British GT: Brands Hatch preview

The sixth round of the British GT championship will be held at Brands Hatch, a former British GP circuit, with a two-hour race and points-and-a-half on the table.

Despite winning only one of five races this season, reigning champions Marco Attard and Alexander Sims in Ecurie Ecosse’s BMW Z4 GT3 are currently topping the championship standings with an advantage of 14.5 points. They are followed by Oman racing Team’s pair Liam Griffin and Rory Butcher and Beechdean AMR’s drivers Jonathan Adam and Andrew Howard.

The latter have won three rounds so far and has also won the race at Brands Hatch in 2013 on their way to the championship title. Their Aston Martin Vantage should be well suited for this circuit, making them top contenders for the championship. However, they’ll need to overcome a 20-second success penalty during their pit-stop in order to let that happen.

Triple Eight Racing’s Joe Osborne and Lee Mowle are also contenders for the high placement, just as Phil Keen and John Minshaw of Barwell Motorsport or Lewis Plato and Alistair MacKinnon in the RAM Racing’s Mercedes SLS AMG GT3.

In the GT4 class, Beechdean AMR’s pair Jamie Chadwick and Ross Gunn have won two races so far this season, just like ISSY Racing’s duo Oz Yusuf and Gavan Kershaw. However Chadwick and Gunn are the leaders in the overall standings with an advantage of 21 points.

Another team which has tasted a GT4 victory in 2015 is the Optimum Motorsport with Mike Robinson and Graham Johnson behind the wheels. But it is hard to believe that they can go into the battle for victory this time. It will be interesting to see what AmD Tuning can do with its  Porsche 997 GT4. UltraTek Racing with two Lotus Evoras also looking to gain some success.

The qualifying session at Brands Hatch starts on Saturday 17.25 CET, while the start of the race is on Sunday 14.30 CET.