BRITISH GT SET FOR SNETTERTON SPRINTS

Marco Attard will be partnered by Jonathan Cocker at Snett this weekend. Photo: www.jakobebrey.com

The 2014 Avon Tyres British GT Championship arrives at Snetterton this weekend (June 21/22) for a brace of hour-long races on the 300 layout of Norfolk’s favourite race track.

After the three-hour endurance race of the Silverstone 500 it’s a change of focus to the double sprint format, and for some teams a hope for a change to fortunes too with changes to driver line-ups and even race numbers through the field.

Notably, the driver line-up for the team heading the GT3 championship standings is revised with Alexander Sims handing over his seat alongside Marco Attard in the #79 Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 for this event to Jonathan Cocker. The team heads the GT3 standings by 52 points from Beechdean AMR on 45, with AF Corse on 41.

Elsewhere in GT3, Adam Carroll will be able to add British GT to his CV’s impressive line-up of Formula 3, A1GP, GP2, DTM and IndyCar by joining Gary Eastwood in the #18 FF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia. Ian Stinton makes a welcome return to British GT, sitting in for Colin White in the #40 IDL CWS Racing G55 Ginetta, whilst Wolfgang Reip makes his British GT debut alongside Chris Hoy in the #80 Nissan GT Academy Team RJN Nissan GT-R.

A late call on a team-mate for Rory Butcher in the #5 Oman Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage is expected to be made whilst the #17 M-Sport Bentley Continental will see the debut of Humaid Al Masaoud alongside Steven Kane. The United Autosports #18 Audi R8 LMS Ultra sees Iain Dockerill join Matt Bell and Richard Lyons will re-join Pasin Lathouras in the #29 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia.

In GT4, driver changes are limited to Jade Edwards joining Matt Draper in the #41 Optimum G55 Ginetta as well as a late call expected on a team-mate for Declan Jones in the #45 RLR BMW M3. The class is currently led by TF Sport on 85 points from Beechdean AMR’s 82 and Optimum’s 56.

The Blancpain Gentleman Driver Trophy for eligible amateur drivers adds another dimension to the action with Beechdean AMR’s Andrew Howard topping the points going to Snetterton with 92.5 ahead of Marco Attard's 79 and Triple Eight’s Derek Johnston's 60.5.

In terms of race numbers there are two changes, with Triple Eight going for a double eight on the former #8 BMW Z4 of Lee Mowle and Joe Osborne and Trackspeed changing the #33 Porsche 997 to #63 for Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen.

Action starts on Saturday at Snetterton with morning practice and afternoon qualifying, before Sunday’s two races, starting at 11:40 and 16:25. The full timetable can be found at http://www.motorsportvision.co.uk/media/2979929/f3gt.pdf and you can see the entry list at SNETTERTON SPRINT ENTRYLIST