Why it looks like only divine intervention could deprive points leaders of British GT title

“I believe in miracles baby, I believe in you…” is what much of the British GT paddock could have been singing as they left Brands Hatch after the penultimate round of the season. For that was the weekend Charles Dawson and Kiern Jewiss basically sealed their maiden GT3 title, having claimed a third win of the season to add to victories at Donington Park and Snetterton.

It means that the 2 Seas Mercedes pair lead second-placed Giacomo Petrobelli/Jonny Adam (Blackthorn Aston Martin) and Morgan Tillbrook/Marvin Kirchhofer (Optimum McLaren) by 28.5 points – the difference between finishing first and taking seventh in the longer races – with 37.5 available at the Donington finale on 5 October.

Meanwhile, their 2 Seas team-mates, Kevin Tse and Maximilian Gotz, are just hanging on by a thread in fourth with a 36.5-point deficit. 

“We need a miracle this year,” says Tse, with Petrobelli adding: “It’s now in the hands of the gods.” There are many more quotes from the title hopefuls at Brands, showing the relevance of the hit from The Jackson Sisters even 49 years after its release – Autosport sometimes had yellow covers at the time; seriously, what was that about? – but they are nothing more than wishful thinking.

Never has such a large deficit been overturned on the final day, with the current record being 13 points after Darren Leung and Dan Harper pipped James Cottingham, whose co-driver Adam missed the final round, to the 2023 title. Coincidentally, Cottingham raced for 2 Seas that year.

Dawson and Jewiss have offered little reason to think that 2 Seas will be on the losing end once more, and have been in command since the Donington opener. They turned heads that April weekend after dominating from pole, to the extent that the duo have since raced with extra ballast – 30kg at round two and 25kg from three onwards – for exceeding expectations of a Silver-Am pairing.

Although good strategy meant Dawson/Jewiss claimed maximum points at the manic three-hour Silverstone 500 in round two, the race winner was a non-points-scoring entry, and there was then the inevitable performance drop thanks to the added weight. The #42 Mercedes went without a podium from races three to six, reducing the points advantage to just two. Dawson/Jewiss then showed tremendous resilience to win two of the last three races.

Dawson/Jewiss will have to serve an extra 20 seconds in the Donington pitlane for winning at Brands

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

“With 25 kilos at the start of the year, if you’re both in bad spirits, it’s just going to be a recipe for disaster,” says series rookie Jewiss, who has previously won British F4 and Porsche Carrera Cup GB titles. “We turned it into a bit of a challenge. It took a while to get our heads around it, the mentality of ‘this isn’t fair’. But now, it’s like, ‘Right, we’re stuck with this, it’s not going to change. You can spend time thinking about it, or you can get on with it.’”

Get on with it they did, and it has put them on the cusp of continuing British GT’s old adage that it is the bronze-graded amateur who makes all the difference. Dawson has been excellent this year, topping the amateur qualifying session at two of six occasions, despite it being his rookie GT3 campaign after winning last year’s GT4 Pro-Am crown with Seb Morris.

“No, not at all,” says Dawson, when asked if he expected a title fight in 2025. “When we sat down, we said, ‘If we can come this year, first year of GT3, and win a race, it would be a mega result.’ We said it was a learning year.”

“The teams’ championship is obviously very important to us and is a good recognition of all the guys” Tom Hodgson

He of course played down the hype of having one hand on the title, given the caveat of Dawson/Jewiss needing to serve an extra 20 seconds in the Donington pitlane for winning at Brands. Anything can truly happen – title deciders are never simple – but, as the opening round proved, Donington should favour the Mercedes. 

The 2 Seas squad is also set to clinch the teams’ crown, since it leads reigning champion Barwell by 56 points with 64.5 available. The Lamborghini squad has been up there and won at Oulton Park, but hasn’t quite found the consistency to launch a serious title challenge.

“The teams’ championship is obviously very important to us and is a good recognition of all the guys – we’ve left it until the last round so that everyone wants to see us at Donington,” jokes 2 Seas boss Tom Hodgson. “It’s nice to be against Barwell. We love the competition and Barwell gives us that because they’re so on it.”

Everything is much tighter in GT4, where Ravi Ramyead/Charlie Robertson (Century BMW) lead Marc Warren/Jack Brown (Optimum McLaren) by only 3.5 points. Both crews have dominated the campaign, winning all but one of the races between them, and title holder Brown is hoping to become GT4’s first two-time champion.

This article is one of many in the monthly Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the October 2025 issue and subscribe today. 

Blackthorn Aston Martin driver Petrobelli says: “It’s now in the hands of the gods”

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images