There were celebrations all round for Epperstone’s Tom Gamble and Harry Gamble at the weekend at Donington Park, reports Paul Horton.
Both drivers reaped rewards that saw 22-year-old McLaren factory driver Tom have a sensational weekend in the British GT Championship, taking second spot, while older brother Harry took two podiums in the Ginetta GT Academy Championship for Elite Motorsport.
The weekend started good for Tom, racing with Optimum Motorsport. Thursday’s testing saw him and his teammate Mark Radcliffe in the GT3 Pro-Am Class McLaren 720S GT3 fly taking fourth, first and 11th spots giving the car a good shakedown.
Saturdays Free Practice was even better with Gamble fastest with a time of 1:26.199secs topping an average 103.88mph on lap 17.
The first qualifying session saw Radcliffe finish ninth fastest. In second qualifying, Gamble was in command. A time of 1-24.973s and a speed over 108mph on lap four saw Gamble fastest and remained for the seven laps completed before the flags came out.
The team qualified fifth combined over the two sessions.
Sunday’s three-hour enduro race was full of action from the word go, as Radcliffe lined up on the grid for the parade lap, a heavy downpour fell and was declared a wet race. The race would start behind the safety car and some teams dipped into the pits to change to wets.
Optimum Team told Radcliffe to stop out, when the safety car came in two laps later Radcliffe slipped from fifth to 11th during his 11-lap stint.
The rain stopped and the whole grid boxed to change back to slicks. Gamble climbed into the McLaren to make his race debut as light rain began to settle in the pits, it suddenly turned to a thunderstorm, prompting many drivers to pit and back on to wets - Gamble being one of them.
The conditions got worse that saw a gaggle of cars take to the gravel at Redgate and a red flag was shown eventually resulting in a prolonged period for recovery of them.
The second hour featured yet more FCY and safety car periods, prompting many to pit and capitalise on the neutralized race.
The next caution period, triggered by two cars coming to a halt prompted the final round of mandatory pitstops, Radcliffe jumped out and Gamble was back in the driving seat taking full advantage of others Compensation Times.
Tom got into a three-way battle for the win. Gamble chased and passed Collard; however it was the Lamborghini of Mitchell that pipped the McLaren to the line by a mere 0.6s.
Afterwards, Tom said “It was a crazy race with changing conditions, I gave it my all. An amazing job was done by all at Optimum who didn’t put a foot wrong and to Mark who drove great.”
Brother Harry had a weekend to remember as well, after having three laps disallowed in qualifying in the Ginetta GT Academy Championship with Elite Motorsport, he settled for fifth for the weekend’s first race on Saturday.
He was rapid off the mark in the 20-minutes, six-lap race and straight into third on the first lap. He took the fastest lap third time around to finish with a podium third place, only 3.810 seconds off pole with a best time of 1:44.131s.
Race two saw Harry on row three again, the 20-minute race saw a red flag to see him finish in fourtth spot that was more of a lights to flag affair, him finding it difficult to get space to overtake.
Race Three was as different again, Harry was straight into third, he placed the Ginetta into the fastest lap of the race on lap 6 and a lap later he was into second spot chasing number one. He tried his utmost for two laps for the chequered flag to come out and take another podium.
