British GT: Blackthorn and Team Parker top Donighton Park Thursday Testing

With the British GT Season commencing this weekend at Donighton Park, one final test session has been completed at the circuit they will race on for the season opener.

The day was split across three test sessions with the opening session yesterday seeing only two GT3’s scraping into the 1:25’s as the Barwell Motorsport number 78 just pipped the Optimum Motorsport number 77 by less than three hundredths on their fastest time. Both cars would complete over 30 laps in that opening session with the Barwell Motorsport car driven by Alex Martin and Sandy Mitchell would complete the most laps that morning with 33 laps.

The GT4 Class meanwhile would see the Mahiki Racing car of Steven Lake and Jack Mitchell top the first sessions time sheets as they keep three hundredths of the Team Parker Racing Ed McDermott and Seb Morris in that morning session. Optimum Motorsport’s Marc Warren and Jack Brown completed the most laps for GT4 in the first session of the day with them being the only team to complete 30 laps in the class.

The second session saw a repeat of session 1 with the 78 Barwell Motorsport car topping the time sheet going 9 thousandths faster than their fastest time in the previous session remaining clear of the Mike Price and Callum MacLeod’s Optimum and Simon Orange and Marcus Clutton’s Orange Racing McLaren who dip into the 1:25’s. Charles Dawson and Kiern Jewiss’s 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes set the most number of laps in the session with 35 laps as they  complete over 60 laps across the opening two sessions combined.

In GT4, the number 30 Team Parker Racing car went fastest by two tenths of a second with Jon Currie and Phil Keen in the Mercedes go a few tenths quicker than the rest of the GT4 field. Meanwhile, Lake and Mitchell’s Lotus Emira which topped the opening sessions timesheets clocked in only 8 laps in session two.

The final session was where most cars put their fastest times as Blackthorn’s Aston Martin put in the fastest time of the day with a 25.488, over a tenth and a half clear of what the Orange Racing McLaren managed to do. Optimum Motorsport’s Price and MacLeod set the third fastest time while the only car in that final test session in the top 10 that didn’t set their fastest time in that session was Martin and Mitchell’s Lamborghini who set the most number of laps in that final session.

Team Parker Racing finished the day with the top two times in GT4 as the Mercedes squad look comfortable in the final test session of the year. The second placed Mercedes of Currie and Keen also completed the join most number of laps in that final session with them completing 23 laps. The same as the Century Motorsport BMW of Ramyead and Robertson.

The opening round of the season will commence this weekend at Donighton Park as it sets the stage for a nine-round season ahead.