The third round of the Intelligent Money British GT Championship took place at Donington Park at the weekend, the first of two visits to the circuit in the 2021 schedule. For Balfe Motorsport, it was a bittersweet meeting, with the GT3 of Stewart and Lewis Proctor finishing in sixth position overall, second in class, while the GT4 of Ashley Marshall and Jack Brown was eliminated from the two-hour race early on.
The team tested at the circuit on Thursday, and then prepared the two McLarens for the race weekend on Friday. As ever, Saturday was given over to practice and qualifying and after losing a little track time due to a wheel bearing issue, the #5 McLaren 720S GT3 was soon back on the pace with Stewart and Lewis qualifying in a fine sixth position overall, first in class, and happy with the performance of the car.
Lewis’ qualifying laps was especially noteworthy, being the second fastest of the qualifying session and underlining the pace of the package around Donington Park. The two-hour race got underway Sunday afternoon with Stewart behind the wheel, and he did a great job to avoid the first lap incidents heading into Redgate. Having made initial gains, he ran comfortably in the top three before the second Safety Car of the race was deployed on lap nine.
With the field compressed once again, Stewart found himself under pressure from behind from Kelvin Fletcher and Adam Balon. A rare mistake heading into the Old Hairpin cost him momentum and in seconds, Stewart had lost position. Once back into his rhythm, he resumed, chasing the #77 Morgan Tillbrook before pitting at the one-hour mark.
Lewis was soon up to speed, aiming to close the seven-second deficit to Martin Plowman ahead. There was no stopping the Lamborghini of Sandy Mitchel making an audacious pass on fresh rubber into Redgate later in the race, but Lewis put in a great stint to catch and pass Plowman for sixth position at the chequered flag.
The race meanwhile had been a short one for Ashley Marshall in the #90 GT4 McLaren. Having qualified in seventh position, he had made a good start to the race, but on lap four was taken out of the race. It was an unfortunate incident, one that was unavoidable for Ashley and especially frustrating as he and teammate Jack had been so happy with the performance of the car and had expected their first podium position of the season on Sunday afternoon.
Balfe Motorsport now prepares for the fourth round of the British GT Championship which takes place later this month at Spa-Francorchamps. |
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LEWIS PROCTOR, #90 McLaren 720S GT3
“Qualifying was really good and the car felt great in the race. For me, I gave it all I had with the tyre life I had and there was nothing I could do to stop Sandy from passing me on new rubber. I ran the used set from qualifying, so it was the case of a bit of traffic and then the new tyre gave him the advantage and he made the pass. I then settled in, found my rhythm and I felt my pace was really good and I caught and passed the Bentley, so that was solid.
“I then tried to reel in the cars ahead – Jonny Adam and Marcus Clutton – but with so many GT4 cars having crashed out of the race, there was no advantage to be had in terms of working traffic. Now I look forward to my first time at Spa in a GT3!” |
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STEWART PROCTOR, #90 McLaren 720S GT3
“I don’t know what happened to Michael Igoe at the start, but Richard Neary gave me space on the inside, so that was an interesting start and I made up a couple of places. I then felt really comfortable running in third place, but I made a little mistake after the second Safety Car and I went deep into the Old Hairpin and lost places on the run up the hill. That was it really as we then tried to finish as high as possible in the overall result.” |
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ASHLEY MARSHALL, #90 McLaren 570S GT4
“The race weekend has actually been great. Each weekend we all get stronger and stronger, developing the car and yes, a small mistake from me in qualifying cost us three-tenths, which would have obviously placed us much higher on the grid. We knew from the longer runs in practice that we were very good in terms of tyre wear, so it was disappointing to see such poor driving standards in the race itself.
“The BMW of Chris Salkeld drove into the side of the Ginetta and ahead of me, I had Jordan Collard who was just able to avoid the accident. As soon as he moved, I had nowhere to go and there was unavoidable contact. It’s a tough one to swallow and so frustrating as the team has worked so hard over the whole season and we really felt that we could fight for a podium this weekend.” |
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