British GT Championship – Round Six Brands Hatch

Academy Motorsport narrowly missed out on a race victory at Brands Hatch today, following the sixth round of the British GT Championship. Despite an outstanding 30 second advantage, the team’s sole remaining Aston Martin Vantage GT4 was forced to retire.

Since the previous round of the championship at Spa-Francorchamps, the team had been reunited with its sister car, following a rebuild, just in time for Brands Hatch.

As race day loomed, the build-up process was executed like clockwork, with all four drivers making their way through practice and qualifying without fault.

This penultimate round of the season has had a lot of excitement surrounding it. Chasing a podium finish, all four drivers were keen to secure a strong finish, and with a two-hour race in front of them, the tension mounted.

Alex Toth-Jones and Ben Hurst each controlled the opening stint for their respective machines, whilst team-mates Will Moore and Micah Stanley waited patiently in the pit lane. A strong start for both cars saw the pair circulate in seventh and 11th places, respectively.

After 15 minutes of racing, Hurst was caught up in a collision with a fellow driver, causing him to return to the pit lane with damage to his car. Sadly, this signalled the end of his and Stanley’s race.

Clever use of a safety car period following the collision saw Toth-Jones move ahead of his rivals. As he made his pit stop and handed over to team-mate Moore, the pair were sat comfortably in an overall and class leading position.

Moore continued to demonstrate his pace, developing a 30 second cushion to the car behind. With just 20 minutes of the race remaining, sadly an issue caused Moore to fall from the circuit and out of contention.

Commenting on the penultimate round, Managing Director Matt Nicoll-Jones, said: “It’s been a frustrating day for us. To lose Ben and Micah so early in the race was not ideal, but then to lose the race win in the closing stages was heart breaking.

“Despite missing out on the victory, to know that we had the pace to not only hold onto the lead, but to develop an outstanding 30 second advantage is positive.

“The team worked fantastically once again, and we used the safety car periods perfectly to our advantage. Despite the result, we have proven ourselves once again.”

Unbelievably the 2019 British GT Championship is swiftly coming to an end, with just one round to go. The season finale will take place at Donington Park, during 14th – 15th September.