Basingstoke ObserverFOX Motorsport made it four points-scoring finishes from four British GT Championship races in 2022 with a determined effort in challenging circumstances at Donington Park on Sunday.
Regular driver Nick Halstead from Andwell was joined by Rob Bell for the first time, subbing for the unavailable Jamie Stanley on a one-off basis.
The pair got to grips with the car during three sessions of evolving track conditions on Friday and then qualified eighth in Pro-Am on Saturday; both drivers gaining momentum as the team moved towards an optimal race set-up.
A number of adjustments post-qualifying helped improve the McLaren’s pace and allowed Nick to reach the first of three mandatory driver changes seventh in class and well and truly in contention for higher placings.
Rob climbed aboard the car at this point, but was instantly dealt a blow when the McLaren was boxed in by a pair of GT4 cars in the adjacent pit boxes.
A total of 35 seconds were lost as the Fox crew had to jack the McLaren up, place it on wheeled trolleys and spin it around manually in order to allow it to exit the pit area under its own power afterwards.
This then put Rob behind the safety car and circulating a slow speed while other cars on the other side of the lap were able to continue at full racing speed and gain yet more time when they pitted on either of the two subsequent laps.
The net effect of this was that he dropped off the lead lap and fell down the order, but a charging fightback from the Newcastle-upon-Tyne racer, who has won five major international GT titles during his career, meant he was back into the Pro-Am top 10 by the time Nick returned for his second stint.
Both Nick and Rob showed excellent consistency with their pace; the latter snatching an extra position with three minutes remaining as the pair came home seventh in Pro-Am and ninth overall.
Nick is now fourth in the Pro-Am standings with three of seven rounds completed.
Nick Halstead said: “The result isn’t what we hoped for, but we’ve scored some solid points from a weekend where we were just lacking a bit of speed and consistency to some of the others. We had a big problem at the first pitstop because we were blocked in by another car and then lost time when the safety car didn’t pick up the leader, we caught it instead and then we went green before the pack had been able to bunch up - 35 seconds in total, I reckon. Seventh in Pro-Am isn’t a disaster at all, but it feels like we’ve only finished there because other teams did silly things that cost themselves time and places. Pace-wise we’ve lacked something this weekend and we’ll work hard to put that right for Snetterton.”
Paul McNeilly, Team Principal, added: “If you’d told us pre-weekend that we’d be seventh in Pro-Am, I’d have probably been a bit disappointed, but given what happened with the first pitstop and the safety car, and the kind of charge both Nick and Rob had to put on, it’s a pretty strong recovery. It’s been great to have Rob with the team for the weekend. Nobody’s driven as many laps in the GT3 McLaren and to have that kind of experience within the team when it’s only our third event with the car has been invaluable; in fact, his feedback has validated a few of the things we were doing anyway, so it’s encouraging to see we’re on the right track.”
