British GT: Howard and Adam victorious at Spa

Andrew Howard and Jonathan Adam are the winners of the British GT two-hour race at Spa-Francorchamp. Beechdean AMR drivers of Aston Martin Vantage were almost 20 seconds in front of BMW Z4 GT3 drivers Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen (Barwell Motorsport), while third place won Leonard Motorsport’s pair Stuart Leonard and Michael Meadows in another Aston Martin Vantage.

Change of the leader was seen in the first lap when Liam Griffin pushed his Aston Martin Vantage in front of the same car driven by Andrew Howard, while reigning champion and overall standings leader Marco Attard dropped from fourth to ninth place. Lee Mowle started perfectly in the Triple Eight Racing’s BMW Z4 GT3 as he moved up to third, overtaking four cars after just three laps.

After 15 minutes in GT4 class, Oz Yusuf retained leading position in ISSY Racing’s Lotus Evora in front of Jamie Chadwick in Aston Martin Challenge, but Will Moore was one to watch as he jumped from 14th to fourth in Academy Motorsport’s Aston Martin.

It was a quite peaceful race, but that was changed when Liam Griffin was handed drive-through penalty for jumping the start. He dropped to tenth leaving Stuart Leonard in Aston Martin on top. Andrew Howard was second 2.3 second behind, while Lee Mowle was second with a gap of 4.5 seconds after 30 minutes of racing. But in lap 12, Mowle lost control in turn 14 and that was the of the race for him what caused safety car employment.

After the race was restarted, it didn’t lasted long as two GT4 cars went off at turn 13, so safety car was called again. After one hour and Pros coming aboard, Michael Meadows continued where Stuart Leonard stopped. Beechdean AMR with Jonathan Adam behind a wheel was second and Phil Keen in Barwell Motorsport’s BMW was third. ISSY Racing was dominant in GT4 class as Gavan Kershaw was more than 30 seconds in front of Ross Gunn (Beechdean AMR) and Jake Hill’s Porsche of AmD Tuning.

Phil Keen, who looked very well during practice, quickly overtook Meadows in battle for second place and started to chase a leader who was seven seconds in front of him. Soon after, Adam with some nice maneveur managed to take a lead from Meadows and with some 20 minutes to go, he and Kershaw were in comfortable lead in their classes and looked like they are on the good way to victory.

RAM Racing’s Lewis Plato and TF Sport’s Jody Fannin tumbled out of top five after small accident which will be investigated after the race. That was a chance for Oman Racing Team’s Rory Butcher and Ecurie Ecosse’s Alexander Sims to sneak into the top of the rankings, but they were still too far from Michael Meadows who was third.

Standings remained unchanged in the final minutes, so Adam and Howard claimed second win in the season, while in GT4 class Yusuf and Kershaw took their first laurels this year in front of championship leaders Jamie Chadwick and Ross Gunn, while Graham Coomes and Jake Hill finished third.