RAMYEAD AND ROBERTSON VICTORIOUS AGAIN
A superb opening stint by Ravi Ramyead helped him and Century Motorsport co-driver Charlie Robertson claim victory in British GT4’S two-hour contest at Donington Park.
The BMW M4 pair started ninth but were fifth come the driver change and no compensation penalties helped them leapfrog into first for their second win in three races. Team Parker’s Charles Dawson and Seb Morris and the second Century BMW of Ian Gough and Tom Wrigley completed the podium at the season’s penultimate round last weekend.
Forsetti Motorsport’s Aston Martin Vantage went quickest in a wet qualifying, but that rain did not continue into race day despite the wishes of polesitters Jamie Day and Mikey Porter. The latter stayed ahead of Aston Millar’s DTO Ginetta G56 at the start, but Porter’s team-mate Marc Warren dropped to the back as he was hit by erstwhile championship leader Zac Meakin, sharing with Jack Brown, at the Old Hairpin.
Forsetti controlled the early stages as Porter led after 30 minutes, but Millar was less than a second behind following numerous overtaking attempts. The Ginetta driver finally took the lead on the inside of Melbourne Hairpin 10 minutes later while, shortly afterwards, Meakin jumped Marco Signoretti’s Ford Mustang for third.
Such close racing eventually proved costly, though, as it prevented cars from pulling away and Millar led by only five seconds when the pit window arrived at the one-hour mark. Silver crews were required to spend an extra 24 seconds in their pitbox and Pro-am pairing Ramyead/ Robertson started the window only 10s behind. It meant Robertson began his stint with a 17s lead over Freddie Tomlinson – in for Millar – while Team Parker jumped from seventh to third as its Pro-am Mercedes pairing also profited.
“I just found the rhythm, did a few track limits because the car was a bit heavy, but it was great,” said Ramyead. Robertson added: “I couldn’t have asked Ravi to do a better stint. I popped out a good chunk ahead and really just had to stroke it home.”
The #71 BMW was then left unchallenged, as
it led by over 30s when a brake failure caused Tomlinson to crash from second at the
Melbourne Hairpin with 25 minutes remaining. The full course yellow and subsequent safety car meant Robertson gained an entire lap ahead of runner-up Morris. Meakin’s co-driver Brown finished third on track, but a post-race 30s penalty for speeding under the FCY demoted the Optimum Mclaren to 11th.
The result means Day/porter claimed the championship lead by 3.5 points over the Optimum duo despite only finishing seventh, because of a slow pitstop and Day being pushed into the Redgate gravel by GT3’S Jessica Hawkins.