Damp but drying track conditions made for an exciting end to first practice at the Avon Tyres British GT Championship’s #DoningtonDecider this morning when Andrew Howard and Oz Yusuf finished comfortably clear of their respective GT3 and GT4 rivals.
Phil Keen’s Barwell Motorsport BMW had been fastest before conditions improved during the final 20 minutes reserved for Am drivers, and it was Beechdean AMR’s Howard who saved his best until the very end by producing a 1m37.733s on slick tyres.
That was 3.227s faster than the wet-shod TF Sport Aston Martin of Andrew Jarman who had been the first of the Am drivers to lower Keen’s benchmark. The Snetterton pole-sitter was three tenths quicker than Salih Yoluc’s Von Ryan Racing McLaren after another late effort moved the Turk into the top-three.
Keen’s lap from the wetter part of the session was still good enough to finish fourth in class ahead of championship leader Marco Attard’s Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 and Kieran Griffin’s Oman Racing V12 Vantage.
Derek Johnston and Matt Bell, who’d lead early on in the rain, finished seventh aboard the second TF Sport Aston Martin. Rick Parfitt Jnr’s Ginetta was eighth.
In GT4, ISSY Racing’s Yusuf employed the same tactics as Howard up front to finish 2.4s quicker than Richard Williams’ GPRM Toyota GT86, who was another to improve late on.
Yusuf’s co-driver Gavan Kershaw had set the pace in the opening segment by over a second, and the Lotus Evora again asserted its authority late on after a flurry of changes towards the end.
Jake Hill had looked quick aboard AmDTuning.com’s Porsche 911, a fact emphasised by Graham Coomes over the final 20 minutes en route to third quickest.
Rob Garofall had also spent time in the top-four earlier in the session but it was University of Bolton co-driver Anna Walewska who ended up securing the fastest Ginetta G55 time, half a second shy of Coomes.
Will Moore and Dennis Strandberg’s Aston Martin V12 Vantage made it as many different manufacturers in the top-five after spending a period on top, while Ian Stinton and Nathan Freke’s Century Motorsport-run Ginetta finished sixth on its first appearance of the season.
The Invitation Class-entered PROsport Porsche Cayman was next up in the hands of Henry Hassid and Adam Christodoulou, ahead of Tim Eakin and Jamie Wall’s UltraTek Lotus Evora which caused a brief red flag after spinning into the McLeans gravel just before the Am session began.
The day’s second, 50-minute practice session begins at 12:15 BST.