Two top-six finishes in Rounds 5 & 6 of British GT makes it a fifth weekend in the points for Orange Motorsport!
Drivers Nick Halstead and Jamie Stanley achieved the results in the GT3 Pro-Am class at Snetterton last weekend, aboard their McLaren 720S GT3 to continue their run of scoring championship points in every race so far this season.
Saturday’s qualifying sessions saw great pace from Nick to start him seventh on the grid for race 1, with Jamie qualifying ninth in class for race 2.
The first race was a largely processional opener, resulting in Nick holding position throughout his stint and handing over to Jamie, who was able to gain one spot late on, leaving car #40 crossing the line in sixth.
Race Two started with an incident at the front of the grid going into turn one, pushing Jamie wide through turn two, forcing him to drop to the back of the ProAm pack. Charging forward, Jamie made his way up into eight, before handing the reins to Nick for the remainder of the race. An impressive stint from Nick moved him into the top five, but pressure loss from a rear tyre caused chronic understeer that left him powerless to hold onto the position.
Despite this, some determined driving enabled him to cross the finish sixth in ProAm and eighth overall.
That result keeps Nick sixth in the Drivers’ Championship with Jamie – who missed the previous round at Donington – eighth.
The next round is a two-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, and is British GT’s only non-UK event of the season.
Nick Halstead said: “It’s been a bit of a mystery weekend, so to come away with the results we achieved, despite having some persistent tyre issues, is decent. I was pleased with the way I drove in Race Two, because I had a rear tyre going down and the car was understeering like crazy, so keeping the pace I did was pretty good – I was losing nearly a second through Coram just waiting for the car to bite on turn-in! The real positive is that we were as fast as the other McLarens on raw pace, which isn’t something we could say after Donington. Next up is Spa, where I’ve won before, and our test there two weeks ago went really well, so I’m confident we can be in the mix.
Jamie Stanley said: “It’s been a solid, but unspectacular, trip to Snetterton. My weekend was determined by what happened in qualifying. I lost nearly a second on my best lap when I came up to the Bomb Hole and suddenly found three cars parked on the apex. Because of that I started in the midfield and back there you’re always at risk of someone else having a wobble and squeezing you out – and that’s exactly what happened. I recovered as best as I could, but it was Nick’s driving that rescued the result in Race Two. He was very strong, especially with the tyre going down. I’m sure we could have been in contention for the podium without the qualifying issue and the slow puncture.”