2 Seas cars in top 10 in British GT finale

TDT | Manama                                                    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahraini-British motor racing team 2 Seas Motorsport wrapped up their title-winning campaign yesterday in the Intelligent Money British GT Championship 2023 with both cars finishing in the top 10 at Donington Park circuit in the UK.

2 Seas’ Ian Loggie and Jules Gounon, driving the team’s #1 Mercedes AMG-GT3 contender, finished fifth overall amongst the 34-car field after starting from third on the grid, while teammates James Cottingham and Philip Ellis in 2 Seas’ #4 challenger took 10th place after beginning the two-hour race in fifth.

With the result, Cottingham was unable to clinch the GT Drivers’ Championship, which was claimed by Darren Leung and Dan Harper of Century Motorsport. Yesterday’s season-ending race victory was claimed by Shaun Balfe and Sandy Mitchell of Barwell Motorsport.

2 Seas, co-owned by His Highness Shaikh Isa bin Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, have thus come away from the 2023 British GT campaign with a historic first-ever GT3 Teams’ Championship. They secured the title in the penultimate round at Brands Hatch circuit last month.

In yesterday’s curtain-closer, Loggie and Gounon finished fifth, 13.098 seconds behind Barwell. Joining Balfe and Mitchell on the overall podium were Century as race runners-up, while Morgan Tillbrook and Marcus Clutton of Enduro Motorsport finished third. Just ahead of Loggie and Gounon were John Ferguson and Raffaele Marciello of RAM Racing.

Cottingham and Ellis, who was driving for 2 Seas regular Jonny Adam over the weekend, were classified 35.032s from Barwell in 10th overall. They needed to serve a drive-through penalty after Cottingham made an overtake under yellow flags. 2 Seas enjoyed a sensational British GT season, in which they won four of the nine races held.

Cottingham and Adam claimed three of those triumphs, which included races at Oulton Park in round one, at Donington Park in round four, and at Autodromo do Algarve in Portugal in round seven. Loggie and Gounon triumphed the other time in the championship’s second round, also at Oulton Park.