Sportscar aces Jonny Adam and Sandy Mitchell have put a definite Scottish slant on the British GT title chase.
Storming performances by the pair in a two-hour race at Donington Park saw four-time series champion Adam catapult himself into the joint lead of the GT3 drivers’ championship.
Meanwhile, reigning champion Mitchell moved up to third courtesy of a storming performance as the fastest man on the Leicestershire track.
Incident packed
An action-packed opening to the two-hour race saw the safety car on track three times after incidents throughout the field.
Fifer Adam and teammate Andrew Howard went on to finish third in the Beechdean AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT3, maintaining their record of a good haul of points from all three rounds so far to head the standings.
Chaotic start & a hard battle at the end to secure P3 overall / P2 in class 🏆
Great opening stint by @BeechdeanAH to move up the order with a lot of action to deal with. Busy final laps to defend but really pleased to secure the result after great work by the team #britishgt pic.twitter.com/7Wc8rKPFL1
— Jonny Adam (@JonnyAdam) July 11, 2021
Mitchell’s task was made tougher by a 20-second pitstop success penalty after he and teammate Adam Balon took maximum points from the previous Silverstone 500 race.
The Forfar 21-year-old emerged seventh at the driver changeover in the No. 1 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo but demolished the deficit to his rivals ahead.
He set the fastest lap of the race with half an hour remaining before easing himself into fifth and closing the gap to become part of the three-car battle for third, led by Adam’s Aston Martin.
Despite applying incessant pressure over the remaining laps, the young Lamborghini factory driver had to content himself with the valuable points which keep he and teammate Balon in the championship hunt.
Mitchell said: “It was a lot of fun. With the 20s success penalty we had, this weekend was always going to be about damage limitation.
“Overall we’ve got to be happy with the weekend.
“We started the race from third, served a 20s penalty, finished fifth and moved to third in the title race.
“It means we head to the next two-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium in a fortnight with no success penalty.
“This year’s championship was always going to be tough, but we’re right in the mix to defend the title.”