LIVE | British GT - Brands Hatch - R1

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome everyone to the 2021 intelligent money british gt championship after a thrilling 2020 campaign british gt is back for another season nine races at six different circuits all of them guaranteed to keep us on the edge of our seats with a whole host of returning drivers many of them former champions and more than a dozen drivers making their british gt debuts this year's championship is wide open reigning gt3 champion sandy mitchell is back with barwell motorsport and is aiming to become only the second ever driver to claim back-to-back british gt titles yeah i mean it's fantastic last year was a yeah great year with with rob and barwell and uh really enjoyed it and uh yeah like you say we're back again to to give it another go and um yeah try and defend the title returning with adam balon and um yeah the championships got a little bit of a new look to it this year with you know predominantly pro-am which i think is fantastic and it's proving to be really close from the three practices so far and yeah hopefully that continues throughout the season and uh yeah me and adam have gone really well so far and the preseason tests have gone gone superb so yeah hopefully we'll hit the ground running this weekend the only other driver to have successfully defended a british gt championship is aston martin factory driver johnny adam i think it's the pro-am element of this championship i really like working with our customers that ask them on racing to get the best from them get the best from the package and try and put together a championship assault and you know i've been in it long enough now i think this is my 10th season in british ut so you learn as you go along and it's all about consistency you know that's what wins championships and i've some have some great teammates i think i've had four or five different teammates over the 10-year period and yeah we've all had some success on the way last time we were actually here i think we we qualified in paul and had a good result in 2015 so um yeah it's nice it doesn't feel like i've been away from the team to be fair we've kind of got a working relationship back again and we're sort of delving into the detail now and trying to make the whole package as fast as possible because everyone looks fast this year so hopefully we can we could do something this year definitely andrew's speed is still there and if if we could do something this year would be extra special in gt4 it's all changed with no fewer than 12 drivers making their first british gt starts this weekend jordan collard however is not one of them he was gt4 runner-up in 2020 and he's more determined than ever to claim the title this year i somehow become a gt4 veteran now i've been doing it for about three or four years uh but i remember back in 2019 sort of all the the po pre-covered stuff it was a massive grid then uh and i like a big competitive grid lots of different drivers lots of different cars makes it nice and uh keeps you in my toes katie milner is one of four mclaren development drivers racing with us this year 12 months later than planned she's finally about to make her british gt debut we all kind of agreed it was the right thing to do with the season being compressed and with it being a development programme we didn't have the time in between the races to to really train so you know it's given us all an extra year preparation i think we'd definitely like a few podiums i mean you know the ideal thing would be to go and win the championship but a few podiums through the year maybe even a win would be nice we just want to be consistent and keep learning through the year century motorsport endured a difficult 2020 campaign but andrew gordon colbrook was able to give the team something to smile about when he won the season finale at silverstone he's back again this year this time with a new teammate and the new evo version of the bmw m4 confidence is very high um i think you know it was a it was a real breakthrough moment for me to take that victory at silverson um home race as well i i've grown up sort of in the shadow of that circuit so it was good it was especially good to get it there obviously this being my third year and that being my my first win it was it was really really good um to sort of you know come into this year off the back of such a strong performance um really you know to show that we we can do it as a team the car is capable still after having won the championship in 2018 and yeah we just hope to you know progress and push on from there for this year welcome to a wet windy and wild browns hatch for the opening round of the intelligent money british gt championship david addison and andy mckeown trackside the rain is falling the wind would blow a dog off a chain these are not may conditions they are not what the teams wanted either because after largely a day of dry running yesterday and in a lot of cases virtually only oddly dry testing a wet road is going to be a real shock to the system start time is about 10 minutes away this rain might blow through or andy mckeown it might get even wetter and more treacherous which is not what we need to start the championship uh no absolutely although it will make this and even more unpredictable two hours of racing than we were already anticipating uh it was uh a conversation that i was uh having with a lot of drivers actually after the warm-up session and they were all sort of saying look we don't mind if it rains what we don't really want is wet dry wet dry wet dry because they don't want to be diving into the pit lane every few minutes to change tires they don't really want to be stuck out there on the wrong tyres for too long either so it's gonna be a guessing game as much as anything uh because of this wind it is so windy here today that the rain keeps blowing through and then it reappears again just as quickly as it's gone you've just seen lorna vickers who is the safety car driver we're going to need the safety car of course for the start because fingers crossed it will be the conventional rolling start it might have to be a safety car start if conditions get really nasty but it may well be that that safety car is of course used during the course of the race brands is one of those old-school circuits the drivers love it but uh it is also of course a circuit where if you get it wrong it can bite now the pit lane is open the race has been declared wet in other words the choice for deciding tyres is going to be done by the teams not by the race director but nobody wants to commit nobody wants to put a set of boots on and go to the grid because they want to see what their big rival team is going gonna do first exactly and because you don't want to be stuck on the wrong tires now at the start if you put some wet pirellis on now for the first into the race there is one mandatory pit stop remember for all cars but that doesn't come until around halfway through the race so if you start on wets and then 10 minutes later it starts drying you have a choice mate to be hit for slicks or do we stay out there on old worn overheating wet tyres uh for the full duration of the stint so they're leaving this as long as they possibly can here david to make the choice but they've only got so long before the pit lane closes and after that point you're not then allowed to take your good position and whatever you choose ideally you want to run for the first if you're on a gt4 entry 58 minutes if you're a gt3 car 62 minutes the point of that is you do not want to have to make an extra pit stop to change tires so unless you change on the grid whatever you go for now you want to try and keep until your pit stop the window there's it's not really a window as such but the minimum starting driver time in gt3 is 62 minutes the minimum starting driver time in gt4 is 58 and in both cases there's a maximum of 70. so you can work out but that is effectively when that window is going to be there but it's a minimum drive type rather than a notified window and it does look as though slicks are the way to go the wind is blowing the rail away and it won't take that long for the tires to get up to temperature and start to work through the slippery nature of the circuit now let's uh have a thought about tyres phil keane expert and he is with brit lucas yeah he is i'm standing right next to phil keane here and the rain is still coming down it's not particularly hard but phil the start of a brand new season we wanted a dry race didn't we really well it makes it a bit more exciting don't know i suppose um no i mean i think it'll be dry for the race to be honest with the start i know it's raining at the moment but there's not enough rain at the moment to start on uh wets i don't think so we'll uh we'll see so the strategy for you guys would be stay on slicks and see what happens yeah i think so i think we'll start there i don't think there's not there's no standing water or anything yet so i don't think there's any need to worry at the moment i don't think the range due for 20 minutes really so we'll see it's fit it's very blowy like you say it's not particularly uh it's not particularly raining hard but it is here for you now you've changed teams the same sort of car though so your ambition for this year presumably is to get onto that top step at the end yeah of course yeah i mean same as every year uh starting with a new team and obviously a new co-driver but really enjoying working with wpi they're doing a great job and michael's you know progressing really well so we're hoping just to keep improving throughout the year and you know hopefully get on to the top step by the end well we'll have to wait and see phil thank you very much that's right i'll take issues slightly with phil keane about staying out um until the pit stop it's staying on the track isn't it as much as anything because it is going to be very treacherous indeed and of course he's just said rain isn't due for 20 minutes who's the starting driver it's the am it's the less experienced driver that's a really big ask yeah absolutely and of all the circuits to do it you know if this was silverstone where if you make a mistake you're going to get caught by a big uh friendly tarmac runoff area then you might have a bit more confidence but around here the slightest mistake regardless of the conditions is going to cost you because there are gravel traps there are tire walls there are harmco barriers all of which will do a lot of damage to a gt3 or gt4 racing car they are the clouds that are sort of coming towards us there you can see on board here with the beach dean amr aston martin andrew howard at the wheel now the car he shares with johnny adam these two back together we think for a full season this year and they've stuck it straight on pole position and david these weather conditions now i think will play into their hands because we've seen in the past haven't we the wet conditions don't necessarily favor the mid-engine mclarens and lamborghinis the aston martin already has the track position and now has the track conditions maybe to play into their hands as well i would go along with that and i offer you the mercedes there's another one with all of that talk that sort of grunt and go front engine cars bmw uh would be another one where we would have had a gt3 one in that mix but yeah but the mclarens the lamborghini is maybe not now in their favor you've heard from phil keane that's the car that he shares michael aigo who won at donington last year with andre calderelli he's done a lot of miles in a short space of time but really did come on a pace last year leo machitsuki back in the championship and his co-driver there in the gray jacket great to have him back for a whole season of british gt dennis lind uh he's won the european lamborghini super trofeo championship he's won the world final he's won the what was then block pen gt series asia really accomplished driver is the great dane yeah quick driver and uh has really made a lot of fans over here in the uk very very exciting driver to watch so too is sam neary who shares the number eight team aber racing mercedes with his father richard brim yes absolutely right richard you had a bit of an incident yesterday in fp1 which hand put the amount of time you and sam got to have in the car looking ahead of you got a bit of work to do yeah yeah we have uh not ideal we lost quite a bit of running fp2 but these changing conditions i think may help us uh no one's had a lot of running in this kind of condition so it sort of neutralizes our disadvantage a little bit so what is the plan for these conditions then just wait and see what unfolds in front of me try and keep out of trouble for a couple of laps and uh and and see what goes on yeah i'm having a quick period your tires you've gone for the slicks then even though it's declared wet you've gone for the slick stuff on slipped yeah slicks is the right tire fair enough good luck yes that seems to be the the general consensus doesn't it richard uh is uh quite a character isn't he and sam his son is such a young driver such an inexperienced driver and yet yesterday he was as quick as yeah yelmer berman's and you know and some of your factory gt drivers out there on the grid real talent of the future i think isn't he yeah and he's also pretty handy in esports racing as we've seen over the winter months and uh richard neary good northerner he knows about rain this won't faze him at all will it uh there is the car of reigning champion sandy mitchell he now partners adam ballon so adam ballen will do the first in that car starting fifth on the grid and uh he will hand over to sandy mitchell who of course stays in the championship now i just have a horrible feeling that the reign has blown back in again it's going to be like this i think for the next couple of hours isn't it one lap it'll be less bad at the next lap it might be pretty grim but it's becoming at this late stage now a real test for the teams uh about what they do with tyres now it's not just gt 3 of course there is gt4 as well mark sampson charlie robertson's janessa let's discuss that with bryn lucas mark here we are on the grid for the first time in 2021 in the british gt you're in a new car and you've never done a rolling start yeah and it's just starting to rain as we do this so um that's uh all the variables uh but i guess it's the same for everybody we just have to make a decision i guess on the tyres and um hopefully this rain will blow through pretty quickly and then calm down so for me just looking to make a clean start get around the first few corners in one piece hopefully nothing eventful happens and then settle into a groove and try and put together a good stint you were telling me before the race that the new car is slightly better balanced than the last one from last year yeah obviously has more weight in the nose the v8 engine but it's a transaxle layout so the gearbox has moved to the rear and the overall weight distribution is is better so it's less on a knife edge than the old g55 was it's a bit more of a friendly more balanced car to drive and i think you see that when you see the body language of the car out on track it looks pretty poised um so fingers crossed outside proves uh when we go around today well that's fingers crossed it goes well for you we'll see you at the end hopefully on the podium that would be great thank you very much good luck mark thanks a lot uh yeah great to have jeanetta back in the championship isn't it david it's been quite a while since we had a geneta on the grid but one of the most successful cars uh brands of car in british gt history certainly amongst gt4 uh race victory figures and uh yeah interesting to see how uh that car which is starting uh strongly from second on the gt4 grid gets on in the race i mean the sun is out now the weather really it's proper british spring weather this isn't it if you don't like the weather just wait five minutes because it'll be completely different again and this is such a headache for the teams and drivers i love it it's fantastic because it is an extra dimension yes it's a headache for them but it is something else that they just can't legislate for you can do as much testing as you want you can get the best drivers that you can you can choose what you think is the best car for the championship but the weather gods can throw something else at you you've got mercedes taking on porsche taking on lamborghini taking on mercedes and bentley and aston martin all within gt3 uh in logy and with ioma berman another possible winning combination here again you go through the entry and there are so many competitive entries in let's just take gt3 alone which is now really the domain of pro ams isn't it yeah absolutely so no silver cup entrance which we've seen for the last few years uh become quite popular in gt3 you must be either a pro am or a silver graded driver with a bronze gradient and driver alongside taking it back to its roots really is how it used to be uh very much a pro am series trying to encourage more of the amsterdam race because when there were a whole heap of silver cup entrance in gt3 they were quite a bit quicker than a lot of the am drivers so this makes it a more even playing field in gt4 though we do still have some silver cup entrance and those uh teams have to spend an extra 26 seconds in the pit lane uh during their pit stops which we'll get into a bit later on now david the track there hard to tell in a way but it really doesn't look wet there will be damp areas especially i would imagine out on the grand prix loop but uh right now although it's going to be slippery i think that is manageable i'll go along with that and he's drying out very fast as i said he's a really chilly breezy day but he's drying the road quickly they've all gone for slicks which still seems to be the right way to go we're going to get two green flag laps the second will count within the two-hour duration it's a two-hour race that we have to kick off the season so the first one is the conventional rolling start if you like but then the second lap behind the pace car as it will be he's gonna count within the hour and then we'll go racing proper uh yes we will it's gonna be a fantastic race i'm sure it always is here around brown's house not the easiest place to overtake but these conditions are possibly going to help in that regard away we go then on the green flag lap and it is aston martin versus lamborghini on the front row of the grid the beech dean aston martin uh car number seven of andrew cloud and johnny adam will start on the uh pole position andrew howard a two-time champion of course uh in the british gt championship most recently back in 2015. what a sight what a sound the cars make i have really really missed this let's take a look then shall we uh at the grid andrew howard will start the beach dean amr aston martin from pole position with michael i go for wpi motorsport in the lamborghini alongside him right number two then we have another lamborghini this time from barbell motorsport leo machitsuki making a welcome return to the championship likewise calvin fletcher took a year out last year but he moves up now to gt3 with jrm then we've got behind the bentley on the third row adam ballen in the barwell motorsport lamborghini and richard neary who we spoke to on the grid in his team abba racing mercedes uh he is one of the silver and combos in the gt3 category ian lockheed pro-am champion last year with the albert berman start seventh ahead of morgan tilbrook enduro motorsport making their british gt debut rounding out the top 10 then we have stuart proctor who is sharing with his son lewis for bald motorsport and james cottingham with sam to hand at the moment just a one race entry in the second round racing mercedes just outside the top 10 then within gt3 are nick jones and scott baldwin in their team parker racing porsche and the other porsche the all-amp entry of seamus jennings and greg katon then towards the back end of the gt3 grid we move on to the seventh row of the grid and that will be the summer green boat sports uh lamborghini of lucky cara and the ultimate speed aston martin of michael brown then we move into gt4 and it is century motorsport the team that were on top at the end of last year in gt4 at silverstone are on top getting qualifying here at brown's hat will burn starts from pole with knox ansem in the new geneta alongside him road number two then will be shared by will moore and john ferguson for mustang ahead of toyota supra then we go into the middle part of the gt4 field with chris sulkeld in the second century bmw james kell in the first of the mclarens then it is the stella motorsport audi of richard williams katie milner in the second rocket rjn mclaren ahead of ashley marshall nick halstead uh dave whitmore in the cards with sydney motorsport mercedes and uh alan vallant at the back of the grid uh is uh gonna start right at the back having had an engine change in the third of the rocket rjn mclarens now that is a drama i'm afraid for the number 77 car that is morgan tillbrook in his first ever uh gt3 race day but more they can see the back of grade as we mentioned with alan verlande in the second of those t-rocket rjn mclarens but uh drama already it would seem on the warm-up lap then for enduro motorsport uh and morgan tilbury his first ever british gt race then david uh sadly not getting off to the best of stars no and that car looks like it has been stranded at westfield now can it get going as question one was it a spin or mechanical question too and is this going to delay matters well technically the race is going to be underway now let's see because uh we are then on this second lap and actually the clock hasn't started so let's have a look coming out of westfield and the car is going to appear at the top of the shot obviously it's had a spin hasn't it bounced off the barrier so that is clearly an error and it's not a mechanical drama that scott mccarthy off and so uh the safety car is gonna stay out and it will start this race now under the safety car while that is removed so uh an element of confusion i think that the clock would have started for this lap it hasn't it will start uh next time around and so frustratingly to kick off a championship season all the drama i'm afraid of filling it up of a rolling start letting them loose into paddock we're going to have to wait for because that car needs to be removed peter daley is the series clerk of the course he's a racer himself so you look at this from an official's point of view as well as from the racer's point of view now there is number three mclaren that has come into the pit lane that was the one that had an engine change after yesterday and clearly there's still trouble at mill because alain vallant who is behind the wheel of it sits there as the car he's dotted into the garage uh yeah that is uh a real shame then that's one of the mclaren driver development programme uh cars uh three cars being run by team rocket rjn who of course last year ran uh a car very successfully in the gt3 category which was actually a championship contending car they made the move into gt4 this year with uh as i said two of these mclaren driver development cars uh and then they have uh the number two car which is uh being shared by uh james keller jordan collard which arguably should be championship contenders you should imagine jordan collard runner up in gt4 last year so yeah not best of start for mclaren in general really one gt3 car in the barriers and a gt4 example in the uh pick garages yeah morgan tilbury the inexperienced relatively inexperienced uh driver who has done a bit of gt cup this year but go back to last year he was in the fun cups it's a big step up and in these conditions but that was the point we made on the grid you know the am the less experienced driver is starting and it's bitten right the race is on you may not think it but it is on account of what the clock is ticking it's going to be a safety car start so we have started and at the end of hopefully not too many more laps behind the safety car then we can go racing the road is drying out all the time even though we're at a relatively reduced pace and of course for the teams where amateur driver less experienced driver new driver does that first stint and he's not all that quick this reduces the number of racing laps and therefore the amount of time they're likely to lose your car a very good point and also as much as we would love to see a side-by-side rolling start in these conditions this possibly is actually a safer way of starting the race not how we plan to start it but it might mean that there's a little bit less of a risk of things going wrong into paddock hill bend so uh andrew howe then leads the race and you can see a few windscreen wipers still on there calvin fletcher uh in the jrm uh bentley uh has the uh windscreen wipers going so uh we'll uh maybe there is a bit of rain still out there uh perhaps bryn lucas down into pit lake can give us a weather report so i can give you a weather report it's actually dry now so the the rain seems to have gone where i am in the pits which is very nice but you're looking now at the number three car that's the alan velanka this had a new engine put in overnight they were struggling with a coolant issue it was throwing coolant out the top of the engine they were trying to work out what was going on the issue here is nothing to do with that though this is a pure electrical issue they brought the car in mclaren are looking at it right now they're plugged into diagnostics and they're trying to work out exactly what's going on while alan sits in there waiting to head back out it's um not a great sight for them though at this moment no uh myself and bryn david were down in that carriage earlier on there was a lot of head scratching going on they weren't entirely sure what the latest problem was and that's a real shame for both of these teams that are in strife before the race really starts because uh we were really interested to see how these driver development drivers would uh would get on uh in the gt4 ranks and also it means that we're right now the chance of seeing marcus clutton yeah jump into the enduro motorsport car a bit later on uh in the enduro motorsport example that was a lot of support for this man gokel for a text message to me said a few minutes ago kelvin fletcher is back behind the wheel not behind a microphone for this year not only of course is he very much a racing driver in his own right he's a team boss now he and martin plowman have their own race team that's in uh lower categories other sports car categories like the gt cup for example all part of the build up ideally to take it to higher things so start learning in a a lower spotlight category but calvin fletcher and martin flowerman teaming up at jrm behind the wheel of the bentley that was the plan last year before kobe got in the way but calvin fletcher absolutely delighted to be in his overalls again as a driver uh rather than a presenter of uh gt coverage but that car is gonna be one to watch again keep out of trouble in that first step put martin flower behind the wheel in the second it's gonna be very well worth watching but that's something that kelvin was really good at a couple of years ago in gt4 when he and martin won the gt4 pro am championship and that was very much uh something we saw from calvin he would stay out of trouble didn't get too stuck into silly battles and 50 50 moves he'd hand the car over to martin in a decent position and then we know that plowy is quick and their relationship is really jailed was one of the excellent q a's that motorsport news has been running for the last month which has recently been done with kelvin fletcher in which he makes the point that they gelled straight away and it wasn't some driver thinking oh good right you've got money i'll take money off you will tell you anything you know the relationship has really gelled not only in terms of how they share a car and look at data but can now go to business to run a team together yeah precisely i mean you have to get on with each other to go into business or at least that's that's the theory you can see here out on the grand prix loop by the way the sun is out on the pit straight but out of the back of the circuit uh there is still rain coming down on the windscreens this is the uh gt4 uh pole sitting bmw which is uh the will burns and gus burton car an evo version of the bmw it looks remarkably similar to the uh outgoing bmw but it seems to be handling a bit nicer that's what the drivers were telling me i was chatting to gusberg and chris salkel yesterday they were really raving about this new evo gt4 m4 and this is the new driver partnership for toyota kazoo racing uk john ferguson starts scott mckenna uh will take over john ferguson we've seen in carrera cup gb for the last season or two actually scott mckenna was there as well hello john and john ferguson the jolly irishman has done hundreds of laps around here in a formula ford some of the raw pre-circuit mainly on the indie circuit and if john knows nothing else he knows where the kenticon is uh because if you come to the formula ford festival then you have to go for a pie to the kettle good at the end of it and uh i'm glad to see that speedworks are being able to relate the message that you're on camera so wave and jolly john ferguson he's as i say during the first in scott mckenna we've seen him winning genetic gt5s we've seen him do well in porsha carrera cup last year okay he's new to gt4 he's new to the car but he's going to be another one to watch as the year goes on that's another combination you ignore at your peril oh yeah absolutely and that car was quick last year they seemed to be plagued by misfortune that team really they should have had a lot more uh podiums than they ended up getting and they certainly should have won a race but uh right from the off at alton park at the start of last year that toyota looked like the full package now as you look at number six mercedes going into 30s into the pit lane is coming the low loader with the uh tillbrook mclaren on the back of it so the road is now clear it's up to peter daley to decide whether he lets them go this time or gives them one more lap possibly at a quicker pace to really get the pirellis up to temperature uh yes because they'll have lost a lot of heat obviously when they go on to the cars they come out of uh ovens which keep the the tyres up at a nice temperature but of course they were sat on the grid for a while they've now been driving around in this sort of drizzle that we have here at brand's hatch this afternoon the tyre temperature will have dropped brake temperature likewise and when you arrive at paddock hill bend at full racing speed for the first time you want those to be nicely at the temperature and the lights are out so we are going to go this time good on you peter so he gives the instruction uh lorna vickers behind the wheel of the safety car will start to accelerate clear to therefore give andrew howard who will head the pack for space to go racing so finally green flags are ready andy uh yeah let's properly now get the 2021 season underway then after a safety car start we are about to get to racing speed with andrew howard in beach dean aston martin at the head of the field he accelerates out of clark curve comes across the start finish line and we are racing in 2021 andrew howard leads them into paddock hill bend for the first time with the pair of lamborghinis right behind him with chitsky already on his toes to try and get the inside of michael i go and here a bit further back we've got james cottingham uh a much uh more a much newer car than he's used to racing it has to be said he's a bit of a historic racing ace uh making a move there i think on stuart proctor into paddock hill ben they're all cleanly through the first quarter or so and no one for the time being at least getting too carried away i love the rather cheeky flash of the lights from michael i go on the start though to try and unsettle andrew howard got to get up earlier to do that though so riding on board with adam balon at the moment fifth in the lamborghini they all concertina down towards 30's there is james cottinger rather cheekily having a look on the inside to try and get past ian logie ian's much more experienced a modern-day gt racer but james cottinger who is a very accomplished historic racer indeed going from 1960s cars even up to sports prototypes of the early naughties uh he is taking to gt racing gt3 cars in particular like adapter water isn't he uh yeah absolutely and i'll tell you what seamus jennings there in that gcat racing porsche is also looking really strong he topped the warm-up times this morning read into that what you will but he's on his toes here to try and get on the inside of stuart proctor this is all getting a bit dicey through westfield and now lucky cara gets a run on him and just as i say nice things about sheamus he ends up losing a place and falls to the back of the gt3 field and there adam balon is under attack look from richard neary that is the fifth place i was about to point out as well but on the back of that little gt3 fight we were looking at was the gt4 leading bmw which is staying with them will burns doing a very very impressive job in the bmw m4 then for uh academy sorry for century motorsport as the leaders come across the line then proper flying lap in the book andrew howard leads michael i goes there richard niren goes to the outside line against out of bala the mercedes breaks very very late going into paddock around the outside tries to go richard neary that was brave and it didn't quite work he stays on the island but that was a really courageous effort for richard neary yeah and a big squeeze by ballad on the exit of the corner and richard i think had to bail out of it otherwise they both might have been heading for the barriers that was pretty tight as they uh hence out of powder kill then so howard then leads the first lap by not very much over mike ligo in second place i go less than a car length behind him as they go into cersei's machitsuki third kelvin fletcher fourth that's grid order but game on here for the race lead and more headlight flashing here for mike ligo he wants to relieve andrew how does this race lead happening though is it the gap at the start of the lap was three ten zeigo had done the quicker lap at the end of the first flyer so that lamborghini has got pace he wants to be ahead it's machitsuki third it's kelvin fletcher fourth adam balon is there in fifth place in sixth spot still richard neary as they power now out of westfield but andrew howard is he a cork in the bottle i go of this section certainly looks like he's got greater pace doesn't he no he's a little bit stuck he knows he's got to get past the aston as quickly as possible before machitsuki or fletcher gets up with him yeah fletcher was all over machits there into sterling so we could see a few positions changing here in the leading quartet on board with kelvin fletcher a much better exit out of sterling's pulse to the outside of machita into clearways now the grip might be on the outside line in the wet conditions but he didn't fancy braving it out an example there i think of that cautious driving style that we were uh talking about for calvin fletcher pre-race into pada kygo has a big look at the inside of andrew howard a sort of half effort to go through he has a good exit out of paddock though and this time he is fully alongside and lamborghini goes to the front wpi motorsport then leading the way and now i go should be able to pull away because he looks in these conditions to be a bit more confident than howard but andrew however did the right thing he gave him racing room he wasn't going to get into a fight and risk either of them going off or indeed be caught by the others so he knows that in his armory he's got a johnny adam uh we've also had like richard neary get past adam ballard and pull away and behind this in seventh place there you can see the mercedes is james cottingham first ever gt3 race he's done the fastest lap of the race i know it's early but james cottingham welcome to modern day gt racing come back again because this is a really impressive debut but he's pulled nearly four and a half seconds on logging in the last lap and a half that is astonishing and ian has done many more laps in that car than james cottingham has and now he's challenging adam ballen who's been a championship contender for the last couple of seasons into sheen curve is not really where you want to be overtaking but he had the run saw the gap bailed out of it at the last second what about sterling the mercedes he's good on the brakes but so is the lamborghini balance stays ahead for now james cottingham contrasting this with all the historic sports cars he's driven and he's thinking it's got arrows he's got grip he goes where a point is this is mega and you can see the pace that he's got he's right there on the back of ballon then as the leaders go by with i go clear by 1.2 seconds and now michael i go michael my god uh has done the fastest lap of the race howard is second but he's still third you're on board four this is calvin fletcher's view there's barely a spot of rain on the windscreen now and he's looking for a way to get past the russian driver leo machitsuki and these two are lapping quicker than andrew howard so second third fourth are starting to batch up uh yes and richard near he's only a couple of seconds behind them and sort of matching their pace too with a 129.2 on the previous lap so we could get a big queue of cars here and in these conditions when you can search around for a bit of grit maybe you don't have to stick to the traditional racing line perhaps they will be able to find a way past the aston martin out onto the grand prix loot we go i bet the continental of kelvin fletcher has been topping the speed traps pretty much all weekend so it is good in a straight line it's a big imposing car to have in your mirrors as well but leonard chitsuki is a very experienced driver and he's not made a mistake yet so kelvin fletcher then hard at work comes out of westfield makes the climb up towards sheen curve again we've talked about it in the past bran's hatch is not the widest of circuit so to make a pass you have got to be brave you've got to be committed but right now the bentley looks the quicker looks the stronger that lamborghini dancing around the road looks a lot more nervous up front and here's the grunt and go bently then is there going to be an opportunity to make the move at clark curve not this time but look leo machinski is feeling that pressure yeah he is gets off the corner well though actually fletcher needs to time this better i think he is quicker and you're right he can carry more speed through the corners because that front engine bentley just has a bit more stability in these still quite greasy conditions the trouble is you can carry all the mid-quarter speed in the world but if there's a car parked on the racing line you can't really drive through it and it's difficult to go around it so leo machinski is making this difficult to pledge against very sideways through druids i think he almost ran into the back of machitsuki there and as he maybe had to dab on the brakes to avoid him that unsettled the car good save made there by kelvin then uh it was indeed yes so uh got a little bit too close for comfort however um there was no tangling involved in that he saved the slide and kelvin fletcher will be able to catch back up as adam balon is still having to go defensive james cottingham all over him like a rash so you've got the farwell run lamborghini ahead of the ram racing mercedes which was really an entry on the grid courtesy of sam'dahan wanting to do the race and james cottingham said yeah go on i'll drive it with you i'm glad he did because he's looking really really strong now what's going on in toyota gazoo racing uk world john ferguson here hard at work behind the wheel of the supra another car that makes a great noise that and within the overall order at the moment where do you find the toyota of john ferguson he is in 19th spot he's second in pro am in gt4 uh yes overall in gt4 it's the will brigade you've got will burns and will more first and second actually separated by the ultimate speed gt3 aston martin on the inside line looks chris salkel then in harriet's chariot and he gets into the side of the toyota off goes john ferguson backwards into the gravel trap and i don't think he'll be able to dig his way out of there no and that i'm afraid he's going to be a yellow flag it's going to be a safety car to get him out john ferguson then with only a little rub it's enough to unsettle the car because it's all loaded up as you turn through the corner around it goes slippery road as well making it harder to save and yes there's going to be a case to answer there isn't there so whether we're going to have to have the race neutralized we'll wait and see the one thing the one possible thing that might just help is the wet gravel compact but these are heavy cars so can john ferguson gently dig it out of there or is it going to have to be a snatch vehicle the other thing is it's going to be close to the edge of the road i'm not overly optimistic about this uh no well if you cast your mind back to brands hatch last year we had a safety car caused by the team park racing bentley going off in exactly that position so uh very similar situation you'd imagine therefore a similar outcome safety car wise yellow flanks then out of hawthorne here is the replay so carl had the run and he had the inside line to be fair he's just not fully alongside really hard to tell from that angle who to give the blame to just an unfortunate meeting in the middle really this is how john ferguson felt it turns in he was ahead he could not see that bmw he was ahead uh yes he was uh salkheld will claim that he was on the inside he can't just turn into me but then uh racing drivers don't often agree in situations like this do though there are two sides to every story what we can say for sure though is that toyota is going nowhere so the safety car is being scrambled indeed so so we've had a safety car start and then safety car deployed in the race and you can see how far through the gravel john ferguson has gone uh despite my optimism about wet gravel compacting i'm not going to get out of that beach i'm afraid so that's a real real shame isn't it a car that we've just been talking about the pace of and it seems that whatever else has happened over the winter the bad luck gremlin is still living at speed works it's not gone away no absolutely not and again the pace that car and that team have uh is not really yielding the results that they deserve you could argue but it's a long season they'll be back again next time i'm sure that silverstone to try and uh hopefully get that first victory for the toyota in the british gt so race neutralized them behind the safety car michael aigo's lead that he built up which was actually only a second or so before the safety car came out uh that will now be uh disappearing finally already has andrew howard has caught him as they go on to the grand prix circuit howard's second machitsuki third kelvin fletcher fought richard neary fifth and adam balon sick cottingham will be a bit frustrated in a way that he didn't get past ballon before the safety car came out because then the safety goal would have bridged that gap to the leading group but uh cottingham i'm sure will be keen to move forward again on the restart as we get another look at the contact down into the right-hander and there's the contact and around goes the toyota john ferguson gave plenty of room to chris selkeld and have a look out on the front of the car find me a bmw you can't see it no you're absolutely right and uh unfortunately it is the car on the outside there's always going to be quite worse than that and somehow will not have done that intentionally either it's worth uh stressing uh you know they are out there to race after all but you need to know don't you as an am driver especially which moves to go for and which ones to back out of you know we've got nearly an hour and three quarters left of this race risk versus reward was it worth putting your car in that position perhaps not exactly it's not a 20-minute ginetta sprint is it you know there's a co-driver to factor in who's also paying money to be in the car uh and there are more ways to to win a battle you say yes knowing where to hold and when to fold anyway the net result is we've got a toyota in the gravel the safety car is on the track and let's have a quick look at some of the top speeds along the random straight and the fastest because he's got heavy dancing shoes on he's kelvin fletcher 142.7 miles an hour seamus jennings is quick in the porsche 141.2 andrew howard third in terms of straight line speed 141 give or take miles an hour then richard neary and of course that man james cottingham uh fifth in terms of ultimate speed through the first speed trap which is along the uh random straights along the uh the fact where the timing line is so coming out of clark curve towards paddock fastest lap by the way leo machitsuki so we've been talking about him coming under attack from calvin fletcher and uh he has now been able to set the fastest lap the incident involving chris selkeld and john ferguson is under investigation and of course somebody with an opinion on that scott mckenna co-driver of the toyota he's with bryn yeah i just grabbed scott scott you had to really watch back on the screen what was going on there from your opinion what do you think what's your reaction i think it's too early to say yeah i think we need to just have a little look through what's happened and not make any any pre-judgments but you know it's it's one of those things not it's nothing we can necessarily control and we've actually got it on the monitor now if we just take you over to the monitor in your garage if we wander over there come with us we'll do like a live walk and talk as we go we're going to put it back on for you so you can have a look can you just talk us through give us some reaction as you see it yeah so i think hawthorne is one of those corners it's really really quick not necessarily a big braking zone so a lunge wouldn't be my choice of maneuver there it's one of those things these things happened whether it's um whether it's one of those where where there is blame blame to be had or or it's just a race incident i'm not quite sure but uh it's a shame we're not out it's uh we've got one hour 40 to go so we've got a long time yet and hopefully we can we can pull back some of that okay so you're hoping to be able to get it back get it out and get out on track absolutely i'm hoping so it's not looking too promising as we speak um but you never know it it's not over yet we can we can keep our fingers crossed and we'll go from here yeah well uh doesn't degrade the moment fingers crossed for you that's right fingers crossed thank you if they can get back out it is worth going back out because others might drop out and there are points to be scored in your class and at the end of the season especially bearing in mind that this race is extra points because it's a longer race so you get more for each position okay they're already three laps down but if they can keep circulating and others may have a problem even if it's only the last points-paying position in the class it's worth getting something yes because it has been known hasn't it as their you can see the total of john ferguson back on its way now is there damage that's the next question i think there is right rear corner maybe the car is crabbing a little so again they can get that fixed but how many laps they will lose doing so uh it's another matter entirely but yeah have been known for these championships we decided by a point or two hasn't it and the one thing you don't want to do is get to the end of the year lose the championship by a couple of points and think well if only we got back into the race at brown's hatch if only we'd score that extra five points just by getting the car to the end so worth getting out there if they can uh but given the uh damage that's been incurred there that might be easier said than done yeah it's gonna be a test for them so the car will head to the pit lane disappointment all round but yes it uh illustrates the whack it took we thought it was just a tag and a spin but if it's done that to the suspension you can see the way it was crab like heading down towards this corner westfield then uh it might well be completely order combat it's got to the pit lane so whether it goes completely in the straight line or not it's still got a bit of pace in it but gonna be an even longer stop what this now means of course is that the road is clear and the safety car which uh is being actually done more laps than one of the racing mclarens at the moment uh still out there but we should be going racing fairly swiftly uh lights are still on so there's gonna be one more lap at least behind the safety car as the toyota arrives and the toyota kazoo racing uk brackets speedworks motorsport team go to work assess the damage and we'll get that crab-like supra into the garage and see what if anything can be done uh yes they of course as the car came back onto the road it brought with it quite a bit of the gravel in which it had been buried so i think that's possibly the reason for this extra lap behind the safety car so the marshals can uh get the get the brooms out get the tracks swept and then we should be able to go racing again this time and of course we're ticking now towards we're nearly half an hour through this race uh as david said earlier on we're leading into the am driver time now uh so the gaps are all closing up the cars are all gonna be closer to each other and that actually has an even bigger effect in gt4 because in gt4 we do still have these silver cup entrance and they have to spend nearly half a minute more in the pit lane than the pro ams 26 extra seconds and uh speaking to mark santos actually this morning because of course in a pro am entered ginetta he was saying that look if we get a safety car in the early stages i can let those silver graded drivers go i don't need to fight them uh because i know that i can get 26 seconds back at the pit stop so this safety car is really going to help some of the gt4 pro out absolutely right and uh those two gt4 cars we've just been talking about chris selkelde john ferguson bmw toyota they're both pro am so again comes back to your point about knowing you know where to pick your battles which battles to go fight for safety car then should be in this time the road now is clear that's the race lead the lesser you forget michael i go andrew howe leon machitsuki second and third kelvin fletcher four if you almost forget that we had rain about 20 minutes ago because now the circuit looking dry once again richard neary is fifth out of ballon is six james cottingham is seventh here loggie is eight lucky cara he's ninth nick jones is tenth and the light should be out on top of the safety car then as it comes down towards clearways this is the view from onboard kelvin fletcher's bentley the green flags will be ready and so at the end of lap 13 we are racing again at brands hatch and michael igogo has made an absolute peach of a restart look he's gone and howard and machitsuki fight it out for second place yeah machinski only a behind into paddock and he will want to get on with this now because he doesn't want the renewed pressure from calvin fletcher that he was experiencing before the safety car came out out of paddock they go on board with fletcher in fourth that's the battle for second ahead of us machitskiy in the balboa motorsport lamborghini looks to the outside at druids that doesn't work and then of course he has to get back to the inside to cover from a possible attack from fletcher behind and just behind us here is richard neary in fifth position in the mercedes this is a real uh close group of cars heading down the cooper strait and into sirtes uh andrew howard maybe now starting to warm to the task though just gets a bit more of an advantage as they head out onto the grand prix loop but michael i go so impressive wouldn't you consider that he's a relatively recent addition to national motorsport he is driving like a veteran isn't it andrew howard came from minimalism to british gt he's raced in european le moys had his le mans involvement very very experienced leo machitsuki the very first gt3 champion when it was a class within the championship rather than the main class he runs third kelvin fletcher fourth and their richard neri in fifth place in the amber racing mercedes and for sixth place you've now done it codigum is ahead of balance so the mercedes has dived through the pink panther takes another step forward james cottingham really impressive and now can he catch the next group i suspect he might be able to we'll see what the gap is this time as they come out of uh clark curve to complete this the uh faulty flap of racing we know that mike ligo has this decent lead now but that battle for second as they continue to hold each other up and then coupled with the pace that james cotterman has naturally i think he should be able to get there before much longer he's 1.8 seconds behind that mercedes that we can see here of richard neary riding on board with the bentley looking backwards of richard neary uh who again has had a pretty decent start this race kept out of trouble first and foremost and has been showing some strong pace as well down into graham hill then they go there is the gap at the head of the field i go the leader then it's howard machitsuki fletcher neary and wait for it there is james cottingham already i would say starting to gain on them he has just done the absolute best of anybody in the first sector he's a weapon so james cottingham he's absolutely fly sixth place the fastest left in the race is a 127.3 now i go is it clearer because he's the leader then you've got this queue of cars the next one in clearer is cottingham so he can maximize this for the next lap or two but it won't be long before he's up with richard neary uh yeah absolutely and once he gets there he'll want to try and pounce quickly because uh you do get uh uh quite a bit of aero washing these gt3 cars these days that's why these cars that are running nose to tail are holding each other up even if they're not running side by side you just can't run as quickly behind another car as you could in clean air so if you're james cottingham and you're arriving with some momentum you want to take advantage of that because once you get sort of sat behind them for a lap or so you end up running at their pace so uh i'm sure he will have a go when he gets there he's made some good overtakes already in this race uh it'll be interesting to see how far up this top six now he can climb indeed so and kelvin fletcher in the meantime sees richard neary coming so he wants to get on with this quest to get past leo mcginsky and out wide goes kelvin fletcher gets it back onto the road but a tiny little error could spell this after he got away with that but look richard neary now is right on his tail yeah mercedes is looming large now behind calvin fletcher's bentley down into graham hill then they go now near he will have seen that he'll want to take advantage he knows that fletcher's got a bit of dirt on his left-hand side tyres it might have rattled kelvin a bit as well put him off his stride so now is the time to attack and near he is attacking takes a very tight line through 30s but tight on the way in is slow on the way out and all of the headlight flashing in the world richard is not going to buy you that speed back down the straight but it might just falls a little mistake out of kelvin fletcher there's i go in the lead howard is second leo machitsuki third that car looking really nervous at the start of the race looking a bit more stable now kelvin fletcher is the one feeling the pressure he's fourth richard neary is there in fifth place and then james cottingham is sixth his last lap was a 27.9 which means that he's on a comparable pace to the race leader at the moment in actual fact and there are purple sectors coming from andrew howard from kelvin fletcher in the middle sector here the middle sector ending just at the approach to sterling so the road gets drier and as the cars get lighter and as the tires get warmer again so they're going quicker yeah definitely the track is now quicker than it's been at any point isn't it we're seeing not just purple but green personal best sectors coming in uh left right and center as well uh right back to gt4 there is will burns well the other century motorsport car has been in the wars but this one is still running really strongly he leads the way with now will moore not that far behind him actually michael brown has finally overtaken the gt4 leader for position i remind you in that gt3 aston martin so there are now known cars between the top two in gt4 and of course it's the mustang from academy motorsport that won here last year so no surprise really to see it running well again yeah that bmw the will burns gus burton cars an interesting combination of drivers because it was well that won the genetic super cup last year from gus uh so uh if you can't beat him join him seems to be the go there and they've made a good combination gus burton was very quick but really unlucky in the british gt esports championship that we had at the start of the year that was won uh by james baldwin but uh gus made the move to esports gt3 had pace but seemed to get all the bad luck in the world so he's back behind the wheel of a gt4 car there is the bmw ahead of the mustang now those two have checked out haven't they as far as the audi there is concern that's got a whole cube behind it mclaren ginetta next up but the richard williams driven audi so busy defending it's falling away from the top two just to show how much lockdown changes your outlook on life i never thought i'd see the day david i heard you're referring to esports events in the british gt race but uh british gt had their own esports competition of course which i know you were involved in and it looked fantastic and yeah good to see a lot of the real world drivers getting involved and maybe uh managing to generate a few more esports racing fans right back to the real thing now though there was uh richard neary here continues to apply the pressure to kelvin fletcher and as he does so so they fall back away again from howard and machits richard neary tries the inside line heading up towards druids thinks about it on the inside line fletcher goes wide richard neary tries to get up alongside him on exit of the corner couldn't quite do it as they come down the hill does he try the inside line for graham hill banned not quite again he's got the pace now can he make a move at the end of the straight going into 30s just a little bit too far back calvin fletcher has still got the wiper on but richard nearly shaking attention that's cottinger making a mistake he has been our star term thus far he's just about got away with that i think uh yeah i think he went through the grass maybe the gravel but i just caught a glimpse out of the window of him rejoining the circuit let's see if he's still there we wait we wait we wait well he is but he's dropped back behind adam ballen now so a lot of the hard work that he's done in the first 30 minutes of this race sadly has now been undone and with dirt on his tyres he's actually now holding up his teammate ian logan don't forget that as impressive as this performance is for james cottingham at the moment this 69 card he shares with sam duhan is only racing here this weekend so if at any point in this race 69 is ahead of six and six looks a bit quicker i wonder whether maybe there'll be some messages flying backwards and forwards over the radio uh here's the at the moment david hard to see what starts it but certainly ends up off the road he does i think he just put himself on a slightly wet patch under braking and rather than fight the car just eased it on the wrong line admittedly but let it flow so james codding does lose time richard neary in the meantime though he's right back onto the tail of kelvin fletcher now here he comes again he had to go here a lap back the mercedes looks to be pretty good on the brakes but not as good as it needs to be this time the gap comes down through the corner rather than into it so again richard neary is almost there so nerium yet so far you could argue he comes out of graham hill bend again the car twitches a little as he comes on to cooper straight but kelvin fletcher looking unflappable isn't he yes but again he has this sort of steely reserve doesn't he doesn't make many mistakes he absorbs pressure pretty well oh we saw that from his gt4 pro am campaign a couple of years ago speaking of gt4 here is the ginetta then mark sansom's still at the wheel and he's got chris salkel behind him now uh mark watch out because chris is not backwards in coming forwards as we've seen and as they head out onto that gp loop the very powerful bmw i'm sure is gonna be looking to make another move now you talk about that bmw just to finish the story the toyota has officially been retired so the damage is sufficient so the uh damaged suspension has done for the toyota it is out of the race i'm afraid to say whereas the aggressor crystal kelt carries on in 19th place overall that's going to be investigated after the race right okay yeah i'm sure that discussion will rumble on for a while this evening uh this then is the fight as you said for uh 18th place overall but for one two three four fifth place in gt4 overall uh and mark sansom is actually leading in the pro am element of the race this is essentially the battle for the gc4 pro-am lead and actually having said that the geneta might be under pressure in a straight line they've got a good engine haven't they now in that brand new geneta and he gets away from salkel slightly and reels in james kell ahead now kell of course has had a car change over the winter he was in the toyota and now he's part of the team rocket rjn squad sharing with last year's gt4 runner-up jordan colored yeah and james i know you didn't have a win last year and you talked about the bad luck the toys ahead but james just got on with the job he learned he didn't make a big song and dance about it didn't talk himself up he was quite happy to learn and develop racing at this level for the first time and those lessons look like they're being put into good practice because here he is at the moment running uh what fourth in gt4 and under pressure not making a mistake the ginetta g56 behind i think it's a typo don't you but as you say it's the new car mark samson at the wheel of it and then chris salk up next in the queue and we've still got an hour and 26 minutes to go so when he put the second driver in all of this is gonna look rather different uh yeah absolutely and they are certainly within 26 seconds of the overall gt4 leaders who will have to spend 26 seconds longer in the pit lane than the pro ab entrance uh right we're riding on board with a gt3 car and we're looking back at a mercedes this is a bit of a theme isn't it this is adam ballen for the second time in this race uh trying to keep james cottingham behind now he wasn't too successful in doing that uh straight after the safety car restart has he now learnt maybe where cotton cottingham is quicker and how much of a risk will he be willing to take to try and keep the mercedes behind as there finally richard neary goes up the inside of calvin fletcher at paddy kill bend and moves the team have a racing mercedes up into fourth position fletcher tries to fight back there in the bentley into druid's corner he's on the wrong side of the road though and it looks as though richard neary will make the move stick yeah so that mercedes at the moment up into fourth place is the best of the mercedes the ram racing cars not having the same pace in this first stint are they uh despite the efforts of uh ian loggie and of course james cottingham so richard neary release finally he's up in a fourth place let's see how long he's going to be before he gets on to terms with via machitsuki there is james cottingham so he's on the back of adam balon ian loggie still there in eighth place which i have to sound surprised about i would have thought that ian with his experience i know he's not been in it since silverstone last year but with his experience of the car of the circuit i would have thought he'd be further up there bearing in mind that they've already been bunched up once by the safety guard yes and of course ian and the alva were the pro am champions last year so now that we've had this shift in focus two pro-am entrants really in the gt3 category there was an argument to say they were one of the championship favorites now i know we're not even halfway through the first race of the season but you're right i did expect to see a bit more out there maybe they're fighting some sort of setup issue or maybe they've had a knock in the early stages there are any number of uh excuses i mean reasons that they might be able to give us after uh for the slight lack of pace in the early stages the toyota supra out with uh damage suspension the lower control arm we understand so a big frustration for the team what looked like a fairly innocuous tap did far more damage than you can tell from the outside right here you go again ballon versus cottingham the mercedes gobbling up the lamborghini tries the outside line up towards paddock and james cottinger looks to the inside line he's going to try and line up the move heading into druids but adam balon is wise to that so as you look across the defuser there the back of the lamborghini james cottingham shows the nose outside to the inside can he pounce now then as the cars are about to blast downhill he can't out of balance certainly has lurked from the earlier battle that they had because he knows exactly where to put the car uh yes he does doesn't it he's backing cutting him up now into his teammates and logging loggie is now quicker than this pair and he's starting to close in behind he's not quite with his striking distance yet but he's getting there out onto the gp loop now let's see who has the edge in a straight line we're on board with the lamborghini that is the amg behind us and there is absolutely nothing to choose between the two of them so uh the lamborghini sort of has the same gap as they go into the portfolio that it has going out onto that straight through the corner though looks as though maybe cutting them just with a bit more front end grip through the high speed stuff that is where the front engine cars have the advantage of more weight over the front axle keeps the front tires digging into the ground a bit more but through the tight technical first half of the lap fallon maybe has the edge just thinking forward here going into the second step phil key 2.3 seconds ahead of johnny adam who is four attempts ahead of dennis lind it's gonna be a tasty second half isn't it as cottingham then closes right up under breaking coming down towards clark curve remember that in gt3 the start driver has to do an hour and two minutes so they've got another 24 or so to be out there for uh yeah absolutely and uh as much as he's enjoying himself i'm sure won't be that unhappy to see the pit lane window open because he has got this immense pressure from james cottingham behind him ian loggie is now right with them as well as ballon for the second lap in a row runs wide at druid but there's just not enough of a gap on the inside for cottingham to go through he bailed out of that particular mover but he's he's asking all the right questions of ballon isn't it and ballon is just starting to let a few mistakes creep in he's missing his breaking point he's missing the apex a little bit again cottingham takes the tight inside line at st certi's gets a big big slide on the exit as well this is a great battle it is indeed and to make the point again james new to gt3 racing but you think he'd be doing season after season after season so it's a well set up car be done shuffle bottom ram races well there's the sister car of ian loggie who will give way to uh yamaburman but ian 13 seconds off the race lead he's giving yelmer a lot of work to do uh yes he is and again out of the corner comes james cotton he's got the inside line no not quite ballon holds on cottingham still looking but wasn't able to get fully alongside you don't really want to go side by side through sheen curve i would think but then maybe there's a reason i'm a commentator not a gt racer because james cottingham was certainly thinking about it didn't work though and the tight line again loses in time balance stretches back out again as they come into clearways and clark curve and just ahead of them david traffic we have stayed green for long enough now that they have caught the back of the gt4 ramp indeed so and i'm just kidding as you look at the traffic there's the sicily motorsport mercedes being negotiated that is dave whitmore at the wheel of it but that car uh it's a team due to the championship very successful in british touring car circles sicily motorsport dave whitmore at the wheel i'm getting a bit worried about calvin fletcher because his lap times have really dropped off now that he's not having to fend off richard neary he's napping in the 29s but those ahead are in the 27s or 28s and that bentley admittedly these cars are in the 29s but they're squabbling kelvin fletcher has nobody around him and the lap times have suddenly dropped off so maybe the bentley has a bit of an issue unless he caught traffic at um in opportune mode if you catch a gt4 car through sheen curve or sterling's for example you could lose a second and a half in a corner just by having to bail out of the move and following them through so given the benefit of the doubt we'll see all these lap times like now back in uh clean air again on board in the front grill here of the ram racing mercedes of ian loggie as he heads through westfield corner grandstand view of that battle ahead of it between ballon and cottingham that's still raging on here for sixth position cottingham keeps looking at all of the same places but they're not working are they i know he's hoping to force a mistake out of balan but he's gonna have to get really inventive here if he's gonna actually make a move yeah the move at paddock starts now good run out of sterling's do not make a mistake get the momentum through clark curve get the line right so that you're close coming up towards the line and then you can pounce let's see is he near enough the lamborghini good with the arrow cut through the air nicely ian loggy's view as cottingham again lines up for the inside line oh so close james is going to commit just contacted around they both go both into the gravel ian loggie survives it they're both on the lip of the road cottingham committed but maybe it was a bit too late we'll see it from the outside hopefully that's surely going to be another safety car because they are absolutely on the lip of the road safety car straight away he's called for by peter daley the clerk of the course and quite understandably so and james cottingham i'm afraid has blossomed his coffee book a little bit there it would appear from the onboard shot we'll see it from the outside i'm sure and the race leader manages to get a back marker between himself and the opposition as we go safety car for the second time high drama and that's a real shame that james cottingham's race ends that way shame out of balance race ends that way but for a gt3 rookie james cottingham had been absolutely outstanding to that point yeah so certainly the most exciting driver on track in that first stint but you sensed there was maybe a bit of frustration creeping in there he'd been sat behind balance so long he'd passed balon once already in the race and then threw it away with that mistake at 30s and he tried so many times to make the move cleanly finally had the inside line and you sensed that he kind of thought well i've got the inside i've got to go for it now but he was just a bit too far back there's that big bump in the road as you break for paddock as well which can unsettle the car we'll see a replay momentarily i'm sure of what happened but a real shame that what had been a star performance up to that point has to end in the paddock ben gravel trap indeed the only consolation from out of balance point of view you could argue is that the biter bit in all of that because it's not just him that's off it is the aggressor james cottinger but i'm trying to get them out i think they're so close to the edge of the road just a bit of traction they might just be able to go forward well that's the leader michael i go and uh we have then andrew howard in second place leo machitsuki third gaps slightly irrelevant but what is interesting of course is the traffic between uh the first and second cars so there's the bmw that uh had fallen behind but has been waved back past the lead car so it will get its lap back and that was a very very good example of how a safety car period should be done call for the boards and the flags everybody slows down safety cars they're ready and waiting the officials well briefed wave past the bat marker and pick up the race leader perfect why can't it always be like that uh yes i'm not gonna give you an answer let's uh what i can tell you is what happened at paddy kilburn let's have a look then joe cottingham's not that close is he really balanced defending when he doesn't really need to leaves the door open and cottingham i just don't think that was going to work he was a long long way back ballon was always going to commit to the corner and then you hit that bump just there you can see the car hop and at that point the car goes light he can't get it stopped but of course it's too late to do anything about it by that point you've committed to your breaking point you can't break any harder and he probably knew that they were going to make contact long before they actually did not a big hit so it shouldn't have done any damage to the cars i don't think there's any secondary contact either that's worth worrying about as they slide simultaneously into the gravel trap so hopefully they'll get going again just look at ian loggie here because he's watching that ahead of it now look how close he got to the edge of the road he was way off the apex yeah so it's almost as though he was judging his speed against james cottingham and i think you're right the door was left open by adam ballard and it was almost as though james was so focused on the doors open this is my big chance that that got in the way almost of a setting where he had to stand on the anchors uh yes indeed the spectators that are uh situated in paddock hill then then getting their first taste of drama in uh in quite a few months i'd imagine trackside uh good to have the spectators back that's always a popular place uh to go and watch from and we'll see why right let's head down to the pit lane with brim yeah thanks andy i'm here with sam sam you just witnessed what happened with your teammate from your opinion what did you see i think um james just went for a move and uh he came from a little bit too far maybe the door was it wasn't left as far over as he thought it's unfortunate because i think that he um he had a really good stint he was driving the car really well he's been improving you know every session this weekend and he had a great start to the race as everyone saw so it's a it's a bit of a shame but these things happen that's racism it was a real fight between him and adam we've heard a little bit about aero wash coming into play here and not being able to get past is that one of the big problems and james maybe just decided to chuck it in the corner hoping to get through yeah i think when you get within 10th or 210th of the car in front you can have a serious issue with aero every car has the same thing but um you should divide your time and pick the right spot and unfortunately james just might pick the the wrong time to go for it then but um like i said that's racing some come off some don't yeah absolutely if you turn to the screen for a second we're just going to put on the replay if we can get an immediate sort of reaction try and get your thoughts as we as we put it up for you here we go what do you think happened there if you talk us through [Music] i mean it's close it's a 50 50. you know half the time then that could come off sometimes it doesn't and that happens it's a shame for adam and for james but um i'm sure he didn't mean it on purpose but these things happen yeah racing is that sometimes you've got to go for it thanks anyway thanks there's the replay again and come back to ian loggy i mean he was heading off in his own incident yes but i first saw it i assumed he was that far to the outside because he was sort of distracted didn't know where they were going but i think you're right i think he was that focused on what his teammate was doing breaking point was that he almost followed him off right that is adam ballen uh back in the race i don't know whether they've managed to get the man racing mercedes back on track as well uh he's throwing gravel all over the racing line through druids for which his uh fellow drivers will thank him later i'm sure because that's going to make life a bit slippery on the restart uh but he will bring that car possibly into the pit lane they don't want to make an extra pit stop of course they can't count this as the mandatory stop because uh the minimum driver time for the gt3 drivers hasn't yet elapsed uh but if there's no damage i suppose he can pick up at the back of the queue and i think he's only lost the one well hasn't he thus far and the safety car is going to be in this time so uh adam balon is just going on to the grand prix loop he's almost another lap down because he's just gone out of certies which is the corner at the end of the straight they're turning on to uh and he's going to reduce pace of course so lights are out where is the cottingham mercedes has that got going again as well bit lame david lane right yes oh he's just made it there now yeah yeah just don't call it you can't really miss that flash of pink i wouldn't like you as he came to the pit lane so one thing i've also noticed david as well is that this has it's an unfortunately timed safety car for the gt4 field because some of them had gone a lot down uh and others hadn't so i think that's possibly nick halstead uh who uh or no it might be actually marshall in the number 90 car who i think is the first gt4 car one lap down so everyone running ahead of him which is about just over half of the gt4 field essentially gain a lap on him now that's right unfortunately for him yes um so there number 69 mercedes goes into the garage that will be attended too and it might go back out for mileage so there is number 90. it has got a lap down the team saying can we unlap ourselves but technically you shouldn't so the answer is no and it means that that car is going to get gobbled up by second and third in gt3 but it also gives michael i go the chance to build that margin by at least two or three lengths i would have thought before andrew howard gets up and passed so if you're in gt3 you've got to do an hour and two minutes so we've got another ted class before we can think about pit stops uh yeah absolutely so time for the race to settle back into a bit of a rhythm possibly before the pit stops happen look at michael i go go this is the advantage of having a gt4 car between you and the rest of the gt3s because andrew howard cannot pass the slower car until they cross the line regardless of whether it's for position or to put a lap on it and look at the time it's costed two seconds already was igo's advantage at the line so michael i go he's away and their second and third and fourth richard neary threw on the inside to put a lap on the mclaren as well andrew howard now has got to stay as in touch as he can be michael i goes pace is one thing he needs to fend off machitsuki and then hand that car over to johnny but look leo chitski is all over him now up towards thirties they come andrew howard gives him racing room on the inside line and leo machitsuki all of a sudden he's like a different driver that car as the road gets dry looks a lot more stable doesn't it uh yeah exactly and i have to say he's on his toes on these restarts he had a good restart at the after the previous safety guard wasn't able to do anything about howard on that occasion but he has now gone into second place and of course richard neary is now sniffing an opportunity to get on the podium and as they battle their way towards westfield there is a slow ford mustang out on track which might be a problem there it is so the academy motorsport mustang still going but it's not making a good noise but it's dropped a lot of pace damage to the left front corner is there the it doesn't look significant enough to reduce its pace like that so that's an odd one and side by side for third here now richard neary is keen to get onto the podium he's alongside andrew howard into clearwater trying to get around the outside you can't do that richard not in the dry anyway surely it's very dirty very slippery out there gets the power down well though and they are still side by side as they come across the start finish line kelvin fletcher is rubbing his hands with glee here as well sensing an opportunity to take advantage what a move from richard neary can't stop the car though he's briefly into third place howard fights back and guess what they are still side by side niri from the outside to the inside fletcher thinks go on then what can i benefit out of all of this howard runs out wide oh this has trouble written all over it but what's happened to that aston martin in the space of a couple of laps because suddenly its pace has gone away either it can't get his tiles up to temperature quickly enough or there's a bigger issue at play here but andrew howard looks like a sitting duck doesn't he just can't do anything to repel the pace of the others they're crawling all over him so neary and fletcher right there machitsuki caught past pulled away from with alacrity but andrew howard's car now looks like he's really struggling i think he's just on the ropes isn't it i think he's lost his rhythm with that safety car losing a place straight after the neri relatively experienced driver of course these days richard neary he knows that and he knows that if he can apply the pressure kick andrew howard while he's down so to speak uh then maybe this might generate an opportunity to go through into third position there is the academy motorsport mustang in the pit lane this car remember won a brand's hatch last year uh after a brilliant opening stint by jordan albert and then matt cowley brought it home to take the victory uh not gonna do so again today richard neary this time makes the mistake runs onto the grass he's still not back on the road and they're almost at clearways and kelvin fletcher now just powers straight past him into the final corner the pentley moves back ahead and there were some spots of rain on its windscreen as well so add in another weather change just to spice the mix up even more and number 69 mercedes james cottingham has retired there is ian logging all over the back of richard neary now to be the best mercedes we've seen the mustang in the pits an incident between that and the stuart proctor uh mclaren is being investigated as well so there's a story attached to that as well we'll come to when we've worried about all this mercedes excitement because richard neary is up and down the order like the whatnot straws and is still trying to fend off a very very determined in logging behind right now this is what happened to the mustang there is damage around the left front corner and there's why at the inside of the gt3 mclaren there's a brush between them but the mustang gets ahead and then goes down towards graham hill but there's another incident between the two of them and the mustang is well truly off that was a bit strange wasn't it really because it was actually the mustang moving across on proctor not really anywhere proto could have gone there uh but we think it's either a puncture or possibly some suspension damage as a result of i guess the contact rather than running across the grass so will more than uh for academy motorsport in the pit lane and of course this is too early for that to be the mandatory pit stop so they'll have to pit again within the next 10 or 15 minutes there's lucky cara fending off nick jones who's gonna give that car over the team parker racing porsche stunning looking car that to uh scott mulvan formula four champion for the second stint and where are they they are still only 12 seconds or so away from the leaders so another safety car they're back at the races and uh of course they are only 12 seconds back because of the two safety car periods that we've had it could be a different story haven't been a completely green flag stint richard neary again to kelvin fletcher tickles the tail of the bentley going into paddock he's up the curve he's all over the grass even with green paint richard we still saw that you're not totally camouflaged so he can't yet find a way past kelvin fletcher the bentley hangs onto the place richard neary you cannot fault the commitment can you it might not always work but he's a triumph there used to be a rally cross course here on the inside of panickil bend and i think richard neary was almost on it there he was so far over the inside curve but look he's really quick he looks quicker than fletcher just can't find the way through probably the two biggest cars on the grid here the bentley is filling the track and there just isn't room for the mercedes to get alongside fully out of 30s they go almost an overlap but not white and we know that the bentley was at the top of the speed trap figures earlier on so i don't think neary's going to be close enough by the time they reach the bottom of pilgrim's drop to have a go at hawthorne corner wherever you look here david there is action this is an absolutely brilliant way to start the season and we're not even halfway yet brilliant we can't look at all of it the gt4 fights going on but gt3 further up the order fantastic racing richard neary then crawling all over the back of kelvin fletcher but clock is ticking on down not to the end of the race but to the end of their stint so for many of them it's just trying to hang on in their engineering understeers way out wide at sterling's and ian vloggy says right my turn if you can't get past the bench let me have a go and look at this the two mercedes almost side by side richard neary breaks late that compromises the line through clark curve and now can he and loggie find a way by he tries the outside he tries the inside richard neary's mercedes you can see it dragon with cartier wherever anybody else tries to go it is there in anticipation but calvin fletcher has gone so busy richard neary for a couple of corners plus that mistake it's advantage bentley and this time it's uh neary on the ropes to try to defend from logging yeah but already he's getting back after fletcher isn't he when he's not making mistakes at sterling's richard neary is i think the quicker of these three cars uh he just keeps getting that breaking wrong into the tricky left-hander out the back he's been off there once and nearly went off again on that occasion into 30s they go then to amg's nose to tail but i suspect neary as long as he keeps it on the black stuff should be able to edge away again now at the front of the field by the way the two lamborghinis run out of different teams are 3.8 seconds apart so michael i go controlling the race machitsuki second howard third we've sort of forgotten about him now he was the man under so much pressure about ten minutes ago and now because of all of this battling he has a three and a half second cushion over kelvin fletcher fourth richard neary fifth and ian loggie in sixth position and a shout out as well to look at cara i know others have had issues but the simon green motorsport lamborghini running a strong seventh right now there's the gt4 pit stop for the car gods with sicily motorsport mercedes dave whitmore to give way to jake giddings and interestingly the team manager of car 11 kelvin fletcher's bentley has just been asked to get in touch with the race director so i'm not entirely sure what's been going on it could be track limit related but the team manager of car 11 has got to make contact with the race director looking back from kelvin fletcher's bentley he is there in fourth place not seen him be up to naughty does have we say it might be a a trap limit element but certainly not involved in an incident as such so gt4 teams remember they only have to do 58 minutes as the starting driver still think that mercedes is doing a bit too early therefore uh yes uh they are they do have a car up on jax but i'm not sure if they're actually changing tyres or not we'll get into that in a moment or two nick halstead here then uh defending or trying to anyway from the stellar motorsport audi which goes around the outside but i think he's putting a lap on the number 40 isn't it because uh richard williams in the 42 car is running now second place in uh gt4 wilburn still leads the way back out into the fray uh goes the sicily run mercedes so that actually was about the right length for a pit stop wasn't it but i agree with you i think you probably shouldn't have been in yet so that'll be looked at i'm sure by the officials but yes it does look as though that mercedes does need to come in again to serve the regulation stop the uh team with although they're new to gt rating good personnel on the administrative side so i would have been surprised if that's a mistake let's put it that way we are on lap 34 and michael i go leads by 3.6 seconds as you look at number two which is james kell in the mclaren still chasing richard williams audi and actually shaking off the mark samson genetic g56 isn't it that gap has widened since we last looked the traditional team rocket rjn colors the jensen button and chris buncombe a bob level team bob neville is here operating the uh mclaren real fleet of them of course we got used to seeing them in gt3 last year now into gt4 uh yeah a very competitive gt4 grid but one that includes an awful lot of drivers who have never raced in british gt before mark sansom is one of them 14 i got to when i was counting them earlier on today 14 drivers in their first ever british gt race and the vast majority of them in gt4 so it's good to see gt4 doing what it's supposed to do and act as that sort of rung on the ladder just below gt3 but to have a lot of new names and faces in the championship will burns not one of them of course century motor sports driver uh pretty experienced sort of gt4 racer these days and the bmw is transformed last time out last year at a titan twisty circuit like bran's hatch the century motorsports uh bmw m4s would have been nowhere but they've really worked hard on this evo version of the car and they are they look like a completely different beast now they look properly competitive right from the starting season that sicily mercedes was uh an unscheduled stop there it is again for its real pit stop it was a puncture so you know two or three minutes before the mandatory stop and that happened so it's back in and that's going to cost it dear but dave whitmore knew to the khan championship would have done a good amount of learning car has to be empty while it's refueled if you're wondering why driver runs away but nobody gets in uh it has to be effectively a two-part pit stop so nothing else can be done while it's refueled uh yes indeed and that is part of the reason why we have these uh minimum pit stop time just to make sure that they can do all of this safely without rushing around because of course as soon as you get rid of those minimum pit stop times teams naturally start trying to cook corners trying to save a couple of seconds here and there so it's a safety thing as much as anything else and it keeps the racing nice and tight as well because there's no advantage really to be gained in the pit stops richard neary then down through graham hill bends um all on his own now isn't he now is that because he had a slow lap he did didn't hear 131 as opposed to a sort of low 28 for the rest and he's fallen behind in logy as well so he might have had a moment somewhere because he's lost a place and he's lost a chunk of time so ian logie as we get towards the end of his stint uh getting on with the job now fastest lap of the race still andrew howard which is a little bit surprising in a sense given the pace of ico and how we had seen andrew struggling a lap or two ago to keep them all at bay but he survived he's still in that third place that fastest lap is from earlier on in the race admittedly and we are just about at the halfway mark and a very busy first half it has been uh yes only a couple of minutes away now from the gt3 uh pit stop window if you like opening or the minimum driver time being completed there is calvin fletcher fourth place you're right there's so much to unpack from just the uh the first hour of racing really so many overtakes within the top sort of half dozen or so and uh that's not something with the greatest respect that we see a lot of here at brown's hatch you know it's been basically a dry race and in the dry around here in gt3 cars it's hard to overtake that is all i've heard from the drivers all weekend long you know if we don't qualify well or if we lose track position at the start then that's our day done but they've managed it today haven't they drive through penalty kelvin fletcher a drive-through penalty for kelvin fletcher that was richard neary and strife at sterling today and loggie charging past him so we know that calvin fletcher has a drive-through penalty now we need to work out or get the answer to exactly why but the drive-through penalty given for number 11 it could just be a totting up of track limit offences possibly yes uh we're also getting told that car 57 which is the car that's uh leading a gt4 has been pinged for track limits it's its first warning i don't recall seeing track limits warnings though for jrm bentley now that that doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't being given them and we just didn't know but uh yeah generally you'd expect to see something come up on the timing screen warning them of track limits indiscretions rather than just a straight up penalty anyway we'll get to the bottom of it as and when we can overtaking before the timing line after the safety car restarts as greg miles and the steward so drive through for overtaking before the timing line on that last safer car restart okay possibly a gt4 car then we made the point you can't overtake it until the line richard williams is in then in the stellar mode sport number 42 um audi the car that he will now hand over to cenon fielding and that's one of the cars that i'm really tipping to do well this year we haven't seen it racing the championship uh for a year of course stellar motorsports uh we're running the gt3 audi more recently uh as in now does come calvin fletcher to serve this penalty but uh the audi in the pit lane now should be strong all year i think yeah and that's another of those plug-and-play gt4 cars there's a lot of experience at audi to give you the good solid base product you don't have to do much to it you know put fuel in it change the brakes now again and round and round and round it goes so it's a good car to go gt4 racing with them to learn how to go gt racing and yet it should be competitive it was only what three years ago for the most it was winning the silver cup in the european gt4 series that type of car on board with former touring car racer raiding ginetta champion will burns look at that clear road ahead of him uh yes and that's exactly what you want to see out on the grand prix loop turns through uh sterling's there in third gear now this car has not yet been in to make its pit stop in fact i think it and the number 90 ashley marshall mclaren are the only two cars that haven't pitted and he's still not fitting gary's on his way now there is a minimum driver time there's also a maximum driver time they can't just leave him in all race and then uh do the driver change in the last 10 minutes so he will have to come in soon but they do now have a bit more strategic freedom than they used to 17 minutes is the cut off for both actually gt3 or gt4 mike brown is in to uh morph into matt manderson in the ultimate speed uh aston martin that wasn't all that speedy yesterday had a misfire didn't it in one of the practice sessions didn't sound right the leader is in look in the background so there is michael i go michael i done into the pit lane liam mcshitkey is in andrew howard is in so one two and three into the pit lane if you're thinking where's leo machitsuki well barwell is the first team into the pit lane pit in so you sweep in get the stop done you want to really be pit in or pit out don't you sweep in or drive straight out without having that long drive time but uh the wpi team and also the beach dean amar squad in the middle of the pit lane uh and every single gt3 car is pitting because the teams want to get those amm drivers out as quickly as possible or more to the point they want to get their quicker driver their throw or silver graded driver in as soon as possible because they will be able to go quicker and they yeah they want to maximize their driver time so as soon as the pit window was open look at them all of them that's the entire remaining gt3 field is in it's the red and black wpr motorsport lamborghini that led coming into the pit lane and about halfway down the pit lane look you can see the yellow and blue uh number seven aston martin that was running in second position so they're the two to watch for here really that's right there was the 63 wasn't excuse me there was a second third place for andrew howard and andrew was about five and a half seconds or so behind the race leader so you'd imagine all things being equal that should be more or less the gap after the pit stops indeed so so gt3 cycle through we'll keep an eye on gt4 as well because the bulk of those stops are now done and we've got pretty much everybody having uh cycle through one or two on their outlaps so we'll keep an eye to the gt4 situation as we get there adam is ready to go martin clown when he's ready to go in 18 phil keane he's about to live up to his name and be eager to get out there and their 57 bmw has come in then so will burns to give way to gus burst and that was the gt4 leading bmw having that battle early on as the leader goes out then so now phil keane takes on johnny adam takes on dennis lind takes on sam neary it's gonna be really interesting isn't it to see who comes out from all of this but a slow stop seemingly from the machitsuki lind uh lamborghini because that has lost the place to loggy and burma so what's going on there uh yeah i thought so you can see it's only just ahead now of sam neary isn't it so back into the race they go but dennis lind a lot further back than he should have been so there has to be a story there literally just made the point of how all the pit stops should be equal or no success penalties in this first round of the championship that of course will change from silverstone onwards but uh yeah there must have been an issue but only so many things that could go wrong really maybe a tire got stuck and wouldn't go on it wouldn't come off properly uh maybe they struggled with the belts getting dennis linden but dennis has done a few driver changes over the years so yeah at a bit of a loss there david okay and also the audi we were discussing is just coming in for a 10 second stop go penalty for an unsafe release so senator fielding is back into the pit lane so he only just left but he's in for a 10 sec 10 seconds stop and go for an unsafe release so phil keane leads in british gt different team but it's a lamborghini and he knows his way around these cars very well indeed number five is now lewis proctor who's taking over from his dad stewart in the uh 720s mclaren and just up the road ahead he's 33 that's now gone to the team owner greg kayton the man behind gcat uh yes so we'll uh see what the gaps are at the end of this lap of course the first full flying lap uh under green flag conditions after the pit stops in fact keem to adam is three and a half seconds that is about what it was uh before the pit stops uh johnny adam actually fracturally quicker than phil keem on the outlands and keane and adam doing absolute bests in the last sector got their own the absolute best of the race on their outlet so straight away the bar is moved isn't it yeah dennis lind outright fastest in the middle sector as well so he got up speed even quicker than they did so the uh dennis lyndon then is yeah nearly 17 seconds off the lead you've got keenan albert leading the way yelma berman is third about eleven and a half seconds off the lead and he's just over five seconds clear then of dennis lynn meanwhile in gt4 and things are getting entertaining that is the ginetta which has now been taken over of course by uh charlie robertson and uh he is uh stuck behind at the moment the number 40 uh jamie stanley driven mclaren and as they go down the cooper straight they've also got scott malvin trying to work his way through the porsche indeed there look the genetic dives up on the inside line the assetto motorsport car is going to go through the only geneta on the grid of course charlie robertson the pro mark samson the am in the car to say run by seto motorsport jim edwards jr and his son-in-law simon traves and operate that team jim edwards jr the dad of touring car style jade edwards and of course his father jim edwards senior was a formula three racer for a time and one makes star as well jeanette going really nicely charlie robinson behind the wheel and he's doing a good job to get away from all of this drama going on behind him marty flower gets that past jake giddings then the bentley goes by flowey's in a hurry as well isn't he now uh yeah isn't he just to try and make up for lost time after the penalty that uh calvin fletcher incurred for that uh safety car restart uh issue where he over took it before the uh start finish line uh new fastest lap dennis lynn so not a huge prize necessarily a 124.9 okay but when i last looked it was louise proctor and he took that as i was writing down richard near his name so richard neary had done it right at the end of his stint then lewis proctor and as you say dennis linda 124.994 the whole pace of the racing gt3 now has just gone up another notch hasn't it uh it really has but uh there the cisco motorsport mercedes runs a bit wide something i'm interested to see here actually is the dynamic between the out and out pro drivers and then the silver graded drivers that are sort of acting as the pros within their cars because usually once we get into the second stint of this these races all of the pro drivers usually are pretty identical on pace but there might now be a bit of a variety in pace because some of the pros are a little bit quicker than some of the others if you see what i mean so this could be quite an interesting second half of the race now we know that phil keane and johnny adam are going to be pretty identically paced although adam is gaining momentum he is indeed then so that car looking strong and the race currently on lap number 42 dennis lynn has indeed got the fastest lap as you say the lead gap is 3.8 seconds and actually the last lap possibly because of traffic keane pulled uh eight tenths also over johnny adams it's gone advantage lamborghini again it could also be that phil was just being a little bit slower and getting himself up to speed but he's now into a rhythm however 50 minutes on the clock as you can see we'll just keep referring to traffic from here on it won't be because it is still a really crowded house out there yes and it's one of the most difficult circuits that we race out in british gt to deal with that gt4 traffic and they're doing nothing wrong they're having their own race they're running their own lines they just simply can't get out of the way at some parts of the circuit so right here absolutely fine not a problem at all there around the outside goes greg caton he's going to bring lewis proctor with him they can just power past charlie robertson's gt4 uh ginetta in a straight line it's when they catch them through places like hawthorne westfield and sheen curve which are single line corners you don't really want to go side by side through there and that's where you can lose seconds you know you can work to try and gain hundredths of a second and tenths of a second on your own you can lose huge chunks of time by catching a that marker at the wrong point first of all phil keane to dennis lin is 15.3 seconds but lind is the fastest man on the circuit at the moment as you look at the number 24 ross wiley uh lamborghini still seems odd to put ross into a lamborghini but there he is for this season and uh experienced ferrari porsche racer trying a different brand he was another one that got done for speeding in the pit lane yesterday but that car and andy made the point early on helped by safety cars has kept out of trouble lucky carer graduating to racing at this level for the first time now you give it to the gun for hire that could be to use the phrase there or there abouts especially here look as greg kayton is busy battling with lewis proxy so they're going to hold each other up uh yes and ross wiley of course a former gt4 champion as well back in 2014 so he's got british gt pedigree as well and uh he's dipped in and out of the championship in recent years making beyond appearance see him back for a full season all right lewis proctor and greg cayton here then ninth position this is in theory proctor should be quite a bit quicker than greg kate but i've really noticed that gcat team have taken a big step forward at the start of the 2021 season they are the only all am driver entry in gt3 and at the moment greg's holding his own he is indeed so as they come up hill then together the fight is on for ninth and tenth within the overall classification andy d was still in gt3 terms there because the gt4 drivers further back in the queue uh the lead gap is 3.7 seconds last time around johnny adam was a nat crotchet quicker than phil keaton but not enough to really hack into that now the other one to watch is yelmer berman but he is losing time against the top two so it's keen and adam two names that have dominated british gt timesheets for season after season after season it's like nothing's changed no i know they're the two uh winningest drivers aren't they i didn't hate that word uh in their british gt history and only one win apart those two uh they are probably the two most recognizable names in the championship and uh yeah suitable but here we are start of another new season different surroundings for phil keane of course johnny adam back in the familiar surroundings of the beach dean amr team and they are four seconds apart at the head of the field the battle here between greg kate and the lewis proctor still going on for ninth position proctor try as he might and quicker as he should be than caton just can't get through again illustrating this point about how tricky it is to overtake in a gt3 car around the brand's hatchcraft free circuit caton gets off clearways quite well you'd expect that i guess wouldn't you in the porsche rear engine good traction off the corners and lewis propter just can't get close to fend to attack into the next corner at a kill then a point you're making about the wins yes you're right phil keene has had one more than johnny adam and yet he's not got a single title to his name so it's a bit like jason placer in touring more wins than anybody but he's only got the two championships to other people with a greater number but uh phil keane every year comes back wanting to have that maiden title is it going to be his year well right now he's in the best possible place because he's four seconds clear of johnny adam last time gaining three tenths of a second uh yeah indeed but again epic and flowing in traffic i'd imagine the actual pace in clean air of those two drivers not a huge amount in it uh sam neary by the way in fifth position is uh sort of the best of the rest of the moment isn't he his laptop's not quite as good as the top four but he's got a 15 second cushion over scott baldwin now the team parker racing porsche has sort of appeared out of nowhere hasn't it it hasn't been running anywhere near the front all race lock but it is now in a sixth position there's yellow berman meanwhile yellow bourbon in third position dennis you can see how much closer he's getting now on the previous lap he was about three quarters of a second quicker than the ram racing mercedes ahead and yelmer bourbon in that number six car i think he's gonna start feeling the heat here before much longer dennis lindy's are coming absolutely right so it's always uh exciting to watch dennis lin and here he is for a full season and he's really excited about this as well way up the curb coming out of 30s oh this is going to be worth watching isn't it so dennis lind who came first to this country at the football ford festival driving the aquila formula ford car and we've seen him do well in the danish thundersport trophy lamborghini super troffeo and then international gt racing he had that drama at spa when he fell out of the lead last year just getting onto a wet part of the road and uh he was absolutely destroyed but he's bounced back he's also had a very busy winter uh coaching people with his esports connection and here he is back in the real world and going really fast to the gap that he had to try and pull back to yell moberman ahead of it 1.4 seconds and he's almost there yeah you talk about your phil keane's and your johnny adams as stalwarts of the championship you know world-class gt drivers who keep going back to british gt year after year i kind of hope that dennis lin does the same thing you know it seems like he's found a home here in british gt doesn't it where he's obviously competitive he can enjoy himself he loves the british racetracks doesn't he places like brands hatch alton park they really excite him so great to have him here and hopefully he sticks around and builds maybe a philippine-esque career for his own out of truth he goes then ducks up the inside of the team rocket rjn car that was started by katy milner now has harry hayek on board and that gap between third and fourth overall is now less than a second and it looks fast doesn't it the lamborghini i mean i know he's a bit of a darty car we saw that with leo chitsky and it was almost a concern then but you can see how rapid it looks and again how much real estate it is gobbling up against the mercedes there is yelmer burman and we know he's not slow another graduate of this arena of ray circuit if you like from his formula renault formula three days uh british foreign british foreign before carving a really good name for himself in gt cars there's traffic ahead two mclarens to negotiate berman splits them dennis lynn dives up the inside as well i am coming through he shouts to jordan collard who gets out of the way and now the same is true of the valve car that also has to dive clear so jack brown gets out of the way as well and through they go yeah jordan collar by the way second in gt4 that mclaren that they just put a lap on the number two car but he is uh quite some way behind gus burn the timing being just about to update when he completes this lap i think it's about 15 seconds or so uh as they come through the spurts already long gone jordan cola is 18 seconds now but he's lost some time of course uh allowing young bourbon and dennis lynn through so lind continues to attack darts to the inside of bourbon and not really expecting to be able to make the move but just trying to create that flash of color in the mirrors force a mistake out of bourbon he did make a mistake he ran a bit wide of the apex but just not quite wide enough that's right so where does he make the move is it going to be at certain thinking thinking thinking thinking thinking about it of course dennis hasn't done that many laps around brown's hatch relative to yellow berman relative to most others as their number one goes through badly delayed sandy mitchell 21st after adam fallon's trip into the gravel but the car is still going and it comes back to a point we made earlier keep going persevere get points in your class you never know when they might be needed at the end of the season uh yes and of course sandy uh returning a raving champion uh rob collard with people won the championship last year is not back this year but sandy is and trying to become only the second ever driver to successfully defend a british gt title i mean that's remarkable all of these different classes that get championships handing out handed out year after year and nobody can come back the year after and win it again and i spoke to sandy yesterday and he said it's just because the level of competition in the championship goes up and up and up every single year you can never relax just because you have the number one on your door does not mean that you are the clear favorite going into the next season yeah i think johnny adam would say the same thing yes he keeps on winning the championship but every year it's harder yeah so there is yama berman who is now four tenths of a second up over dennis linde who has done the fastest lap of the race so the fight's on for third spot right now and dennis when we started looking at the lead gap was 15.3 seconds away he's now 12 and a half so obviously he is closing on bourbon but in addition he's catching the race leader he needs to get past that mercedes quickly otherwise it's going to affect the chance of any further gains up the road right he's close enough to make a move i reckon coming into 30s goes for the inside there's half a gap does that force berman out wide a little bit but not enough for lin to pounce dennis had two wheels on the grass then so wide was he going into certainly he's just trying to tell the albert oh i'm not gonna try and attack now no no i'm not interested in the inside line and then he whipped across to the inside and it very nearly worked that lamborghini always has been good on the brakes though hasn't it uh and again that sort of reinforces the fact that it's really good around the indie part of the circuit but then through the high speed sweeping corners of the ground three loopy just has to sit behind yelmer sit in that arrow wash which affects the downforce levels although mclaren's in the way though yamaburman just about prizes the door open going into sterling's but he looks like he's under pressure now he's really having to actively defend here from dennis lind again he drives down the inside of the road into clearways lin goes to the outside he'll try and get the switch back get back up the inside through clark curve but herman is a wily racer and he saw that one coming but equally he can't keep him there for 40 minutes surely as they come over the line so dennis lind looks to the inside line that wasn't on so he doesn't force the issue unlike others and just up ahead are the bmws you can see gt4 numbers 9 and 57. now they are uh where now second and third in gt uh four getting themselves together for a battle and actually the leading gt4 car am i corrected saying this is now the assetto uh motorsport ginetta which is leading gt4 out right now assetto just to make the point as you watching gt3 assetto is in its first ever gt race first british gt outing for assetto motorsport and they're leading ahead of the bmws that are about to get gobbled up by the mercedes so that's yelmer bourbon around the outside line and dennis lind wants to go with him has to go with him yes that does go with him they slot in between the two bmws through hawthorne now they're going to catch the other one this is the number nine of andrew gordon colbrook into westfield and actually burma goes through and it's linde this time who is delayed a touch on the apex has to just wait a second or so before he could uh complete the overtake and that just gives thurman a bit of breathing space for a quarter or so lin's all over the curve he's on the grass again i can see why you like him david he's exciting isn't it i'll tell you he is a joy to watch and especially if you put him on a wet road uh because dennis lin is prepared to do things that other people aren't uh and excels in the conditions now let's just keep an eye on what's going on settlement 30 gt4 you've got number nine which is now uh andrew gordon colebrook ahead of 57 gus burton andrew one at silverstone remember in the three-hour race at the end of last year so he knows the car a little bit better than gus burton does who makes the step up from ginetta's that's sam neary fifth going through and just interrupting our fight for a minute because he split the two of them uh yes and just to complete the story in gt4 remember we mentioned earlier on that these silver cup entrants have to spend 26 seconds longer in the pit lane that is why we've had this changing round in gt4 so the ginetta robertson is a pro am entry so too the bmw ahead of us number nine of gordon coldbrook so those two gained a big chunk of time during the pit stops and it now leaves gus bert with a big job to do to try and regain that lost time he is right behind his teammates uh but these two are about 15 seconds now behind the genetica in front yeah janetta's gone hasn't it it's checked out so yes this is the leading silver gus burton so he's leading his class within the category if you like but he wants to be the overall gt4 winner actually 57 gus burton looks like he's got better pace number nine agc andrew gordon-colebrook that was the car delayed and little when chris salkell got his elbows out at hawthorne's early in the race but he's certainly being caught isn't it that gap is coming down and down and down as the fight goes on there from uh gus burton with the sort of half a wheel that the car has and of course it's the m4 isn't it that you can actually take the steering wheel of the race car and make it work on your sim these days which is another amazing way that uh esports has integrated with the real world this movie's on and it's imminent isn't it uh yeah maybe even into clearways although more sensible approach would be to get the good exit from here and have a go at paddy kill bendy slightly tighter over the curve there is gus burton exit speed though is pretty similar of course both identical cars run out of the same team but he's got the slip stream he's close enough to have a go on the brakes into paddock hill bend if it was anyone other than his teammate i think he might have sent it there but gus burton knows the worst thing you can do is have your teammate off just ask tf sport about what happened here last year in the uh closing stages uh and of course century motorsport were right in that fight as well weren't they they benefited on that day and i think they've learned that maybe discretion is the better part of bala sometimes that could be the save of the century this you mean yes so onto cooper straight they come this is for 13th and 14th overall and of course just to play back into the hands of assetto motorsport they're holding each other up so that geneta is being able to extend the advantage partly because these two are getting a little bit toey and therefore slowing one another up plus the genetics got charlie robertson behind the wheel who we know is very very quick anyway so it really is with 36 and a half on the clock advantage ginetta uh yes it absolutely is i do wonder whether maybe this number nine car gordon colebrook uh it had that knock earlier on of course when salgal was at the wheel i wonder if maybe the steering's being knocked out or the tracking slightly uh perhaps explains why gus burton uh who is a silver graded driver of course is just that little bit quicker but uh he's closing in through sheen uh not really gonna make a pass through here the great boat opportunity this for the team the cars look great running in unison uh but uh i think uh certainly because burke would rather he would move his car through into second place maybe paddy kill ben this time and century i know a very very busy courting bmw uk to say look you're doing any touring cars why not come and get involved with us in british gt and it is being looked at so a good result here and a good showing from two really quick cars ain't gonna hurt just to the outside line goes gus burton then illustrating why he's been a star in genetics over the last few years in one mate racing lines up for the inside line andrew gordon colbrook sticks out his elbows oh no you don't he said uh team orders what team orders that was a fairly clear defensive move there two in fact from gordon culprit one into paddock and another a slightly sketchier one hinted druids but he's kept the place i suppose and again i suppose you know that if it's your teammate that's behind you they're maybe gonna cut you a break whereas some others would have kept their uh foot in the door there on board then with gus burton leading his class as we've said leading the silver cup in gt4 but he won't just be going but in fact i know he's not just going for the silver court because he told me yesterday he wants to win the gt4 title out right and to do that you need to be scoring points out right within gt4 he needs this second place he does indeed but he's got time to do it look just under 35 minutes the lead gap is 3.2 seconds as uh it's fluctuating with the traffic against the top two uh they've gone by incidentally third and fourth it's still birming ahead of lind but in gt4 they are about to be gobbled up up by scott malvin so look behind that very posing porsche is sixth overall and needs to get past without delay sounds good that porsche as well and i'm sure that they've heard it coming and now they see it flash by uh going into clearways and now this might actually uh play into the hands of gus burke because look it's put gordon colebrook offline into clearways burton's carried more speed off the corner they are side by side across the start finish line with gus burton to the outside andrew gordon colebrook on the inside don't hit each other be careful through paddle kill ben you can go side by side through here bit of curve popping there from gordon colbrook and burton does go through an example there a rare example actually i'd say of how the gt4 cars being lapped can sometimes use that to their advantage we sort of talk about them losing out often when the gt3 cars arrive on the scene uh but gusberg played that to perfection good move that and straight away able look to stretch the advantage so he worked hard for it but he has now gone through and uh it's a fair fight between the pair of them there's certainly no team orders bryn's have that confirmed from the team as long as they don't drive into each other which is the golden rule you can fight for what you want at this early stage of the season so gus burton then he's up in two now second in gt4 and he's 17.6 seconds back from charlie robertson in the geneta yeah so they haven't actually been losing a huge amount of time then to the gt4 leader they did on the previous lap because they were side by side and they had scott baldwin lapping them but given the fact that they've been battling and defending and blocking each other you'd have thought maybe that lead gap would have gone up what i'm getting at is that maybe now he's in clean air he might actually be able to go even quicker than robertson uh we could have a lead back before the end of the race after all yeah it's going to be interesting because we know that charlie is very quick he specializes in ginetta's um he's a good light car charlie himself is about four stone went through uh so how to wait a value to possibly for the ginetta but the bmw certainly proved its pace at the first in so it will be interesting and again still over half an hour there is time for gus burton to make some big inroads into that whereas dennis lin has got a bit stuck yes this happens doesn't it though you've got all the speed in the world and then you settle in behind another car for a few laps and you just kind of get stuck at their speed your tires start to overheat your brakes uh start to overheat a little bit uh this by the way is martin plowman going off at sheen curve we believe it's not the only time he's done it a long way off the track there wasn't he living up to his name as he is a plowing man off in the road he goes and oh that was one uh and he enjoyed it so much then that martin cloudman decided that he'll have another go same place off again now we were getting a bit concerned about that car earlier on when kelvin fletcher lost a little bit of time maybe there is something lurking in the system so to speak because for martin plowman to do that twice yeah he's very unmartin claremonesque and all on his own not forced offline by anyone not overtaking about marcus so perhaps the cars had a knock somewhere that we haven't seen we know it was running very close behind leo machitsuki in the hands of calvin fletcher earlier on maybe the two made contact at some point and uh has not been quite the same since anyway it is still running in seventh position but at a track that bentley's uh traditionally have gone quite well at actually not just the british gt but in the gt world challenge as well uh shame to see it that far down the order the penalty of course that won't have helped that either but yes dennis lind here then he is very familiar now with what the rear end of that ram racing mercedes looks like he'd quite like to put it in his rear view mirrors he just can't get close enough can he at the part of the circuit where it matters no and yet he was a few laps ago so what's happened to deprive him of that opportunity as here greg kate and he's up behind ross wiley so this is the eighth and ninth place is now another good gt3 battle that's also got between the vms the gap between burton and gordon cobra has really opened up markedly in the space of two laps hasn't it look they're barely in the same shot anymore but kayton looking for a way past the lamborghini as i say this is now for eighth place overall and this is cayton bronze graded am driver attacking ross wiley very experienced silver graded driver uh i mean greg kate is really on it this weekend isn't it yeah but that's a very generous grading yes if you go back to the late 90s you know he was in the the main formula four championship and what has happened really to his grading is that he hasn't had the money to go racing year after year after year you know he went from formula four to the tvr tuscan challenge and then set up his own team he's been busy running customers but he's not lost the ability so it's a generous bronze grading that yes i would argue that car is more competitive today you know than it has been in general on its appearances in the past and again it's another car that's dipped in and out of the championship over the last two or three years and it would be great to see them stick around for a full season because although they're in a class of one in a way they are the only all-am gt3 carl uh here this weekend uh clearly they're capable if they stay out of trouble of uh of scoring quite well overall their ninth place at the moment trying to get eighth place away from roswell that's just uh stretched the margin a little bit now as they come across the start finish line now there is news about the bentley from jrm and the news is there is no news there's no problem it's all fine just an error well two errors move along nothing here to see yeah interesting okay do we believe them that's the real question we wouldn't necessarily be the first people that they tell if there was some niggly little issue but uh certainly the the car will have had dirt on his tires after the first off i suppose that might have led to the second one either way yes there's been a day to forget really for them hasn't it greg kayton though trying to still find a way past ross wiley what's going on in gt4 then charlie robertson no he's actually maintaining this gap isn't here because but gt4 we're not missing much gt3 phil keane is never any more than four seconds ahead of johnny adam and never any less than three seconds ahead but that fluctuates a bit in traffic uh but it's all fairly static this is one of the closest battles uh as well as the one perfer between vermin and lind exactly so as the cars now dive into westfield once more so ross wiley learning about the lamborghini learning about a new co-driver learning about a new team but ross race winner last year in carrera cup gb brick car champion hanging onto position in the background also looking very very rapid you can see he's lewis proctor in the mclaren now fights back on for third dennis lynn thinks right let's have another go of this it's quite good fun to begin with so he's giving his tars a breather now he's gonna push and see whether he can make use of the traffic yeah you can drop back a bit voluntarily sometimes can't you just to cool down those tires and brakes and try and get a bit of a run at the car ahead and this might help because the number four mclaren there uh is uh harry high heck and he's right in the way of the album and lindy's on the inside now three abreast into westfield corner and finally after half an hour of trying dennis leaned into third place but he runs a bit wide on the exit there's no way back through for berman though a prime example there of how you can use the back markers to your advantage and again harry hayek did nothing wrong just wrong place wrong time it delayed burma by a fraction of a second and that was all the invitation lynn needed what did we say coming out of 30s can he use the traffic to his advantage well he certainly did dennis linde has done it and now even though he's had a track limits warning let's see what he can do to get away and what he can do if anything about catching the top two uh behind sam neary is now going to try and close on the mercedes for the rival team the abba entry closing on the ram racing car as there they go through panic so now johnny adam to dennis lind is 9.3 seconds keen to lind was 15 and change it to come down to 12 and a half it's back up to 14 but with a clear road ahead of him now dennis lin is going to get on with the job yeah well let's see he's got 27 minutes to gain 9.3 seconds just to catch johnny adam and then of course he's got the same problem that he's just faced with yelmer bourbon which is that it's difficult to overtake around here but it can be done and as we get into the latter stages now and some of these gt4 drivers especially those that maybe are at the end of coming towards the end of their first ever stint of racing in the championship you know the gt4 drivers maybe get a bit tired start making mistakes they maybe don't move out of the way as quickly it can generate opportunities for the gt3 cars to finally make those moves stick so uh also interesting to see what happens between the two mercedes now does sam neary have anything for yelmer but he was uh uh very excited to tell me earlier on that he's been quicker than yeller all weekend he tells me now's the time to prove it absolutely right yeah put your money where your mouth is or something so this is phil keane the race leader was ever that he's had a relatively easy stint he's been given the leading car and he just had to control the pace and it's not as easy as it sounds there's johnny adam in second place but that aston even with johnny's prowess can't really do anything about it and the gap is 5.8 seconds that's going up where's the highlight of pen packet behind there it is look the multi-colored lamborghini goes by third dennis lind 8.6 seconds back so straight away he's just taken eight tenths out of johnny adams advantage that is impressive isn't it and it wasn't a slow lap really for johnny adam maybe a little off the pace because of that traffic but uh it wasn't massively delayed was he and you can see the gap he's got on bourbon now 1.6 seconds already and sam neary is now starting to close in on the ram racing mercedes so the battle to be top amg uh in this race is about to start heating up bill keane then out in front by 5.8 seconds looking for wpi motorsports second win of course they did take a victory at donington park last year and they seemed to excel in these slightly longer races and uh that was uh the case of donington they went well at silverstone in the recent past as well and here at uh brands hatch they look the odds on favorites to take the victory behind them though who's going to join them on the podium and in what order is anyone's guess very vigorous waving of the blue flags there for the marshall as the lamborghini of race leader phil keane gets through the gt4 traffic puts another lap on number nine of andrew gordon colbrook who is still third in gt4 and as phil keane continues to dominate up front let's just reflect on what a great stint his co-driver did michael i go dominated stint one he's in the pits ready to talk to bryn lucas yeah i'm with michael i go who's been watching the screens of really what phil keane's been up to phil keane's keeping that gap pretty consistent now you must be pretty pretty confident yeah very exciting the whole team is really excited and it's just over to phil now to do what he does now is 17 gt3 wins to his name phil keane he's one ahead of of mr uh adam behind him at the moment so it means a lot to phil keane to get these wins but of course he wants that elusive championship yeah definitely phil's phil's been running up now four times i think it is um hopefully this year will be his year yeah he's always the bride and for yourself how's this relationship work i know you've been racing the gt cup so you've been building that relationship yeah no me and phil getting on really well and working well together doing a bit of winter testing um we've just been working really closely together and things are starting to pay off now well we'll see what happens michael thank you good luck no problems thank you michael's got through quite an impressive roster of co-drivers in his brief time in british gt hasn't he but now forming a uh relationship with phil keane and a successful start it would appear to be because six seconds is now the margin 23 minutes on the clock i'm not entirely convinced that's going to come down much uh no certainly there's nothing to suggest that it will at the moment is that phil keane out of clearways then back on to another lap that is 60 laps now in the book uh we're not going to break any distance records here today that's for sure because of the safety car start and then two subsequent safety car periods so there's keen there is johnny adam that is what seven seconds looks like between the top two cars because the gap went out to buy another eight tent johnny adams pace has slowed he was early on in his stint running in the high 26s or even into the low to mid 25s whilst keane is staying in the low 27s now adam is barely in the 27s i don't know if that was traffic induced yeah again i'd just go back to a point we looked at earlier on in the race there was a spell where andrew howard's car seemed to be struggling and you were suggesting he'd been you know put on the ropes but again this is johnny adam we're talking about and there is dennis lind who is hustling on behind him at seven seconds the gap has come down to he took 1.1 seconds out last time now this might be johnny adam thinking well i can't catch the leader i'll just back points for second and not stress the car or there could be something in the system it might even be one for bryn to go and ask andrew howard about is the car struggling for pace is johnny just having to settle for second what's the real story here it is the mid-engined lamborghini a bit easier on its tyres as well perhaps because it does have a better weight distribution so uh that was that is something that we have seen in the past and this place will chew up those front tires on the uh front engine cars because uh on these high speed right handers out the back the left front will take a bit of a pounding maybe that's helping as well but you're right that gap is really coming down now that's uh the point i was starting to make that adam's pace has dropped but kelvin berman's i'm sorry dennis lynn's in third really hasn't he is a full second a lap quicker at the moment than johnny adam uh with all without traffic getting involved with 21 nearly 22 minutes left to go i think you can get there the question is can he then pass johnny adam that's a whole different story yes i was just trying to work out what the smart answer that would be johnny's not going to get involved in an accident that's for sure because he they all know have a race at this level so he's going to keep out of trouble but equally dennis lynn's going to want to get past it will be a good fight between those two it's going to be worth watching if he can claw back another six seconds now for assetto motorsports british gt debut this is quite an effort the uh jim edwards brackets junior and simon trades team looking as though it could be on for a maiden victory uh it is currently charlie robinson behind the wheel and doing an excellent job so charlie robertson on target seemingly for a class win and mark samson is with bryn in the pits [Music] we had a little chat at the very beginning about the rolling start and things and a new car really for us a new team as well in gt4 and well look at you yeah it was an eventful start in some ways i was grateful actually it was a safety car start because obviously you then start line of stern which is a bit less pressure than starting side by side into turn one so i was actually quite thankful for that in some ways and then managed to settle down to a bit of a groove uh obviously unfortunate for the silver silver player instead of the safety cars fell and they did it's meant that we're somewhat lucky to be the position we're now to be perfectly honest uh but my my sin was solid you know we had um we had pretty reasonable pace we were running really as uh four of us kind of you know docks and drake some lamps i'd catch jordan some laughter was catching me from behind and it pretty much stayed that way sort of nip and tuck throughout the whole of the session so um yeah i think the brp is pretty good because it was all really really really close out there yeah and then fortunately just the way the safety cars broke obviously uh it leaves charlie leaving the pits in a very good position well it's been very good so far i believe there's been an instant back out on the track as well but well done so far back to you andy and david thanks very much brady we've just had the spirit and we've been watching for great case and i think he was tagged into that by ross wiley so the g-cap porsche has survived andy but pretty badly today yeah now caitlyn was behind wiley at the start of the lap but there you can see he was ahead and uh ross didn't really appreciate being overtaken by the um driver perhaps and just got into the back of the porsche and of course all the weight over the rear of the car doesn't take much to unsettle it and on slightly warm tyres now as well around it went what a shame that was that'd have been a brilliant battle and a brilliant stint from greg kate and here's how he got the the move made oh so that's how the porsche went by with a tap in the tail so do unto others as you would have them do unto you so if you're gonna get past me like that i'm gonna get past you that one might rumble on for the rest of the night mind it uh yes that's so that it all now makes a bit more sense now that we've got the full picture so uh i think there was an element of tit and some taps in all of that yes the phrase red mist rather does spring to mind there anyway the end result is that ross wiley still lost the place anyway because lewis proctor went past the pair of them so he was the big winner out of all of that uh and lewis proctor's got the bath mode support mclaren into eighth position now and uh you'll be shocked to hear david that the incident between cars 24 and 33 is going to be investigated after the race no never now there's dennis lind still charging but actually not now making the inroads to johnny adam who is napping okay but it's again a traffic effective battle last lap from danny was quicker but he got stuck in traffic if you left back so had gone up a little bit it really is just with the rub of the green where you fired the bat markers yeah exactly and i think lin's pace is better but you can spend ten laps gaining a second a lap and then half of that gets undone by one badly tied back marker so uh it's gonna be frustrating being a gt3 driver really i know gt4 traffic can't do anything else to get out of the way but it must be frustrating you're concentrating so hard it's hot it's uncomfortable in the cars you've been in there now for nearly three quarters of an hour you're selling this to me really well you know it's a glamorous lifestyle of a racing driver hey uh so rewarding when it all goes right but uh these little frustrations can then lead to in less experienced drivers mistakes and a bit of impatient uh driving towards the end of the spins indeed so the incident singular involving wiley and caitlyn is going to be looked at after the race but as we've seen there were two elements to that so uh that will rumble as their dennis lin third fourth yama berman behind him fifth sam near eight sorry fourth fifth samurai next in the queue and more track limit warnings are coming right time has flown only 17 minutes are on the clock the lead gap as you look at johnny adam there is now 8.790 seconds the fastest ice cream van in the world looks like it is going to have to settle for second place and it's just not quite come alive i mean i know it's still quicker than everything else behind but this has not really stood out it's not never had an answer to the leading lamborghini has it no although johnny found a second on the previous lap because he's been in the high 27s every lap consistently and then he suddenly bangs in at 26.9 so makes a mistake there though westfield that wasn't uh the best line through that right-hander and that kills your speed all the way through dingledale and sheen curve so i would expect in the middle sector of this lap perhaps for dennis lin to have gained a bit more time it's a 38.4 in the middle section for adam and dennis lincoln comes through and does a 38.1 so yeah a few tenths lost there because of that mistake an incident involving andrew gordon colebrook is under investigation so the bmw that we were discussing a little while ago has had a drama we'll come to that in a moment or two let's just focus on here gilmore berman getting up past the uh assetto motorsport ginetta it's going to be a great party i think at a cetera if they come through as debut winners in gt4 now there is uh johnny adam andrew howard is his co-driver a bit concerned about the pace of this aston martin brent what can you elicit from andrew yeah well what is the problem with the car apparently nothing the gap is 4.6 between adam and behind him dennis lynch so talking to his teammate here andrew any problem with the car no not at all i mean the lambo gets its tyres in very quickly after the safety cars we were struggling a bit and you know going towards the end of a stint i think we're probably struggling and struggling a little bit more in our tires that's all but no all good we saw we saw the way um that lint took on berman and overtook him during traffic are you slightly concerned that he's going to overtake because we're getting at the end of this one no confident well hey this is a nightmare track to pass for a start and johnny's absolutely at the top of his game and i've been doing it long enough to know what'll be will be and you know for me i think if we can keep second it's a fantastic result against what is a fantastic field great stuff thank you andrew no problem at all thank you very much there you go you've heard it here first johnny adams is not going to be overtaken by dennis lin we can all go home that's fine but andrew is right i mean johnny is at the top of his game today the lamborghini is a better suited car to brown's hatch really that's where the advantage would seem to be uh and like andrew says there's nobody worrying about it he knows how to win championships of course he and johnny have been there and done it and got the t-shirt yes exactly i mean he he is a difficult man to overtake johnny adam don't forget he did a season in the british tour card championship as well where he very quickly became known for getting his elbows out at the earlier stages of his career he's matured quite a bit since then into a very very good gt driver but you still have to do a bit of racing in gt racing it's not all about consistent lap times over a 60-minute stint and you know you do have to have good racecraft and that's something dennis lynn definitely has but johnny adam likewise the gap 4.3 seconds now between second and third so dennis lin is chipping away he's not hacking away but he's chipping away traffic allowing and we've got 13 minutes to go there you go look he's done uh another mega effort in the uh that time stakes because he's being able to do the best of the race three tenths quicker than that of johnny adam that doesn't go back to quite close to the start of the stint admittedly but even so danny slid underlining his speed i'm trying to remember how many more circuit races he would have done he's probably probably missed out i think a world challenge europe visits because he was in the endurance round so dennis is something of a a rookie to brown touch ball pre-circuit relative to johnny adams certainly he's still doing a fine fine job here but he's got to clear the g-cap portion before he can think about the athlete uh yes but he has and that could also affect the the lap times and the gap between the two of them because that's not going to be quite as easy at overtakers if it were a gt4 car because of course the pace between the cars themselves relatively similar there's a yamaburman still fourth place sam neary caught yalma about 15 or 20 minutes ago and hasn't yet been able to do anything with him uh two cars the same of course both mercedes-amg gt3s but run out of different stables around racing and team ava racing and uh team avacar of course which uh a few years ago when they first joined the championship they're running bmw z4s a very different beast now in the mercedes but it's one that seems to suit richard near his driving style quite well and his son sam now the youngest one of these drivers certainly on the grid clearly has got to grips with it as well flashing of the lights there for dennis lin then uh on the previous lap another three tenths quicker but he could do with more than that couldn't they this is a bit of a non-story in a sense because no further action is being taken but an incident involving andrew gordon colebrook also involved the leader now there is no further action but something happened out of our view between the two of them and uh it was very nearly passing under the safety car i understand but it's been looked at by the stewards and it wasn't an issue so that's fine but that's the last thing a team needs with 11 minutes of change on the clock to suddenly find your number appearing on the timing screen being either investigated or even considered to be investigated there is lint still pushing in third place so the leader has gone by and that puts 68 laps in the book here is phil keane's lamborghini rival dennis lind and lindy's four seconds back from johnny adam he's taking another 10th out of that time yeah so he's creeping there and of course the closer he gets to johnny adam the more pressure he will then start putting johnny under right now four seconds is still a decent margin with only 11 and a quarter minutes to go so johnny won't be panicking just yet uh if uh dennis uh suddenly managed to get within a couple of seconds or so then johnny might start to uh to become a bit more preoccupied with what dennis was doing behind him and as we've said that only takes one back marker at the wrong place and all of a sudden lind could be right there with him adam by the way 7.3 seconds behind phil keane at the moment uh phil most definitely i think he's just stroking at home now isn't he he's got this lead that he's had uh pretty much since the start of his stint actually it's tennis linda isn't it getting held up by markers so it can work either way garnet yeah i mean i was just thinking actually phil keane's probably had one of the easiest stints he's ever had uh he's not had to worry about safety cars he's never really been threatened so he's just had to not make mistakes but he's done a great job as you would anticipate johnny adam dennis lynn two more gt3 stars and their battle carries on look that live gap down to 3.9 seconds so another 10 full backing before the end of the lap dennis linde is still pushing so the barwell lamborghini driver comes now down through clark curve he's had traffic on that lap but even so he's brought down the gap so it's a very impressive job this as he comes now towards the timing line breaks the beam again and four seconds it was 3.7 it is he's going to run out of time i would predict but it's a good effort yeah he's giving this everything isn't he and uh it's still been a good drive to fight back through track position on board now with johnny adam and this uh this is some of that traffic we were talking about isn't it two mclarens in gt4 having their own battle the number two car there uh the first one that he gets passed that is jordan collard who is uh running uh when uh what's that fourth place in gt4 dives up the inside of the other one into 30s now minimal time lost there for adam maybe a second or so total how much time they will lind lose when he gets there because he's going to catch them somewhere out on the gp loop yeah those mclarens are on different laps i think but they are as you say evenly matched but now it's up to dennis lind to clear them so johnny adam in that middle sector will have lost a little bit of ground but here dennis linda has got to try and find a way by and he's now in that twistier section he's going to try and get past them both if he can on the way up through dingle delt yes yes yes he's done it yeah nicely done there teddy mclaren had to actually take to the grass i think to let him through right middle sector times then adam does a 38-7 and lynn despite the traffic half a second quicker in the middle sector alone and of course in the first sector where adam was in traffic he was another three tenths quicker so that's seven tens quicker and he had to catch those pass those two gt4 cars in i would say a more awkward spot than adam had to i'd go along with that but equally he was absolutely committed caught past straight away bang i'm making my move i'm not sitting here and hesitating and thinking about it i'm going to commit and he did exactly that and he's gone by so that brings the gap second to third down to 2.8 seconds a significant gain on that lap therefore eight minutes are on the clock uh it's still burman fourth fifth is nearing but these mercedes although they have been there all their abouts they've never quite been the fleetest cars uh no but then i think they would also say this isn't necessarily the circuit they expected to excel out they qualify pretty well uh but uh silverstone next time out they should be stronger and remember that the the top three finishers in gt3 and gt4 today will have extra pit stop time to serve next time so in a way finishing just off the podium as yama bourbon and salmoneary of here that they're going to do that might actually seem quite well going into uh silverstone next time first sector on this lap a tenth quicker is um linde than johnny adam it's gonna be a nail-biting finish this for johnny isn't it he's familiar with those though because he was involved in the closest ever finish in the championships history here nine years ago i can't believe it's that long ago that he had that uh phenomenal battle with dan martin brought in the nissan johnny and knows all about close finishes here at brown hatch he also knows how to win championships and if that means banking points then he will do that and if uh it comes that on the last lap dennis lind is a real hurdle i suspect johnny might just be able to find another couple of tents he knows he's not got the pace now to do anything about phil keane so go for points for second place and there's a gap there he only has to be ahead of dennis lind by a thousandth of a second the gap is two seconds with seven minutes to go but even if dennis lind catches it's not easy to pass so johnny adam with all his experience of the circuit the championship the car you name it he still i suspect it's gonna be okay to survive yes johnny does know the consistency wins championships but he also knows the points win championships most of the championships he's won he's won by a very small margin so again he won't want to get to the end of the season and look back at this race and the second place that he didn't fight hard enough for and see that that cost him the championship so uh it is gonna be a rather tasty battle is i'm now more and more convinced that linda's gonna get there as well because he is uh suddenly taking big chunks of time out of johnny adam again the lap times are back into the 26s for both of them uh as the fuel load of course diminishes and these pirelli tyres do uh uh keep their pace pretty deep into the stint so a light car uh a driver in dennis lind who clearly is clicking with car and circuit right now and on this lap again he was two temps quicker in the first sector he was about four tens quicker in the middle center and that is the gt4 leader charlie robertson in the pit lane with a left rear puncture absolutely right so how much time is this going to lose them how much did they have in hand well they've lost the lead already gus burton has gone through so on the limping lap but he jeanette has lost its class lead with five and three quarter minutes on the clock can you believe it drama in gt4 in the last knockings of the race then it's still in the pit lane this becomes the class leader and there the ginetta still has to get the new tire on it is done now the car's got to be dropped down come on chat suddenly it all becomes a panic is everything right is it tightened up have you done the nuts they've done one half of the operation of course the mandatory pit stop but this is all something new and he's in a panic in the heat of the race so go go go charlie robertson blasts away but that is a win snatched away with just over five minutes to go because they're going to have lost the best part of three quarters of a lap to the leading bmw i'll tell you what that is true heartbreak the highs and lows of motorsport hey and there is the shredding tyre many things that could have caused that but most of them not really the fault of the driver well possibly unless he's been trimming curbs too much but yes i think that for me is the real interest why has that happened as you run over something has it been curb strike was there a brush with another car and therefore if one car could get a puncture could we have a another one doing it or is that just pure bad luck i would suggest that possibly it was uh as you say because of curb strikes or contact because it's not that hot here today they've had uh you know the pace has been strong yes but they haven't been pushing hard they've not been a battle uh through this second stint to the race charlie roberts has been out on his own running to a set pace for his stint so i would assume that maybe he's run over a curve or as you say make contact with maybe a gt3 car coming through either way absolute heartbreak for them it does however uh promote the century motorsport bmws that uh couldn't find their way to the podium if they tried at a tight technical circuit like bran's hatch last year in a one two position in gt4 which uh yeah i think they'll take that well then yeah just thinking left rears it's a running wide type puncture rather than a corner cutting puncture if indeed it is a curb strike so pirelli will have a look at that but uh yeah it's an odd one that as you see jake giddings there going a lap down to johnny adam who's only 1.2 seconds up on dennis lynn but look at the clock three and a half minutes to go and a flying lap is just under 90 seconds so barring disaster phil keats still looking strong up front johnny adam can he hang on i still think he can i know the gap's coming down but he's got just about enough in hand to get to the end hasn't he yeah well yes but dennis lyndon having spent the majority of his stint chasing down this aston martin is not going to let the chance to attack it on the last lap uh go begging and through the corners you can see just from the body language of the lamborghini and we made the reference earlier on to how it does look a little edgier than the aston martin but you can really see he is ringing that car's neck and this is not good news for johnny adam that's the gt4 leader gus burton who he has caught at the final corner that hurts him through the turn it hurts his exit speed and dennis lyndon is almost there now across the start finish line they go this gap is going to be down around a second no it's 0.6 seconds down between the two of them with two laps left i reckon so there is time for one more at the end of this so the gap six tens as you say up towards druids now johnny adam is going to have to start working hard but he knows exactly where to defend the aston's going to have his strengths at certain parts of the circuit and we come back potentially to a situation we have seen in so many gt races the balance of performance means that these two cards when they get together should be so so similar in terms of pace and that might just help johnny adam as well so dennis lind has chipped away lap after lap a tenth here a couple of tenths there he's at the curb and he presses on so dennis lind exploring just about as much of kent as he possibly can curb at all but certis on that lap through comes now down through hawthorne johnny adam is ahead of him and the race leader who is nine seconds up the road should be ready to start the last lap of the race when he comes over the timing line there is adam second and third dennis lin mighty effortless by dennis faster's lap of the race and he's running third on the road he could not use any more of the road either good he's on the white lines going into the corners coming out of the corners he's all over the curb he makes a bit of a mistake there though it's sterling's just carried a bit too much speed in that's that aero wash isn't it that's quite a quick corner actually at sterling's because there's uh banking which allows you to carry a lot of speed through it and in a high speed corner like that the closer you get to the other car the less grip you have running in its wake and so actually this time johnny adam gets the gap back out again through they get our minute and 20 seconds left on the clock that means there was about a minute and 30 on the clock when phil keane got to the line it should be the last lap no i think so yeah sorry yes because the flying lap is the last that was a 126. i think phil keane might have just given johnny adam a little bit more sweat here because uh i think they're gonna squeeze one more lap out of it at the end of this so don't forget you're looking at a minute on the clock for these two and their track position but nine seconds up the road uh is phil keane so i still think yeah he might be able to squeeze one more out of this unless he really backs off to preserve everything so there is second johnny adam third behind him you can see 63 and what was nine tenths the gap had gone up at the start of that looks like he's come down slightly again on this lap because it's set to one yes two attempts pulled back by dennis lynn but johnny adam is still there as here is the race leader he is gonna get one more lap isn't he uh yeah i think so he'd have to back off an awful lot now to make this the final lap he's got the gap to do it but i don't think he will bill keane has got no traffic ahead of him and he just needs to bring it home on this final lap the real question is who will be in second place dennis lind is quicker in the middle sector than johnny adam by a couple of tenths of a second phil keane out of clearways and clark curve the checkered flag is not ready and with five seconds left on the clock he does now start the final lap he could just about have backed off couldn't he but this is for second place with one more lap to go so the good news johnny is your second the bad news is you've got another lap to try and hang on in there dennis lind goes through point five nine five of a second back then with a laptop run through panic hill bend they go yellow berman is still fourth in the background you might catch a flash of pink as the mercedes is there fifth is sam neary's green mercedes and sixth scott malvern in the tpr porsche the team parker racing entry so that car has chipped its way up the order but they're johnny adder then about to end the indie circuit element and go into the woods still second but only just yes there's only a car length or so between them but now we're heading on to the part of the circuit that should suit the aston martin a bit more it always seems to gap uh the lamborghini down pilgrim's dropping into hawthorne the aston martin a bit quicker in the speed traps the lamborghini better through the titan technical section and really now dennis lyndon even if he was right on the rear bumper of the aston martin he's running out of places to pass he is unless it's going to be a real start at clearways get to the line kind of do or die effort up to the checkered flag but see as the car hops its way through westfield it's not really close enough now the lamborghini's think about the move and johnny adam ticks off another corner only two to goes he comes into sterling's but it is going to be a second british gt win for michael argo it's gonna be an 18th for phil keane he's gonna be too clear of johnny adam now because honours in the opening round of the intelligent money british gt championship go to phil keane and michael i go in the wpi motorsport lamborghini huracan great effort by the team by michael by fail second johnny adam and andrew howe just ahead by three tenths of a second from leo machitsuki and dennis lind fourth goes the way of yelmer berman and ian loggie fifth father and son richard and sam neary and for sixth place it should be scott malvin and nick jones now what about gt4 uh yes well this is gonna be very good news for century motor sports isn't it because gus burton is gonna bring the 57 car home a race winner in gt4 he and will burns win the opening round of the british gt4 championship there is the first part of the century motorsports celebration and a little while longer about 10 seconds later or so there'll be another part because chris salkeld on his debut in the championship is gonna finish second with his teammates uh andrew gordon colbrook provisionally finished second because they have that incident that's going to be investigated after the race for the contact with the toyota of john ferguson well a great way to start the championship season wasn't it phil keane and michael i go get 77 laps in the book two hours ago we were talking about what the weather might do well actually didn't have a huge amount to play once we got the race underway but uh it has certainly been an enthralling opening round of the championship and uh of course the only round where we don't have to worry about the extra time spent in the pits for finishing in the top three in the previous race so uh almost natural pit stops as a consequence johnny adam and andrew howell second dennis lyndon did we ever get to the bottom of the slow pit stop for 63 no we did no yeah because that arguably cost them a win given the pace that lin had in that second stint i mean he was only 10 seconds off the lead in the end and i'd say he lost at least that uh through the slow pit stop and then the lap spent behind yarmouth certainly got him second place didn't it because three tenths was the margin there so let's have a look at the results michael i go and phil keem the winners ahead of johnny adam and andrew howard second leo machitsuki and dennis lind in third fourth in logy and yelbo berman ahead of richard and sam neary who are the uh silver and am winners in fifth from gt3 scott marvin and nick jones taking sixth overall uh the gt3 am porsche of greg kate and seamus jennings coming home in tenth place and have a look down to gt4 where honours go the way of will burns and gus burton 13th overall behind the delayed sandy mitchell and adam fallon lamborghini and ahead of the sister bmw of chris selkeld and andrew gordon-colebrook further down the order you'll find in pro-am third jamie stanley former gt4 champion uh along with nick halstead taking third spot and charlie robertson in the end coming home for fourth with mark samson in gt4 poor reward after having been looking so so strong earlier on in that second stint so michael i go puts his hats on phil keane will take off the helmet in a moment so another new co-driver for michael who started with adam wilcox dennis linda has driven with him andre calderon he drove with him at donington last year and they had that win uh and uh there they are phil keane is the man that brought the car home well done phil keane career win 18. he's with bryn lucas yes i am with phil phil a brilliant brilliant win for you this is win number 18 and gt3 but more importantly it puts you at the top when we go into this 2021 championship yeah i mean a great drive by michael and i can be proud of the team and the guys you know they've done a fantastic job we've worked really hard on winter and it's just nice to see it pay off yeah i mean it's brilliant stuff your teammate yourself what a great job as well yeah i just followed the instructions from phil and as he just said all the hard work that we've done over the winters starting to pay off so yeah let's look forward to the next round you were confident when i spoke to you earlier sorry you were confident about him earlier yeah no definitely we all know phil everyone on the grid does and he does what he does yeah well done thank you yes so phil keane then uh and michael i go championship contenders for sure michael will be hoping that the keane curse doesn't uh uh come over from barwell to wpi motorsport with him uh no doubting though their ability to win races of course it does mean though that they'll now have a success penalty when we go to round two yes and of course a longer race in order to try and overcome it because we go to the uh three-hour race there now what about johnny adam and andrew howard second overall friend they're all yours andrew i spoke to you when johnny was out there and you had no problems at all you said it's easy he's going to bring it home second that he did such a thing you know at the end of the day johnny's got fantastic experience cars done well and it's a tough circuit to overtake but absolute faith in johnny no issues at all absolutely absolute faith well johnny for yourself you were you were pushed right at the end weren't you yeah the lamborghini looked very consistent over the over the course of the stint and uh we were fast at the start i think i drew slightly up to philip to start this thing but um they struggled a little bit with dag throughout the stone there but yeah good to hold on to second great points for the championship and a nice way to start the season yeah absolutely well done both thank you very much thank you yes joey adam and andrew had a successful reunion i think for those two good to have them back in the championship for a full season campaign it's like they've never been away that's right i'd expect wins it might not be a brown's hatch aston martin circuit but his points and that will be very impressive indeed they're the uh gt4 drivers putting themselves together will burns and uh gus person gt4 winners i'll try and get to their due course but dennis lynn might have a story to tell dennis we are delighted to have him british gt and uh for third in gt3 he and uh leo chitsky will be somewhere in part there you can see the uh one two for century motorsport great way to start the season now dennis linde and liam machitsuki third in gt3 and uh well your teammate's way off over there but dennis that was a heck of a battle you almost got to second yeah almost this is key word we had some issues in the pit lane we have to figure out what that was but we really have a we had a winning car today i think uh pace wise i was feeling good and good in the car very confident uh engineers has done a mega job getting the car and and barwell is just working together very well and uh yeah it's a pity where you get p3 when we shoot at p1 but uh next time well it's great to watch thank you well done thank you thank you hold on danny's land and uh the gt4 uh situation as we've been saying is this one two for century motorsport and really impressive efforts for that team after zambia made the point of the race just the most awful lot for the bulk of last year awful look and just just didn't really have the pace did they you did get the feeling that the m4 was due a bit of an upgrade and now they've got it and century have committed fully now with this two-car entrance uh let's head down then shall we to have a chat with bryn lucas he's found our gt4 winner will burns well i don't understand inherited the win but you certainly got that win you had to work hard for it but it's nice to get a win on the first race isn't it oh yeah i just can't believe it especially this is back into the british gt and to come away with the overall gt4 win it's just fantastic result obviously commiserations to the genetica getting the puncture but at the same time the safety cars um sort of hampered us at the start so it was just a little bit frustrating on then but obviously to come away with this it's just an amazing job yeah it's amazing the podiums are happening now so well done thanks yeah thank you cheers yes well fantastic performance there for century motorsport will burns uh raced in a number of different categories at a pretty high level in britain now very happy boy indeed dennis linde i think and leo machitsuki can be happy with their third place overall as well a really solid start to leo's return and dennis's sort of first real championship challenge you feel this year and i can't think of another danish russian combination we've had on a british gt podium either in all the history of the championship it's absolutely a truly international affair again british gt as it should be you know it's attracting some of the best gt races in the world and uh we do have a habit of doing this in the uk don't we are our top level uh motorsports uh series they they are world renowned and uh yeah great to have drivers of their caliber racing with us again this weekend as lauren granville ushers the next batch of drivers to the podium he's having to do this just by hollering at them to encourage them along so uh on his instruction uh liam michitsky and dennis lin step forward for third place have a trophy have a bottle go to the backdrop uh and then we'll make way for the uh second place combination so stand there on your on your mark for third place dennis linden leo machitsuki really great drive there yes it really was so nearly second place but that in the end goes to the beach deep amr duo of johnny adam and andrew howard it's nice that we're able to get uh all three of our teams on the podium together now that's a 2021 development that we weren't able to do last year a sign that we're heading in the right direction i suppose uh so both of those teams joined by wpi motorsport then our race winners here in the season opener at brands hatch of the intelligent money british gt championship for 2021 michael i go and phil keane is this year the year for phil keane and mike ligo of course to get both of both of the both of them their first ever british gt championships they are your overall and indeed uh pro um podium finishes welcome to british gt dennis lid you need to be quicker getting the cork out the bottle a soggy day uh yes but you see you can go too early with this i've found and sometimes it's the driver that saves it to last whilst the others are defenseless so uh dennis has been on the podium a few times in his career i'm sure he's uh been through this thing before uh the celebrations i think will uh will last for a while here it's always so important isn't it to start your season off strongly as well and that first win at the start of the year is all the sweeter because it just sets you up so nicely for the rest of the season yes and if you can overcome a technical track like this then uh it does as you say perhaps make life a little easier for future uh circuits right ross wiley steps forward from the simon green motorsport team for third in class sure where lucky cara has gone to uh yes he uh yeah there on his own isn't he and that again is a bit of a provisional result because they did have that uh incident with the uh gcat racing porsche or two yes motorsports uh with the proctors father and son duo and then another one uh that won in the uh category this is uh uh the near east richard and sam neary keeping it in the family here in british gt and the nearest i think are going to be a team to watch this year if they can just stay out of trouble then certainly the silveramp category is doable for them and maybe they could go and snatch that first victory that's uh certainly speak to richard and sam this morning that's exactly what they're targeting they're almost more interested in finally getting that win than they are there at points tally at the end of the year number two james kell jordan oh lucky care he's probably fled to mallory park to raise something else because he normally has at least two races over a weekend at different circuits so gt4 podiums underweight james cowell and jordan collard are there andrew gordon colebrook and his co-driver step forward and then will burns and gus burton for the notional top step of the podium andrew gordon coldwell and chris selkel but again that's a car with a damocles investigation uh yes but a car at least in its original guys that won at silverstone last year so you know they're heading yes they're heading there with success penalties but they are heading to a circuit in which they dominated last year so obviously different driver combos now the evo bmw uh but uh if they can do that well at brands hatch what can they do when we go to a silverstone or a doddington park or even a snederton where in the past the bmw's have gone well true almost silverstone last year was safety car weather affected wasn't it as much as anything we had the early safety car period and people rolling the dice with uh pit stop strategy but yes i'll take your point i mean the car did work well around there last year chris taking their class winning gt4 well deserved one as well although they will have that uh incident with the toyota to discuss afterwards proam then top three and that's going to be a competitive category we have to feel for the uh mark sansom and charlie robertson duo because i mean they really should have won if that tire had lasted another five minutes they would have dominated in gt4 overall and within pro-am as well uh the geneta i think is gonna be a factor throughout the rest of the season as well well thank you everyone for your company i hope you've all enjoyed the opening round of the intelligent money british gt championship it was an absolute thriller which saw dennis which saw michael igo and phil keane come out on top in gt3 with century motorsport making a 1-2 in gt4 uh we will be back again next time at silverstone for the longest race of the season thank you everyone for joining us here at brands hatch we'll see you again next [Music] time you

Channel: GTWorld

Views: 125,452

Rating: 4.9608574 out of 5

Keywords: BlancpainGT, Blancpain, GT, GT3, Endurance, Sprint, Series, Cup, Motorsports, watch, FIA, driver, sportscar, racecar, car, events, Spa, 24h, team, europe, pro-am, pro, racetrack, LIVE, British GT, Brands Hatch, R1, New season, GP Circuit, Andy McEwan, David Addison, Bryn Lucas

Id: 3SqYJcqy7xw

Length: 157min 50sec (9470 seconds)

Published: Sun May 23 2021