BGTC: Donington Park preview

Bumper Grid for Second British GT Outing

With the 2007 season just two weeks old, 24 cars are due to compete in rounds 3 & 4 of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Donington Park this weekend.

Oliver Bryant and Matt Harris travel to Leicestershire as the current points leaders and will line up in their Tech9 Porsche 997 on Saturday afternoon holding a slender three point advantage over nearest rivals, and race one winners, Hector Lester and Tim Mullen in the Christians in Motorsport Ferrari 430.

The trio of Barwell Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9's will be looking for the first win of 2007 at Donington Park, with the Bio Fuelled car of Paul Drayson and Jonathan Cocker buoyed by the pace of their V12 powered Aston in Cheshire two weeks ago that netted them a pole position and two points finishes, including a second place.

Lotus Sport Cadena are bringing two Sport Exige GT3's to Donington, with Barrie Whight and Gavan Kershaw returning to more familiar surroundings after their forced outing in the Trackspeed Porsche after technical problems left the Lotus parked up at Oulton Park two weeks ago. Team owner Paul Whight will pilot the second Exige with 2006 Australian F3 Champion Ben Clucas sharing the driving duties.

Rollcentre Racing are joining the British GT grid for the first time this season with a GT3 Mosler, driven by Kevin Riley and Ian Flux, to race alongside the Eclipse Mosler of brothers Elliot and Craig Cole which proved to be very quick at Oulton Park.

Following the official FIA test at Dijon this week the teams running the Dodge Viper have been handed some good news with the ride height of the American supercar being lowered by 10mm and a reduction in weight by 40kg. Bradley Ellis and Alex Mortimer scored a podium at Oulton Park with the Team RPM Viper and are looking forward to challenging for the win at Donington Park with these changes in place.

Le Mans 24 Hours winner Lawrence Tomlinson joins Nigel Greensall in the Brookspeed run Viper and Trackspeed are running their second Porsche 997 for Iain Dockerill and Pete James while David Ashburn is joined by 1997 British GT Champion Tim Sugden in the teams other 997.

GTC is missing two cars this weekend following Oulton Park, with the David Dove Ferrari 360 being forced out following the accident at Deer Leap and the Richmond Racing Ginetta still suffering following the engine problems encountered in Cheshire. However what the class lacks in numbers it makes up for in quality and all of the teams entered in the class are capable of taking the win. The Team Tiger Marcos of Chris Beighton and Jon Finnemore took maximum points two weeks ago and the Leicestershire based team will be looking for more of the same on their home circuit.

Round 3 of the 2007 Avon Tyres British GT Championship takes place on Saturday 21st April at 16:25 and Round 4 will be at 14:00 on Sunday 22nd April. Rounds 3 & 4 of the 2007 Lloyds TSB Insurance British F3 International Series will also be held on Sunday with a full support racing package, including the only visit this year by the European BELCAR championship.

-credit: www.britishgt.com