How the GT Cup is thriving despite the pandemic

International sportscar racing aces Darren Turner, Oliver Webb, Adam Carroll and Jon Lancaster are among the drivers. Four Lamborghini Huracan GT3s are due to take part in the season opener, plus a further three Super Trofeo machines. Then there are seven GT4 McLarens, and GT3 cars from McLaren, Nissan and Mercedes. No, this is not a top-level European or even worldwide GT series being discussed, but instead the entry list for this weekend’s first round of the GT Cup at Donington Park.

It’s quite a remarkable collection of cars and drivers that makes up the 38-strong field set to do battle in Leicestershire. And it gets better – for the Brands Hatch Grand Prix round in May, a capacity 46 entries have been received, and there are eight reserves! Considering we are still in the middle of a pandemic, with wide-ranging economic implications, and these are hardly the cheapest cars you can go racing in, it makes the achievement all the more impressive. The COVID-19 restrictions may well have played a small part in the strong entry, as competing in Europe is now not an option for many, but the success the GT Cup is enjoying in 2021 is down to a number of key factors.

“I don’t think it’s any one thing – we’ve been working really hard over the past three or four years to bring GT Cup to where it is now,” says championship director Hannah James. “We’ve made a big investment in staff and on the media side, and we’ve brought some things in-house. We’ve worked really well as a team and it makes a difference.

“We’re still that friendly championship that people want to come and race in. Our grids for this year are just incredible – I think the last time we had grids like this was at the A1GP at Brands in 2009, which was 42 cars.”

GT Cup champions in 2020: Orange and Jackson

Photo by: Ollie Read

As well as the impressive line-up of drivers and cars, the series has attracted support from several of the leading manufacturers. McLaren, Aston Martin and Ginetta are all set to bring support teams or trucks to help assist customer operations. And Carroll, who will be driving a McLaren 570S GT4 for the new Greystone GT team alongside GT racing rookie Mark Hopton, believes the pandemic has helped the championship in another way.

“I think in general, and not just in motorsport, people just want to start getting back to some sort of normality and having some fun,” he says. “That’s what a lot of guys want to do it for – they’ve been working extremely hard for most of their lives and want to go and have fun.”

The sheer number of people wanting to have fun in the championship this year has, however, posed some challenges for organisers. “Having such big grids means we’ve split the pitstop times,” explains James. “For safety reasons, we’ve got two groups – each with five minutes to pit – and they will then swap [order] on the Sunday. I’m really looking forward to it and it’s really exciting. We should be putting on quite a show and we’ve got a live TV stream for all rounds. I think it’s going to be a good year.”

“GT Cup is a great series for people who are starting out racing because of the track time you get. The guys are going to really enjoy themselves and learn at a very fast pace” Adam Carroll

James describes Donington as featuring a “pretty spectacular line-up”, but stresses that attracting the star Pro driver names is not what the championship is all about – instead the ‘gentleman racers’ are very much the focus. She says it’s important that the Pros remember “this is a gentleman championship and they’re there to support and coach the gentleman drivers. We’re not about the Pros; we’re a friendly championship.”

That’s reflected in the format over a race weekend. There is a huge amount of track time and much of that is geared towards the amateur drivers. Each day there’s a 15-minute warm-up, a 15-minute qualifying session and a 25-minute sprint race, before the 50-minute pitstop contest. Carroll believes this makes it the perfect learning environment for those new to racing and wanting to progress up the ladder, as they become used to dealing with lapped cars and completing driver changes.

Carroll will share GT4 McLaren with racing rookie Hopton

Photo by: JEP

“GT Cup is a great series for people who are starting out racing because of the track time you get,” he says. “For the Ams and gentlemen drivers, by racing with different cars, you get up to speed with traffic management. The guys are going to really enjoy themselves and learn at a very fast pace. GT Cup gives you a proper taste for racing and what you can do out there.”

But, while the aim of the game is helping to coach their less experienced co-drivers, Carroll insists there will also be plenty of competition among the Pros. “I’ve done quite a bit of GT Cup over the years and I figured out pretty early on it was surprising who turns up!” he says. “You can have three or four really quick Pros in cars and it’s absolutely flat-out racing.”

Despite the category being at the top end of the national racing scene, the camaraderie that can so often be found in club motorsport is very much present in the GT Cup paddock. “If someone has an off and damages their car, you can guarantee there will be teams that will be running in and helping them, offering parts to get that car back out on the grid,” says James.

That friendliness means there is no shortage of competitors who return year after year, whether it’s Richard Chamberlain in his brilliant orange Porsche 935 or Warren Gilbert in his Marcos Mantis. This season, Gilbert is swapping to a Lamborghini as he continues to race alongside customer Jensen Lunn, while the other Topcats Racing Marcos will be driven by Gilbert’s wife, team co-owner Charlotte. She’s no stranger to the circuits, and competed in British GT and TVR Tuscans in the 1990s, before being lured back after what was supposed to be a one-off drive last year.

“I was never really challenging for any titles, and then you end up stepping away from racing when you have family and the business to run and things like that,” she says. “Then I don’t really know what happened. Something triggered in me and I was only meant to do the Silverstone round [last year], and I think once you’ve got back into it then that sort of inspires you to carry on again.”

The Marcos is one of the older machines on the GT Cup grid

Photo by: Gary Hawkins

She believes the diverse range of GT machinery in the series is one of its key selling points, especially with the increasing numbers of latest-specification GT3 beasts. “I think it does add to the prestige of the championship, and if you want it to be maybe a feeder into British GT or something, it’s a good step up,” says Gilbert. “You’ve got the Chamberlain Porsche, which is really old but it’s really heavily engineered. I mean, our car isn’t original – the Marcos isn’t fully original underneath. We’ve built it to be really strong and to take the power – they’re designed to compete with the more modern machinery.”

Last year’s season finale marked the 100th GT Cup event since the series was founded by Bute Motorsport in 2007, and the shift to an increasingly high percentage of current cars is one of the most noticeable changes during that time. “I think that’s down to costs,” says James, who has been part of the championship throughout. “Some of the older cars have become difficult to get parts for and I believe some of the manufacturers are offering quite spectacular deals, which come with spares packages, which makes a difference. It’s not cheap to run a McLaren GT4, but this is where these guys want to be doing it. But we’ve still got two Marcoses and do have the older machinery.”

“People come and race with us, learn and move up to British GT and the World Endurance Championship. We’re there to have fun, we’re there to help people learn and teach them their craft, but everybody is welcome” Hannah James

One type of machine you do not see on the grid is saloon cars. The series has stuck to the principles of its late creator, Marc Haynes, and – unlike many other endurance categories – has continued to be exclusively for GTs. “There’s a place for everybody with a GT car,” adds James. “We’ve no intention of going down the touring car route – we’re always about GT cars. That was Mark’s goal and that’s how we see it.

Chamberlain's Porsche is one of the grid's more unusual machines

Photo by: JEP

“People come and race with us, learn and move up to British GT and the World Endurance Championship, and we find they come back to us on the way back down. That’s where we see ourselves. We’re there to have fun, we’re there to help people learn and teach them their craft, but everybody is welcome.”

The series also continually looks at its regulations and consults with competitors to see if any changes need to be made. One example was the recently introduced sprint challenge standings for the amateur-only shorter races. Another goal on the horizon is to add an overseas round, although the pandemic has inevitably put that on hold.

“Eventually, I would like to create our own GT Cup package where we have other championships that come with us throughout the year,” continues James. “That would help with cost savings, we could share TV costs, and would work together and have a big awards ceremony at the end of the year. That’s something we’ve strived for.”

The entry list for this weekend’s opener is proof that the GT Cup is certainly on the right track.

The GT Cup field storms into Riches at Snetterton

Photo by: Richard Styles