British GT4 Snetterton - HHC and Academy start up front 03.10.2020: Intelligent Money British GT Championship Snetterton Saturday, October 3rd 2020 Jordan Collard backed up his first win of the season last time out by securing pole position for tomorrow’s opening race at Snetterton. Co-driver Patrik Matthiesen

Intelligent Money British GT Championship
Snetterton
Saturday, October 3rd 2020




Jordan Collard backed up his first win of the season last time out by securing pole position for tomorrow’s opening race at Snetterton. Co-driver Patrik Matthiesen then looked good to make it double delight for HHC and McLaren, only to be denied by a stunning late lap posted by Academy Motorsport’s Matt Cowley.


Having topped both practice runs earlier in the day, HHC opted to field Collard in the first 10-minute session in the hope that its form driver could then overturn the 10s Success Penalty – incurred for winning at Donington – during Race 1.



And it paid dividends with Collard dominating proceedings after James Kell in the Speedworks Toyota and Connor O’Brien’s TF Sport Aston Martin led the early exchanges.


Collard’s biggest challenger turned out to be his own team-mate in HHC’s sister 570S, but even Gus Bowers couldn’t get within a second of the #58 car’s 2m13.611s.


Dan Vaughan might have disputed pole. However, two deleted laps for straying beyond track limits kept TF Sport’s #97 Vantage at the bottom of the timesheets before vaulting up to third on the final tour.


Joint-championship leader O’Brien was fourth ahead of Will Moore in Academy’s Mustang, Kell’s Toyota, Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke’s Century BMW, Mia Flewitt’s Balfe McLaren and second BMW of Ben Hurst.


Q2 would prove far closer.


Academy’s Mustang has been formidable since Oulton and maintained that hot streak at Snetterton by claiming pole position for Race 2 thanks to Matt Cowley’s late effort.


Chris Wesemael put the McLaren he shares with Bowers fastest early on before Patrick Kibble emerged ahead for TF Sport.
But then came Cowley who, after a relatively steady out-lap to judge the conditions, pumped in an effort half-a-second better than anyone else to snatch provisional pole on his penultimate tour.


Matthiesen attempted to fight back in the hope of securing a double pole for HHC’s #58 crew, but his best effort missed top spot by just 0.065s.


Kibble wound up third and Wesemael fourth after failing to convert a purple first sector on his final lap into a meaningful time.


Jamie Caroline (TF Sport) starts fifth ahead of the retuning Ben Tuck in Century’s #42 BMW. Euan Hankey took Pro/Am pole in seventh, with Adam Hatfield bringing the second BMW to eighth, and Sam Smelt’s Toyota in ninth.



Watch live coverage of both 60-minute races on British GT’s website and social media from 10:15 on Sunday.
 




SNETTERTON TIMETABLE

Sunday 4 October

09:00 – 09:15: Warm-up
10:15 – 11:15: Race 1
15:10 – 16:10: Race 2





- Tom Hornsby, photo SRO