April 11, 2022 Michael widdowson 0

Four Different Winners from Four races for GT Cup

GT Cup comes back with a bang in 2022, the opening four races had 4 different winners with drama from start to finish.

Sprint
Ian Loggie roared to victory in the opening sprint race of the season, leaning on the car in the early stages of the race to push his lead before the others got up to speed in the single digit temperatures at Donington Park.

Simon Orange was close at the start of the race but when the traffic was met the shuffling began, seeing Morgan Tillbrook use his experience to come through the traffic and take the second step of the podium away from Orange in the JMH run Orange Racing McLaren 720s

In GTO Steve Burgess in the rare Radical RXC took honours whilst Lucky Khera representing the Ferrari Brand for RaceLab took the GTC Class win.

GTH saw a tough fight for the win with Chris Hart coming out on top ahead of youngster James Wallis charging from behind to finish second in his first GT race of his career.

Steve Burgess, Raw Motorsport (Images by MJW Media, Mike Widdowson)

James Wallis, Valluga Concierge (Image by MJW Media, Mike Widdowson)

Pitstop Race
Enduro applied the right amount of pressure with consistent pace to force the mistake from RAM racing’s Ian Loggie. Marcus Clutton and Morgan Tillbrook would take overall honours as Loggie would lose his cool and run wide at coppice whilst lapping traffic with less than 10 minutes to go.

Clutton and Tillbrook would only improve their lead over the field with time penalties incoming for track limits. Penalties would promote Simon Orange and Michael O’Brien to second whilst the RAM racing AMG in the hands of Callum Macleod and Mike Price would round out the podium.
The Neary’s, Sam and Dad Richard would take fourth with Ian Loggie recovering from his trip into the gravel to take fifth position.

GTO was once again dominated by RAW motorsports Steve Burgess and Ben Dimmack in their Radical RXC. Lucky Khera’s performance also continued to take another GTC win.

James Wallis took second in his first ever GT Race, he then went on to take win in his second ever GT Race partnered with Sam MAHER-LOUGHNAN aboard their Valluga Racing Porsche Cayman 718 RS Clubsport.

Ian Loggie Running wide at Coppice (Image By MJW Media, Mike Widdowson)

Sprint Race

Loggie once again found himself on pole in the RAM Racing AMG this time along side the familiar foe, Richard Neary lined up second in his previous Generation AMG. The two of them stormed away with Neary hot on the heels of Loggie but with incidents happening safety cars interrupted the battle.

The Safety car returned to the pits and Loggie lead the field away once again but Richard Neary couldn’t sustain the pressure as he spun his AMG coming out of the final chicane, dropping down the order and releasing simon Orange on his hunt for Loggie out in the lead.

Orange continually added the pressure and closed down Loggie right down to the last lap before he made his move sweeping by at Mclaens to lead the way to his maiden overall win in GT Cup.

In GTC Khera took another win making it three from three in 2022, it wasn’t easy though as he had a race long battle with Warren Gilbert in the Topcats Lamborghini Super Trofeo.

GTO was once again taken by RAW motorsports Steve Burgess in the Radical RXC whilst GTH was dominated by Track Focused and James Kell who stormed to their first class win in GT Cup.

James Kell, Track Focused (Images by MJW Media, Mike Widdowson)

Pitstop Race

Simon Orange sat in pole position for the final race of the weekend with again Ian Loggie on the front row. The pair charged away at the start but Loggie lost time by having a moment at the craner curves, this saw Iain Campbell benefit and gain second position and begin to work on pressurising the leader heading towards the pitstop window.

Just before the pitstop window an incident once again brought the safety car into play and causing a flurry as the cars took advantage for their pitstops. With Loggie running as a solo driver, his pit time was shorter and inherited the lead when completing the stops but now being chased down by Greystone’s Oli Webb he continued to close the gap until making his decisive move into Redgate to take the lead and run away with the win. This would be Greystone’s first overall win in GT3.

Sam Neary would push relentlessly through his stint to challenge Loggie for second place. The pair would literally bang doors down the exhibition straight into the final chicane as Sam would take the place to come home second. Loggie would continue to struggle as Michael O’Brien would push and pass Loggie to round out the podium.

GTC would see another Ferrari win but this time in the hands of Benny Simonsen and Roy Millington also in Ferrari Challenge. RAW motorsports took GTO once again, making it 4 from 4 in 2022 so far.

Valluga Racing would lose position in the final stages of the race in GTH, with Makehappenracing’s Mercedes pairing of Chris Hart and Steve Walton taking their second win of the weekend.