The second round of the GT Cup takes place at Brands Hatch and pairs up with the infamous Blancpain GT series to provide a seriously exciting weekend of racing. With such a large series being present there was a buzz around the track with supercars everywhere you looked, including an Aston Martin Vulcan, a V-12 track-specific hypercar of which only 24 will be made. It’s safe to say when that was going round the track people were paying attention!

After an up and down weekend in Donnington Chris and Mika just wanted to get as much track time as they could and soak up the first (and only?) hot weekend England had to offer. With no track session the day before Chris was thrust into the car first in the practice session on a track he hadn’t been on in months on cold, fresh slick tires…sounds like fun right? After 15-minutes Chris brought the car in unharmed and Mika went out on a different set of fresh slick tires as well. Now Mika has a reputation for not being the most reliable driver on new tires, but all that was abolished when he managed to set a new personal best and actually make it onto the track without spinning the car or putting it into a fence – nice one! Saying that, he was rewarded with no air conditioning and a sense that the beers with dinner the night before maybe weren’t the best idea when being thrown around in a race car.

When it came to qualifying the father-son pairing stuck to the same system as used previously – let Mika go out and warm the car up then let Chris come in and set the fast lap. Sadly, this didn’t work for the second time in two races after another competitor had an incident and got their car beached in gravel, leading to the session being red-flagged. Once the track was cleared and the drivers were allowed back out there was only a few minutes remaining and not enough time for Chris to set a fast lap. The team finished qualifying with a best of 1:43.080 to put them p20 overall and p5 in class with plenty more time to be gained.

Chris took on the first sprint race of the afternoon and quickly found out the pace of the cars in front weren’t going to wait for him through the first corner! He managed to keep his cool and re-join the pack through Druids and Graham Hill bend and was looking to work his way back up. One corner later, coming round Surtees, Chris was delightfully greeted with two Porsche’s facing the wrong way on the track and staring straight at him! Thankfully he made his way past and got back onto the others as the safety car was brought out. When the track was cleared and racing resumed it became very clear Chris was in a battle with a fellow Aston Martin GT4 as they were both lapping within less than a second of each other. The two battled for 20-minutes, with Chris not giving up any room and not letting the other car through by executing some brilliant blocking moves on some of the circuits faster corners. Chris managed to hang on to the end of the race and was visibly tired from 25-minutes in such a hot car, although it was difficult to tell if the water dripping from his face was sweat or tears of happiness from holding off the other Aston Martin.

The second race was Mika’s turn to get out in the car, but he didn’t have as much of an exciting race as the previous one due to the sheer differences in lap times. Regardless of this Mika still thoroughly enjoyed his 25-minutes out on track and took it as an opportunity to get some experience of Brands Hatch and try to set the best lap time he could. In doing so, Mika managed to post a best lap time of 1:38.504, beating Chris’ best time and setting the year standings at 1-1.

The next round of the GT Cup will be at Silverstone on the 28/29th May.

After a long winter away from their beloved Aston Martin GT4 it was finally time for Chris and Mika to put the overalls back on, cram the headphones into their ears and pull the helmet on before heading out onto a circuit they had mixed experience with – Donnington Park. In 2015 Chris had managed to get to grips with the circuit in a 50-minute race, whereas Mika had done 3 laps total and probably would’ve posted a faster lap time cycling around the track.

To try and gain some experience Chris and Mika had a track session the day before the first round of racing. Driver Coach Michael Bentwood, who had coached the drivers previously, came along for the day to give both Chris and Mika some pointers and coach them up to hopefully get the best lap times possible out of our car. All was going well until late in the afternoon when a plastic cable holder the size of a fingernail decided to break and leak fluid, causing the gear box to completely seize up and smoke to pump out the back of the car. After the car was taken back to the garage it was quickly decided no more testing would be done and we would have to see if we were able to race come Saturday.

Thankfully the car was all sorted for Saturdays racing after the team at 22GT Racing were up until 2am in the morning working on the car. The guys explained their winter had been distinctly quiet so they were happy to stay until the early hours, and not a single complaint or joke was made for about 5minutes which must be a new record. The mornings practice session gave Chris and Mika ample opportunity to get back up to speed, and it was Mika who managed to post the fastest lap time with a 1:15.610, good for p21 overall and p7 in class. Now it was time for the 20minute qualifying session for the afternoons two 25-minute sprint races. Mika went out first and did just five laps to warm the car up for Chris to hammer the lap and try to set a competitive time. Unfortunately, when Chris went out on his first lap the back of the car seized up for an unknown reason and sent him straight off at the old hairpin and into the gravel. Once again the car was taken back to the garage, and after seeing the extent of the damage it was clear that they would have to miss the first sprint race in the afternoon. Being the gentleman driver he is (and non-owner/bill-payer) Mika offered Chris the race, and being a Yorkshireman and not turning down something he is offered, Chris accepted and took to the back of the grid due to not racing earlier. A great 25 minutes ensued in which Chris managed to set a new personal best lap time of 1:15.935, good for p22 overall and p8 in class.

The conditions for Sunday weren’t as great as the Saturday after it rained pretty much all night and made the track distinctly damp in places. After a short warm up it was time for qualifying, and with no problems on the car Chris managed to post another personal best, this time putting in a 1:15.520 to put the duo p20 overall and p8 in class. The race on Sunday was a 50minute pit stop race where each driver shared 25minutes of the race, making it more of a team effort and putting the pit stop element into the race strategy. Chris took on the challenge of the first 25-minute stint and had a great battle with a fellow Aston Martin GT4 and Porsche Cayman GT4 for roughly 15 minutes, until he managed to put some time into both these cars and pull away slightly. After posting another personal best of 1:15.268 Chris handed over to Mika who ended up time trialling most of the race due to cars around him being too quick to stick with. In his stint Mika had a fastest lap time of 1:15.644, meaning Chris takes the 1-0 lead for fastest lap times this year! Thankfully the team finished the race in p16 and were just delighted to see the chequered flag.

The next round features at Brands Hatch on the 7th May.