Raffaele Marciello and John Ferguson took victory in the second race of the Intelligent Money British GT Championship at Snetterton this afternoon after a thrilling fight with their rival Mercedes cars.
The race had looked to be going the way of the No. 97 Beechdean AMR driven by Ross Gunn and Andrew Howard before a stop-go penalty for a pit stop infringement pulled them from the running. This opened up a thrilling four-way scrap for the win between both 2 Seas Motorsport and No. 15 RAM Racing Mercedes and Orange Racing by JMH McLaren.
The Aston Martin duo inherited pole position from the Garage 59 McLaren 720s GT3 Evo entry of Alex West and Marvin Kirchhöfer who did not start the race. Gunn therefore had Jules Gounon joining him on the front row in the No. 1 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG he shares with reigning champion Ian Loggie. Behind in third was Rafaelle Marciello in the No. 15 RAM Racing Mercedes.
The trio stayed in their starting order for the entire first stint of the race, pushing each other throughout. The pitstops proved to confirm the top three and brought the No. 4 2 Seas Merc into the fight at the hands of James Cottingham.
The Beechdean AMR drove into the distance as Ferguson (RAM) and Loggie scrapped for second. Then the penalty call came to Howard in the Aston Martin, a one-second stop-go, and the three-hand fight begun.
It was Ferguson from Loggie and Cottingham but a misjudged run from Loggie invited Cottingham into second place at Riches and he continued to harass Ferguson around the Norfolk circuit as Simon Orange in fourth place in the Orange Racing by JMH McLaren joined the party.
Orange sent it into Montreal and claimed third from Loggie while the fight for the lead continued ahead. As each lap went by, Cottingham drew alongside Ferguson but was never able to complete a move, not into Riches, not into Nelson, there was even an attempt into Bomb Hole but the RAM Racing driver continued to hold on.
The last chance for Cottingham proved fruitless and invited Orange to fight for second but he then washed out and Loggie reclaimed a podium position with just three minutes left of the race.
Confusion reigned as the lead fight crossed the line as the clock hit zero with the drivers unaware if the race had finished or not. Race Control declared the contest complete but the fight had continued, Simon Orange had retaken third place and Loggie sent it back and both cars spilled onto the grass but as the result was taken from start/finish line, Loggie and Gounon took third place.
GT4 class victory went to the Optimum Motorsport duo of Charles Clark and Jack Brown, their second of the year.
- Ferguson/Marciello, RAM Racing, Mercedes-AMG, 32 laps
- Cottingham/Adam, 2 Seas Motorsport, Mercedes-AMG, +0.042
- Loggie/Gounon, 2 Seas Motorsport, Mercedes-AMG, +0.422
- Orange/O’Brien, Orange Racing by JMH, McLaren 720s, +0.668
- Leung/Harper, Century Motorsport, BMW M4 GT3, +20.751
- Price/MacLeod, Greystone GT, Mercedes-AMG, +23.865
- Topham/Clutton, Enduro Motorsport, McLaren 720s, +24.258
- Tse/Froggatt, Sky Tempesta Racing, McLaren 720s, +25.701
- Balfe/Mitchell, Barwell Motorsport, Lamborghini Huracan, +27.147
- Smith/Plowman, Paddock Motorsport, McLaren 720s, +28.752
For full race two results, click here.