Rob Collard and Hugo Cook strengthened their British GT3 championship challenge with a second victory of the season at Donington Park, while Paddock Motorsport secured its maiden GT4 victory in a dramatic wet-to-dry two-hour race.
The Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 started second but Collard made an immediate move at Redgate to demote pole-sitter Jonathon Beeson and take control of the race.
With championship leaders Morgan Tillbrook and Ben Barnicoat retiring before the pit window, the result dramatically reshaped the GT3 title battle ahead of the Brands Hatch finale. Collard and Cook now lead their Barwell team-mates Alex Martin and Jarrod Waberski by 15.5 points, while Tillbrook and Barnicoat’s title hopes suffered a major setback after their Optimum Motorsport McLaren retired.
The race began on wet tyres after a pre-race downpour, but the circuit rapidly dried to create a strategic split between those who changed to slicks early and those who gambled on remaining on wets.
Barwell’s decision to keep Collard out until the pit window paid dividends. The Lamborghini retained its advantage through the crossover period before Cook took over and delivered a controlled run to the chequered flag.
Behind, 2 Seas Motorsport produced another strong result, with Chris Lulham and Kevin Tse finishing second overall. Lulham, making his series debut, had already impressed in qualifying and went on to set the race’s fastest lap.
The Mercedes-AMG’s recovery was helped by a well-timed early stop for Charles Dawson, who gained three places when 2 Seas switched to slicks. Aaron Walker subsequently took the car into third before Lulham charged through.
Lulham first passed Jack Brown’s Optimum McLaren after Brown was delayed by GT4 traffic at the Old Hairpin, before moving ahead of his own team-mate at Redgate to secure second. Dawson and Walker completed the overall podium and took victory in GT3 Silver-Am.
Optimum’s title hopes, meanwhile, suffered another blow. Tillbrook retired at the Melbourne Hairpin following contact with Beeson, while a drive-through penalty for a pitstop infringement dropped Warren and Brown from fourth to seventh.
Beechdean Motorsport’s Aston Martin finished fourth, keeping Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn’s mathematical championship hopes alive, while Martin and Waberski recovered from their early incident with Cameron Campbell to finish fifth. The result also strengthened their Silver-Am position, with the pair holding a 27-point advantage heading to Brands Hatch.
Simon Orange and Marcus Clutton finished sixth for Orange/JMH, preserving their lead in the Pro-Am standings despite an early spin, a drive-through penalty and significant Compensation Time.
Paddock Motorsport’s breakthrough GT4 victory was achieved in similarly tricky conditions, with Revie Lake and 16-year-old Blake Angliss converting pole position into a lights-to-flag triumph.
Angliss was promoted to pole after both the Toro Verde and Innovation Ginetta entries were disqualified from qualifying for technical infringements, and the teenager made the most of the opportunity with a clean getaway and immediate break from the field.
He built a gap to Century Motorsport’s Jack Collins while Daniel Lavery and Josh Stanton battled behind, but the changing conditions soon became the defining factor in the race.
Rain before the start had left almost the entire GT4 field on wet tyres, although Innovation gambled by sending its #5 and #74 Ginettas out on slicks. The strategy failed to deliver initially, with the track taking around 30 minutes to dry, but their lap times provided a useful reference for those deciding when to make the switch.
Paddock opted to wait.
Angliss remained on his worn wets rather than rushing into the pits, allowing the McLaren to exploit the final laps of the crossover period. By the time he handed over to Lake, the circuit was fully dry and the team was able to fit slicks without sacrificing time to a second stop.
Lake rejoined with a healthy advantage and maintained it to the flag, giving Paddock its first overall GT4 victory and making Angliss one of the youngest winners in British GT history.
Behind, Collins and Branden Templeton recovered from a 10-second penalty for passing Lavery’s Aston Martin off track to take second, while Hadley Simpson and Thomas Holland fought through from the back of the grid to claim third for Innovation.
That result has left the GT4 title race perfectly poised. Collins and Templeton now head to Brands Hatch level on points with Simpson and Holland, while Jessica Hawkins and Will Orton are only six points further back. Lavery and Turner and Optimum’s Josh Stanton also remain mathematically in contention.
The weekend did, however, produce the first championship winners of the 2026 season, with Daniel Lavery and Darren Turner securing the GT4 Pro-Am crown for Grange Racing by FSR.
The Aston Martin crew finished fourth overall to claim their fifth consecutive Pro-Am victory, enough to seal the class title with one race still remaining. A post-race disqualification for Townsend and Fox reduced their advantage over Ian Duggan and Tom Bradshaw to 37.5 points, but Lavery and Turner cannot be caught thanks to their superior race results.
Duggan and Bradshaw finished second in Pro-Am after an extraordinary effort from Toro Verde GT. Their Porsche Cayman spent most of Saturday in Cheshire while the team sourced and installed a replacement engine from Croft, returning to Donington at 04:30 on Sunday morning in time to take the start.
Samuel Branston and James Wareing also impressed on their championship debut by finishing fifth overall for Innovation, despite starting from the pitlane and running slicks on a wet circuit.
Hawkins and Orton had looked set for another podium and valuable championship points until their Aston Martin was handed a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane. They eventually finished sixth, leaving them third in the championship but just six points off the lead.
Stanton and George Gamble completed the top seven after serving the maximum 45 seconds of Compensation and Silver time.
Jack Mitchell further underlined his reputation as GT4’s quickest driver by setting a sixth Sunoco fastest lap in seven races, while Toro Verde’s weekend was capped by the Team of the Weekend Award after the crew’s remarkable engine-change effort.
