into the Esses. This move allowed Howard to slip by into the chicane – behind the GT4 traffic.
Balfe continued to fall down the order, with 80 minutes left on the clock, as Cottingham passed the Huracan whose pace began to falter. This was quickly followed by Tillbrook’s McLaren. Balfe found himself down in fourth place in the pit-stop phase of the race.
At the same time, Rowledge managed to work a way around the troublesome Tomlinson into Goddards to take the class lead. As the DTO driver began to build up space between himself and Raceway’s Ginetta G56, it left Tomlinson to defend second place away from Brown.
Despite Tomlinson’s best efforts, Brown soon found a way passed the Ginetta at turn seven to take second place as the pit window quickly approached.
At the halfway point of the race, just as the GT4 pit window opened up, the safety car was deployed. During the same safety car intervention, the GT3 pit window opened which allowed on-field runners to peel off the circuit to complete their mandatory stops.
However, when the GT3 cars completed their stops it shook up the order. Howard led into the stops but when the GT3 class returned, Cottingham’s partner Jonny Adam peeled out as the new race leader ahead of Race Lab’s Euan Hankey and 2 Seas Motorsport’s Jules Gounon.
Further problems were revealed, which meant a longer safety car period, as the pack trailed around the circuit Aston Millar – who swapped over with Rowledge in the pits – stopped his McLaren at Hollywood (turn two).
When the safety car peeled back into the pit lane, it left just over 24 minutes left on the clock when racing resumed.
Shortly after the race went back to green flag conditions, Enduro’s Marcus Clutton and Paddock Motorsport’s Martin Plowman got their elbows out.
The former was the driver who was worse off as the #77 McLaren was spun out onto the grass before collided with the barrier. Plowman soon returned to the pits to check for damage.
GT3 Podium:
- James Cottingham/Jonny Adam, 2 Seas Motorsport
- Lucky Khera/Euan Hankey, Race Lab
- Ian Loggie/Jules Gounon, 2 Seas Motorsport
GT4 Podium:
- Jack Brown/Charles Clark, Optimum Motorsport
- Ian Gough/Tom Wrigley, Race Lab
- Carl Cavers/Lewis Plato, Century Motorsport
That’s it for the article: British GT: Cottingham/Adam & Brown/Clark secure wins in Donington Park!
What do you think of the Donington Park race? Let us know in the comments!
Read more British GT here!
- British GT: Loggie/Gounon and Gough/Wrigley win second race in Oulton Park
- British GT: Cottingham/Adam and Moore/Nicholl-Jones secure opening win of the season
- British GT extend title sponsorship with Intelligent Money to 2027
- British GT: Loggie and Williams/Fielding win championship at Donington Decider
- 2022 British GT Championship: Spa-Francorchamps Preview
- British GT: 2022 Snetterton Preview
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
