The British GT Championship made its long-awaited return to Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps as part of the SRO Spa Speedweek, and the Ardennes forest produced a race every bit as dramatic as the legendary circuit demands. Alex Martin and Jarrod Waberski took Barwell Motorsport's 30th British GT victory with the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2, while Grange Racing with FSR's Daniel Lavery and Darren Turner made it back-to-back GT4 wins for their Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo.
It was a fitting result for round three of the season, run over a two-hour format shared with the Championnat de France FFSA GT and Alpine ELF Cup Series, swelling the grid to 54 cars across both nations' premier GT categories.
GT3: Barwell Strikes at Eau Rouge
Orange Racing by JMH's Simon Orange and Marcus Clutton had claimed pole position in the McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, but their advantage lasted only as far as the first run through Eau Rouge. Martin, who had lined up third and inherited second when Optimum's Morgan Tillbrook made an early unscheduled stop, used the run up Spa's most iconic corner to dive past Orange and seize the lead before the cars had completed a single lap.
It proved decisive. Two full course yellows and safety car interruptions in the opening hour kept the field compressed and denied Martin the chance to build a cushion, but track position held firm through the driver change, with Waberski rejoining ahead of Clutton after the pit window. A third and final safety car period set up a 25-minute sprint to the flag, and Waberski's composed restart management gave Clutton no way back. The #78 Huracan crossed the line just 2.1 seconds clear, with Waberski's fastest lap of the race capping a maiden British GT3 victory and adding further weight to his SRO GT Academy points tally as he continues to push Charles Clark for next year's 24 Hours of Spa prize drive.
Behind the lead duo, Optimum's Ben Barnicoat produced the standout drive of the afternoon. Having been forced to recover from Tillbrook's early pit visit, Barnicoat carved forward from 11th, picking off the GT3 traffic methodically through the second Safety Car restart before passing Ross Gunn and Barwell's Hugo Cook on the final lap to snatch third. Cook himself had endured a fraught early battle after team-mate Rob Collard surged from tenth to fourth in the opening stint, trading paint with Gunn and Marc Warren along the way.
There was late drama in the classification too. Gunn's earlier pass on Jack Brown under yellow flags, and his subsequent refusal to hand the place back, led to farcical scenes of GT3 cars crawling towards La Source before a 20-second post-race penalty was applied. Optimum's sister McLaren, third on the road for Mike Price and Callum Macleod, was disqualified for exceeding permitted boost levels, promoting Kevin Tse and Ben Green's 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG to fifth and lifting Century Motorsport's Jonathon Beeson and Charles Clark into the points.
GT4: Grange Defy the Clock Again
Optimum's Josh Stanton and Mikey Porter dominated GT4 qualifying in the McLaren Artura, but Paddock Motorsport's Revie Lake stole the early initiative, blasting past on the opening lap to lead a queue that included Stanton, Tom Holland's Innovation Racing Ginetta, Luke Shaw's Toro Verde example and Lavery's Aston Martin.
Lake's charge was undone by an electrical fault around the first caution period, dropping the McLaren out of contention and leaving Stanton and Holland to fight for the lead. Holland's bold move around the outside of the chicane briefly put the Ginetta ahead, but it was Stanton who timed his pit stop to perfection as another Safety Car coincided with the window, rejoining in front after the driver swap with Porter.
That same reduced-speed period worked in Grange's favour too. Carrying 20 seconds of Compensation Time for the team's breakthrough win at Oulton Park, plus a further 10-second penalty for Lavery, the queue behind the Safety Car effectively neutralised both. Turner climbed back to third on the resumption and, with one final Safety Car setting up a 25-minute shootout, made his move. He passed Hadley Simpson before diving through on Porter when a gap appeared in traffic, then held off a determined response from the Optimum driver to repeat the team's Oulton Park heroics and make it two wins from two starts.
Porter and Stanton settled for second overall and the Silver class win, with Jack Mitchell and Shaw completing the podium in the Toro Verde Ginetta after a frantic final 40 minutes among the top three. Century's Branden Templeton and Jack Collins recovered from a back-of-grid start, set by a qualifying infringement, to take fourth, while Jessica Hawkins and Will Orton overcame a 40-second Compensation Time burden to round out the top five for MK Racing.
FFSA GT and Alpine ELF Cup Join the Party
For the first time since SRO Motorsports Group took over the French series in 2017, the Championnat de France FFSA GT shared a two-hour race with British GT, and it was Akkodis ASP Team who emerged on top. Cindy Gudet and Joran Leneutre took their Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo2 to victory in the French class, with Gudet becoming only the second female driver to win a FFSA GT-GT4 France race. They finished ahead of pole-sitters Rudy Servol and Léo Jousset in the Race Cars Consulting Alpine A110 GT4+, who had topped the combined qualifying session for the French entries.
In the Am Cup, reigning champions Stéphane Lémeret and Stéphane Auriacombe extended their championship advantage with another strong result for CMR, while the Alpine ELF Cup Series produced a breakthrough maiden win for Mateo Herrero and David Barrere of Herrero Racing. Philippe Marie and Léo Poncel added another success in the Ginetta Cup category, completing a productive weekend for the visiting French contingent on a circuit that has become a mid-season highlight of their calendar.
A Bumper Weekend of Racing
British GT and FFSA GT were far from the only action at Spa Speedweek, with SRO Motorsports Group staging 16 races across the free-to-attend weekend. The Porsche Carrera Cup France saw the wins shared between Mathys Jaubert, who claimed a third victory of the season to move to the top of the standings, and Louis Perrot, who took his maiden series win for Schumacher CLRT.
The GT2 European Series powered by Pirelli brought a strong Maserati Corse presence, with Trident drivers fighting for Silver and Masters class honours throughout the weekend. The Championnat de France FFSA F4, Trophée MitJet France and Championnat de France FFSA Tourisme rounded out a packed schedule that gave fans a genuine taste of the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa build-up to come.
