Jewiss and Dawson fight through to extend their lead over team mates.
Kirchhöfer was applying the pressure but 2 Seas Motorsport’s Jewiss withstood the pressure and managed to extend their lead in the championship.
The race came down to a ten-minute sprint after the third and final safety car. Jewiss absorbed Kirchhöfer’s attacks towards the flag to extend the pair’s British GT Championship lead.
Dawson set up the victory with a strong opening stint, climbing from sixth on the grid to fourth at the start. His pace and track position kept the #42 in play before Jewiss took over, cycling to the lead in the second hour as rivals served pit stop success penalties.
“I was really happy with the start, jumped past a couple of cars,” said Dawson. “Having to push to queue out Kevin [Tse], and we knew they had time penalties, so we weren’t taking too many risks.
“We knew we were nowhere near [the other GT3s] pace-wise,” added Jewiss, “and we had to have a bit of luck, and that’s what we had. We had a great start from Charles, and we knew it had been close to Marvin. I knew he was going to come quite fast on the new tyres; we struggled when the car was quite heavy on fuel.
“But we managed it quite nicely. Let’s see what happens at Donington. It’s going to be tough.”
The win extended Jewiss and Dawson’s points advantage to 28.5 heading into the decider at Donington Park, now leading over Kirchhöfer and Morgan Tillbrook in the #77 McLaren rather than the sister #18 2 Seas Mercedes, which had been their nearest rival since Snetterton.
Hugo Cook and reigning champion Rob Collard completed the podium in the #1 Barwell Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2, with Blackthorn’s #7 Aston Martin of Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam in fourth.
Petrobelli had grabbed the lead at the start, diving past pole-sitter Tse at Paddock Hill Bend before Collard followed through. But a drive-through penalty for a prohibited fan blower used on the grid ruined his run, dropping the Aston to the back of the GT3 order. Collard inherited the lead, chased by both 2 Seas cars.
The first safety car, for a stranded #90 Optimum McLaren Artura GT4, allowed Petrobelli to recover ground after serving his penalty. A second, triggered by the Mahiki Racing Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo catching fire, closed the field again.
On the restart, Petrobelli charged through, gaining five places before handing to four-time champion Adam, who brought the car home fourth just ahead of Beechdean AMR’s Andrew Howard and Tom Wood.
Beechdean also claimed Silver-Am honours ahead of Bridger Motorsport’s NSX GT3 EVO22.
The #18 2 Seas Mercedes had a tougher run. Tse stretched his stint to mitigate a 20-second success penalty from Snetterton before handing it to Maximilian Götz. They finished seventh, behind the #67 Orange Racing by JMH McLaren of Simon Orange and Marcus Clutton.
Optimum’s #3 McLaren of Jon Kearney and Callum Macleod took eighth, while Paddock Motorsport’s #9 car was ninth despite contact between Martin Plowman and Team Parker’s Sven Müller. Their clash at Surtees sent Plowman into a spin and forced Müller into the gravel at Hawthorn with suspension damage.
Rounding out the top ten were Barwell’s #78 Lamborghini of Alex Martin and Patrick Kujala. Martin slipped from third to sixth at the start, and Kajula later picked up a puncture — likely from debris after the Plowman-Müller clash — which compromised their run.
Luca Hopkinson and Harry George claimed their maiden GT4 victory in the #17 Optimum Motorsport McLaren Artura, converting a front-row start after a strong run from George in the opening stint.
Their breakthrough came after Jack Mitchell’s #84 Mahiki Racing Ginetta, which had led from the start, caught fire after just 20 minutes.
“It feels like a long time coming,” said George. “Near enough a dream race for me, starting on the front row and bringing it home in P1 to Luca. At the start, Harry brought the car into a good position, so fortunately, I had to drive around and look after my tyres in the case of a safety car.”
GT4 championship leaders Optimum’s #90 McLaren had a nightmare, retiring on lap one after Marc Warren was tipped into the barriers by Ravi Ramyead’s #71 Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 EVO, after a snap of oversteer while alongside.
That retirement continued the title race with Ramyead and teammate Charlie Robertson finishing second and cutting into the #90 crew’s advantage ahead of the Donington decider.
Phil Keen and Jon Currie scored a first podium of the year for Team Parker Racing in the #30 Mercedes-AMG GT4.
They finished ahead of the #69 Mahiki Ginetta of Blake Angliss and Luke Garlick, who impressed on his series debut. Garlick climbed six places from the back of the grid to battle Robertson for second before Angliss was handed a drive-through penalty for the #69 not fully stopping during refuelling.
Fifth in GT4 went to Joe Wheeler and Ian Duggan in the #88 Mahiki Ginetta, while Chris Salkeld and Branden Templeton completed the classified runners in Century’s #14 BMW.
The only GT4 retirements were the #90 Optimum McLaren and the #84 Mahiki Ginetta, leaving the title to be settled at Donington Park.
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