The world-famous Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit was once again a fitting setting for a season finale, with the GRDC class of 2019 bringing their first year of car-racing competition to a close with two entertaining races in support of the British GT Championship.
A 14 car entry took on the one day event in Kent, with some new faces appearing at the top of the times in qualifying. Toby Trice took his maiden pole position at his home circuit, while Mangion and Threadgill secured season’s best results in second and third respectively.
A thrilling start to the opening race saw some early changes at the front as Mangion stormed through into the race lead ahead of Trice on lap one. Threadgill emerged ahead on lap two though from Mangion, with Kidson up to third ahead of Trice.
Following a short safety car period, Threadgill immediately made a gap to the pack behind and comfortably led through to the chequered flag for a one second victory. Kidson moved up to second on lap four meanwhile and held it to the finish.
Trice also got ahead of Mangion at that point and finished third for his third consecutive podium finish. Mangion had to settle for fourth, while Chris White continued his consistent campaign in fifth overall as he completed the top six alongside Mark Lee.
After dropping to the rear of the field on the opening lap, Mark Sansom produced a terrific recovery drive to fight back to seventh ahead of Harry Ormerod. Ignazio Zanon was next up, while Paulo Scripo climbed up to tenth ahead of Neil Wallace.
The finishing order of race one set the grid for the last race of the season, with Threadgill maintaining his advantage over the first half of the race. Mangion got up to second on lap two meanwhile and quickly set about closing down a 1.7 second gap to the leader.
Within four laps the lead had changed hands, with Mangion seizing the advantage. He couldn’t shrug off his adversary in the closing laps though and they went on to produce a sensational photo-finish. Mangion took the win by 0.047s, the smallest winning margin of the campaign.
After losing his second place early on, four-time race-winner Kidson went on to hold third for the remainder of the race to conclude the season with six consecutive podium finishes. Trice completed his impressive campaign in fourth.
The drive of the day came from Craig Cornick as he bounced back from an unfortunate race one retirement with a superb drive from 15th on the grid to fifth place. The opening race-winner of the season Sansom was sixth ahead of Wallace, Zanon and Scripo.
Three drivers made their first appearances in the series at Brands Hatch, with all three picking up their best race results in race two. Mark Mandeville enjoyed a top ten finish, while Stephen Moore and Peter Dilnot finished up 12th and 13th respectively.
Full race results can be found here: https://www.tsl-timing.com/file/?f=BF3GT/2019/193105grd.pdf
