Minshaw, Keen Sweep British GT Double-Header at Snetterton

Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen further extended their new lead in the British GT championship standings, with a convincing win on Sunday afternoon in Race 2 at Snetterton.

The Barwell Motorsport pairing led from start-to-finish in the second hour-long race of the day, and now head to next month’s finale at Donington Park as championship leaders in the No. 33 Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

Despite a ten-second success penalty in the pit stops, Minshaw came out with a three-second lead over Lee Mowle’s AmDTuning.com BMW Z4 GT3.

In Race 1,  the BMW had nudged the Lamborghini off track to take a short-lived lead. Keen dropped to second in the morning race but a penalty for Joe Osborne after his aggressive move demoted the BMW to fifth after the race.

However, Race 2 was in no way a repeat of the morning’s events, as Minshaw kept his attackers behind and finished four seconds ahead at the line.

“I came here hoping to have a great first race after working hard on my qualifying, which obviously went well and allowed us to fight at the front in Race 1,” said Minshaw.

“But what I didn’t expect was to win the second, which I have to say was down to the team and Phil. We came in knowing we had the 10 seconds to serve and nailed it.

“OK, we were a bit lucky with Derek being delayed but everyone still had to do their jobs.”

It wasn’t the BMW in second at the finish, though. Derek Johnston, who came to Snetterton as championship leader with TF Sport team-mate Jonny Adam, passed the BMW for second in the final few minutes.

This helps the championship hopes of the No. 17 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 crew, which is now second to Barwell’s No. 33 Lamborghini in the standings.

The other TF Sport car was in fourth, with Mark Farmer and Jon Barnes at the wheel. They finished behind Mowle and Osborne, who hung onto a third-place finish.

Rick Parfitt Jr. put his and Seb Morris’ Bentley Continental GT3 into fifth for Team Parker Racing.

A handful of cars retired or headed to the garages with issues, but the most notable of these was the No. 6 Barwell entry, with Alexander Sims and Liam Griffin at the wheel.

A broken wishbone ended their race early, but also took Griffin out of the title hunt at Donington.

Beechdean AMR was victorious in the GT4 class, as Jack Bartholomew and Ross Gunn secured the victory in their No. 407 Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4.

PMW World Expo Racing/Optimum Motorsport came second in class, with Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson. Alex Reed and Joey Foster round out the top three for Lanan Racing, in a similar Ginetta G55 GT4 to Optimum.

Sandy Mitchell took his Ecurie Ecosse McLaren 570S GT4 up to fourth at the end, after an unscheduled pit stop early in the race for Ciaran Haggerty. The Race 1 winner took some bodywork damage in the opening few minutes.

It was a close battle for fourth position during the closing stages, and those who couldn’t pass Mitchell were Marcus Hoggarty in the Ebor GT Motorsport Maserati GT MC GT4, and Paul Hollywood in the second Beechdean car.

The British GT Championship returns for a two-hour season finale at Donington Park on Sept. 11.

RESULTS: Race 2