2 Seas are British GT champs!
TDT | Manama
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Bahraini-British motor racing team 2 Seas Motorsport captured the GT3 Teams title yesterday in the Intelligent Money British GT Championship 2023.
2 Seas, co-owned by His Highness Shaikh Isa bin Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, secured their historic first-ever British GT crown after their two cars claimed a podium and fourthplace finish in the season’s eighth and penultimate round, held at Brands Hatch circuit in the UK.
The pair of James Cottingham and Jonny Adam, behind the wheel of 2 Seas’ #4 Mercedes AMG-GT3 challenger, finished third overall after two hours of intense action and despite a 20-second success penalty.
Meanwhile, 2 Seas teammates Ian Loggie and Jules Gounon, driving 2 Seas’ #1 Mercedes AMG-GT3 contender, were classified right behind them in fourth overall with a brilliant recovery drive after an opening lap incident that caused a spin and left them at the back of the 32-car field.
With both cars’ results, 2 Seas scored enough points on the GT3 Teams Championship standings to wrap up the title race with a round to spare.
They head into the season-finale with an insurmountable lead over their closest rivals on the rankings. However, the battle for the GT3 Drivers Championship has been extended to the finale, with Cottingham and Adam still in the drivers’ seat.
Following their podium, they improved to 162 points but are now just 13 points ahead of Darren Leung and Dan Harper of Century Motorsport, who claimed the win yesterday.
Loggie is in solo third place on the drivers’ points rankings with 119.5 points and is out of the running for the title.
The season’s final round is scheduled to take place at Donington Park in the UK on 21 and 22 October. With the drivers’ championship on the line, it has been appropriately dubbed as “the Donington Decider”.
In yesterday’s race, Cottingham and Adam started on pole but Century’s Harper was able to make his decisive move for the lead halfway through his second stint.
They eventually finished the race 1.055 seconds clear of Beechdean Motorsport Ltd’s Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn at the chequered flag.
Cottingham and Adam were third, 17.251s behind the victors, despite serving the maximum 20s Compensation Time penalty.
Their attempts to negate the handicap were twice thwarted by Safety Car periods. Loggie and Gounon were classified fourth, not far behind their teammates and 18.386s from first.
They did well to fight back up the order after a chaotic start.
With Loggie starting the race in 2 Seas’ #1 contender, an incident caused him to spin and he was momentarily stranded in the middle of the track, forcing cars behind him to scatter through the gravel trap to avoid making contact.
2 have won four of the eight races held this British GT season.
Cottingham and Adam claimed three of those triumphs, which included races at Autodromo do Algarve in Portugal in round seven, Oulton Park in round one and at Donington Park in round four.
Loggie and then-teammate Jules Gounon triumphed the other time in the championship’s second round, also at Oulton Park.
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