Lotus make fast start to British GT Championship at Snetterton
Gavan Kershaw in his Lotus Evroa GT4 at Snetterton. - Credit: Archant
Lotus claimed its first British GT Championship GT4 victory in the opening race at Snetterton on Sunday with Oz Yusuf handing over the Evora GT4 to Carlton Rode's Gavan Kershaw to take a well deserved win.
'It's fantastic to take our first win in front of family, friends and people from the factory,' said a delighted Kershaw on the podium.
'Oz put in a great opening session and I carried it on,' continued the local racer. However it wasn't without a nervous finish as he had to nurse the Evora home with rising water temperature.
For the first time this year, a Porsche crew stood on top of the British GT Championship podium with Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen taking overall victory in the opening event.
Race two had a dramatic start with three cars ending up in the Riches safety barriers, fortunately with no injuries, necessitating a restart while the Lotus was an early retiree related to its earlier problem.
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From the restart the Aston Martin Vantage driven by Jonny Adam held off the determined Adam Carroll in a Ferrari 458 Italia with their co-drivers Andrew Howard and Garry Eastwood continuing on their good works.
BRDC Formula Four championship leader George Russell secured his first series pole position on his home track, but the Wisbech racer was unable to convert the position into victory, having to settle for third place in race one.
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Race two produced the same result while he could only manage sixth place in the closing event but still retains a 21 points lead in the championship.
'It's been a good weekend with two podiums, but I think if things had gone my way in race one we could have had a win and maybe a fastest lap, which could have changed the whole weekend,' reflected the local driver.
In the poorly supported British F3 series, Sam MacLeod was a double winner with Matthew Rao taking the race two victory while Ollie Chadwick was also a double Ginetta GT5 victor.
Luke Caudle won both Mini Challenge races while Joe Fulbrook triumphed in the first VW Cup race and Stefan Di Resta, brother of former Grand Prix racer Paul, took his maiden series victory in race two.
