Preview.. Round Three Snetterton June 13th/14th 2009

Thu 04 Jun 2009

After all the drama at the last round at Brands Hatch, when 40 GT Cup cars were supporting A1 GP, the third round of the Series sees the GT Cup at Snetterton. This is where the success story that is GT Cup all began with that exploratory race at the end of 2007. Today, with sixty registered competitors, the GT Cup is now well established and is possibly the most popular and best supported place where you can get out and race GT’s in the UK. This weekend proves once again that the formula is spot on with another huge grid of 38 cars with a couple of reserves.

This time the full grid has been arrived at with several regular competitors taking the weekend off due to prior commitments or car trouble.

It is good see entries from both Paul Hogarth ( Group One Lamborghini Galardo) and Lajos Varga ( Group One Dodge Viper) . Their teams will have had a busy couple of weeks rebuilding these cars after two unrelated, but massive, accidents at Brands Hatch.

It is also encouraging to see newcomers to GT Cup like Peer Slipsager, a Danish businessman who is based in Zug, Switzerland. He will be driving his MTech prepared Group One Ferrari 430 GT3. Peer only started racing in 2007 but he will be a man to watch. Two more newcomers are in Group Four and they are John Fraser driving a Parr Motorsport Porsche 964 and David Agyeton in his BMW M3 E46.

So what about the racing? Keep an eye open for the indecently quick Group One Dodge Viper of Mike Gardiner. He has had a few mechanical problems in testing but he won’t have it all his own way if Paul Hogarth’s Lamborghini is fully sorted after the accident. Another Group One front runner should be the Seldon father and son team in their BMW M3 GTR, they had mechanical problems at Brands and never really got to prove what a quick car this is. In Group Two Jeff Leadley and his Ferrari 430 GT is having a great season with three podium finishes so far. In Group Three Gary Eastwood and Davis Mayes share Gary’s Porsche 997 GT3 Cup car and they have a win and a third place between them. The car was sidelined with a clutch failure at Brands Hatch so it will be good to see how they go this weekend. Will Goff has had a terrific start to the season with a clean sweep of wins in Group Four with his Aston Martin GT4 but he will need to watch out for Sarah Bennett-Baggs in her similar Aston Martin N24. Sarah was on the second spot on the podium after race two at Brands.

GT Cup can be relied on to provide full grids and exciting racing all the way through the field. The competitors love it and the whole atmosphere within GT Cup proves that Bute Motorsport have a winning formula…

There will two races at Snetterton, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.