Race-winning pace goes unrewarded at British GT finale

The Hollywood ending to the 2022 British GT championship almost come to life at Donington Park for the DK Engineering-backed Mercedes-AMG GT3 of 2 Seas Motorsport, during a chaotic season finale. However, the bad luck which has plagued James and his teammate Lewis Williamson this year, would have one final blow to deal as the pair avoided early incidents, and charged through the field ahead of their title rivals. However, a minor error and penalties would see the pair go unrewarded, despite showing race-winning pace and gaining 13 places throughout the 2-hour race, eventually crossing the line in P9.

Arriving at the championship decider with an outside chance of the title, James and Lewis were also looking for the first win of the year, having come increasingly close on several occasions during the previous events. Early signs looked promising heading into qualifying, but a sudden downpour early in the first session would bring out a red flag, just moments before James had chance to complete his first timed lap. His split times had shown he was on target for a time which would have been on, or near, the front row, but he was forced to abort the effort. Around half the field registered a time on slick tyres before the interruption, and they would not be beaten when the wet track went live again.

After a banker lap on wets, and with the track starting to dry during Lewis’ session, the young Scot took a gamble on the slick tyre, but sections of the track were still extremely slippery meaning he was unable to make any significant gains. As the session concluded, the grid was split between those who had and those who hadn’t set dry times at the very start, and the four title rivals were bunched together, out of position.

Taking the start, James proved, once again, to have the measure of the competition as he wasted little time moving up the field within the first few corners. By making the early move into turn 1, he avoided the melee which resulted in his three title rivals all taking to the gravel run-off areas. From here, the DK Engineering-back #4 kept momentum as James passed his teammate and had made up an impressive seven positions as he completed the second lap.

Soaking up pressure from behind, and mounting a charge on the lead group, James continued to press on, setting a string of improving laptimes around Donington Park. His rhythm was only broken at the 30-minute mark when the Safety Car was deployed after an incident, and James was holding steady in 5th place. A minor error on the restart saw James briefly run wide and off track, unable to avoid a sponsor hoarding which then blocked the front radiator. Unable to shake it off, James was forced to make an unscheduled stop, dropping down the order with the field now closely grouped following the Safety Car intervention.

Despite the setback, James then worked on another strong recovery drive, looking to regain the lost ground. His impressive pace continued as he made his way back through the field, moving up another five positions and up into the top-10, before the pitstop window opened, making way for Lewis. From here, another Safety Car period would group the field back up, and another visit to the pitlane for the #4 after receiving a penalty on the restart of the race.

With the championship hopes now all-but gone, Lewis continued to press on and look to recover, fighting hard to close the gap ahead and maintain a top-10 position. As the flag dropped for the final time, the #4 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG claimed 9th overall, to end the season 4th in the championship.

Understandably disappointed with the end result of the weekend, James explained: “We came into the weekend with one aim, which would put right all of the bad luck we had earlier in the season. We had the right idea in qualifying, and I was on for a strong laptime which would have set us up well, but we missed out by a few seconds.

“The start went really well, avoiding the incident which collected our rivals and we made some moves to keep our title fight going, but I made a small mistake after the restart which put me wide at the old hairpin, and I lost traction on the green run off after the rain making me a passenger. The result was the radiator was blocked and I had no other choice but to pit. From there, we were unlucky with some penalties, but we got our heads down and just kept fighting to the end. It just wasn’t to be.”

Reflecting on his debut full season, after the move to GT3 competition, he added: “Lewis and I have had the pace all year to fight in the lead group, and the 2 Seas Motorsport team has done a fantastic job. The car has been great, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge, but we have just been hit with more than our fair share of bad luck. We take a lot away from this year, both on and off track, and our DK Engineering clients have really enjoyed being a part of the season and the championship. I am looking forward to seeing where we go from here…

“Congratulations to Ian [Loggie] for taking the championship, and it has been great fun battling against him all season.”