Mark Smith and Tom Walpole emerged as the standout winners from a scorching GT Cup Championship weekend at Donington Park, although it was Marcus Clutton who produced the most dramatic moment of all with a breathtaking final-lap pass to steal victory on Saturday.
Temperatures reached heatwave levels as the series arrived in the East Midlands for its third meeting of the season, but the intense conditions did little to diminish the quality of the racing across two fiercely-contested days.
Saturday began with Team BRIT’s Jamie Falvey continuing his impressive rookie campaign by securing pole position with a lap of 1m28.059s, narrowly fending off returning Paddock Motorsport driver Smith and PB Racing by JMH’s Peter Erceg. Triple M Motorsport’s Charlie Digby and Felix Livesey headed GTC, while Tom Walpole’s all-new KTM X-BOW GT2 immediately established itself as the benchmark in GTO.
Falvey converted that pace into victory in the opening sprint race. Despite two safety-car interruptions, the BMW driver controlled proceedings from the front and claimed his fourth win of the season, leading home Smith and Erceg in an all-GT3 podium.
“Yeah it was good, obviously exactly the result we wanted, but yeah tricky day for everyone, really hot and all the mechanics have done an awesome job so a credit really to the team,” said Falvey. “I’ve just had to sit in the car and drive round really and do what I could with what they gave me, so it’s lovely to be here. The Team BRIT car is always a pleasure to drive and GT Cup are running a great event as usual, so happy days.”
Behind him, Livesey delivered another GTC victory for Triple M Motorsport, while James Wareing fought his way past Alex Toth-Jones in the closing stages to secure GTH honours for Innovation Racing.
The afternoon’s 50-minute pitstop race then produced the defining moment of the weekend.
Smith looked destined to celebrate his return to GT Cup with victory after muscling his McLaren 720S GT3 past Paul Fullick’s Team BRIT BMW at Redgate and controlling the opening stint. Erceg stayed firmly in contention in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 before handing over to Clutton, who began a relentless pursuit.
More than 20 seconds disappeared in little over 20 minutes as Clutton closed inexorably on Smith. The decisive move came with just two corners remaining, the Audi diving up the inside at Melbourne Hairpin to snatch victory in spectacular fashion.
“We had a plan for the start and followed the McLaren around the outside, which we thought was going to happen, and that happened exactly,” explained Erceg. “My job was just to bring it as close as it was to Mark, which we did. We knew our race would come alive when we came in and put Marcus in the car.
“With the penalties we had a bit of a race on, but only with two corners to spare. No contact or anything. It was really good, a really good result. So really happy for the team, for myself and Marcus, and then for JMH. It’s been brilliant.”
Triple M’s Digby and Livesey completed a GTC double on Saturday, while Wareing and Sam Branston repeated their success in GTH to strengthen their championship challenge.
“The pace was unreal, the car is just on point, it did everything I wanted it to do,” said Wareing. “I can’t thank Innovation enough for the package they’ve given me and Sam this weekend. The championship is looking good now. Round one was a bit sketchy but since then we’ve been clawing back the points and I think it’s looking a lot prettier now.”
Sunday morning saw Falvey once again secure overall pole position, lowering his benchmark to a 1m27.646s lap, but this time the Team BRIT driver would be denied a second endurance victory of the weekend.
The opening pitstop race followed a familiar pattern initially, with Falvey escaping at the front before the mandatory stops. Yet Smith remained within striking distance throughout, and once Paul Fullick took over the BMW, the Paddock Motorsport McLaren steadily reeled in its rival.
The decisive move came, appropriately, at Melbourne Hairpin. Smith swept past to secure his first victory of the season and gain immediate revenge for Saturday’s heartbreak.
“I really felt like I executed it well today in race one,” Smith said. “We made a few changes that made the window of performance of the car just a little bit bigger. The car could be fast yesterday but it was just so narrow that I couldn’t be fast every lap.
“Today I felt like I could be, so that helped a lot because once Clutton’s in the car it’s just like running away from a predator, so we made sure that that gap was big enough today.”
Erceg and Clutton recovered from an early moment to claim third overall, while Walpole continued to impress by taking another GTO victory and finishing fourth outright in the increasingly rapid KTM.
Triple M Motorsport remained untouchable in GTC, Digby and Livesey overcoming a time penalty to secure yet another class success.
“It’s been a good day, a quiet day for me today,” said Livesey. “I’ve only done half the endurance but picked up the car leading the class. We had a five-second time penalty to overturn, and I think in the end we won by about 15 seconds, so really happy with that. The team’s been amazing, so a big thank you to them for that.”
The weekend concluded with a breakthrough moment for Walpole. The Truemix Racing driver made a sensational start to the final sprint race, launching the KTM X-BOW GT2 up the inside of the front row to seize the lead on the opening lap.
Smith and Erceg gave chase but gradually slipped away from the flying KTM, and a late off-track excursion for Smith while negotiating backmarkers elevated Erceg into second. Up front, however, Walpole remained untouchable, securing both his maiden outright GT Cup victory and a clean sweep in GTO.
“I’m ecstatic to be honest,” he said. “Struggled all weekend, and it was brilliant to bring it home really. First outright win in GT Cup and, yeah, I loved it.
“I managed to sneak in front at the very start, right up the inside, and struggled to keep Mark behind really. We had a real cat-and-mouse race, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
Erceg completed the GT3 honours behind him, while Triple M Motorsport and Innovation Racing rounded off dominant weekends with further victories in GTC, GTH and GTA respectively.
The championship now heads to Silverstone on 1-2 August for the second GT Cup 100 event of the season, with momentum firmly behind several contenders after one of the most compelling meetings of the year so far.
