The in-form Orange Racing with JMH squad charged to success in the second contest of the GT Cup Championship weekend, after a great performance by drivers Simon Orange and Tom Roche.
Qualifying kicked off the day's action on a drying surface on Saturday morning, with Hugo Cook turning in the fastest lap of the session. The J&S Racing Audi R8 GT3 Evo2 machine battled from a track limits knockback to go 0.4s faster than its nearest rivals, Orange Racing with JMH, driven by Snetterton winner Tom Roche.
The GTO Group was headed by the team who entered the day leading the overall championship, Kendall Developments. Paul Bailey put the Lamborghini Huracan on pole ahead of Chris Murphy's BMW M3 GTR, with Brands Hatch race winner Morgan Short switching from Mosler to Lamborghini machinery as he claimed GTC pole for his new suitors, Topcats Racing.
In a separate GTH Qualifying session, it would be the Makehappen Racing squad that had the early bragging rights, with Chris Hart topping the group in his Mercedes.
The opening race brought with it a curveball as the weather continued to chop and change in the run-up to the moment cars trundled out of the pits to form up on the grid for the first 40-minute contest.
Only one car remained on wet Pirelli tyres, while four more changed theirs for slicks in the pit lane including the Lamborghini of Bailey. The one gambling on the track remaining damp would be the pole-sitting Audi, piloted by Sacha Kakad, who looked to have the weather on his side as rain intensified on lap two.
Simon Orange - driving the Orange Racing with JMH McLaren 720S GT3 Evo - gave chase immediately in his attempts to add to the team's super weekend at Snetterton last month, both with a flying AF Corse Ferrari 488 Challenge prancing horse in their mirrors as Dan de Zille closed in.
As rain pelted down, the Ferrari man dived to the outside of Orange into the Knickerbrook chicane to grab second, before seconds later an accident at Druids Corner brought the race to an abrupt early end, the car clearing the barriers but with its driver emerging thankfully from the impact.
The race win therefore went the way of Kakad and Cook in their Audi, as red flags were waved to allow for extensive barrier damage to be repaired. Half points were awarded due to the distance not covered, with group wins going the way of Bailey in GTO, De Zille in GTC and Paddock Motorsport in GTH - the latter taking a third group win of the year with Tim Docker and Jordan Albert.
Delays over the day meant a later start and a shortened 30-minute race, all held in much brighter and drier conditions thankfully.
A sublime opening lap from front-row starter Orange ended with the McLaren driver leading the way after slipping inside the AF Corse Ferrari at Shell Oils hairpin, taking a lead the #67 crew would ultimately never surrender as Orange scampered into the distance in the opening stint.
With a comfortable cushion, Orange handed over to Roche who was able to stroke the car home for a third victory of the '23 season, Kakad and Cook taking second with a double GT3 podium going the way of Greystone GT and a charging Ed Pead - partnering Andrey Borodin for their first podiums.
In GTO it would be a clean sweep for Bailey and Ross Wylie in their Lamborghini, beating Murphy's BMW, while GTC was the scene of a superb battle for the victory that literally went down to the wire.
A strong performance from Charlotte Gilbert kept Topcats Racing in the hunt behind a flying De Zille, after which Short chased Dan's father Graham De Zille all the way to the chequered flag. A bold move in traffic from Short stuck at the final corner in the dying minutes, sealing a win but by inches at the line as De Zille got a run on Short's Lamborghini which drifted wide at Lodge on the dirt as Pead went by into third overall.
GTH was also a wild fight, as an inspired pitlane start to change tyres for the #69 Makehappen Racing Mercedes started a recovery drive from Stephen Walton to regain second place before handing over to the flying Hart, who sealed the win for the title contenders.
“It was a perfect end to the weekend really, Simon drove such a good first stint that my job was just to not mess up really! Don’t get track limits, set good times and bring it home. Bit of a weird way to drive that but can’t complain it was a good race!
The car feels great and the team is doing are great job, Simon is doing a great job and I’m looking forward to getting in the car every time we’re at the track. Roll on Silverstone!”
The championship next heads to Silverstone GP circuit for two action-packed days of racing, with four races taking place over the 29th and 30th July.
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