Duckhams Yuasa Racing makes it four on the trot with class win at Donington
Duckhams Yuasa Racing celebrated 125 years of Duckhams with another superb British GT Championship win at Donington Park last weekend (25/26 May).
Adam Smalley, Shaun Balfe, and the Garage 59 team battled changeable conditions in a three-hour endurance contest to take their fourth Silver Am class victory of 2024, extending their championship lead in the process.
After taking overall victory last time out at the British GT’s blue riband event – the Silverstone 500 – the team were hoping for another strong showing at Donington Park. Both drivers qualified well, with Shaun and Adam’s times meaning they claimed Silver Am pole, just 0.2s from the fastest time overall, and would start from third on the grid.
Rain was forecast for Sunday and would become a persistent factor in the race. After a wet warm up session, the McLaren GT3 EVO left the grid to start the race on a dry track, only for the heavens to open. Consequently, the organisers aborted the start to allow all the cars to change onto wet tyres, with the race getting underway ten minutes later as the track had once again started to dry.
Shaun put in an excellent early stint, taking second place with a move into the Melbourne Hairpin. Three laps later he moved into the lead before pitting a lap later to hand over to Adam and for the team to fit slick tyres.
Adam didn’t waste any time, setting the fastest lap of the race, before making a brave and decisive pass on Ricky Collard around the outside of Schwantz Curve to claim the lead. A few laps later the rain returned with a massive downpour at turn one catching out a dozen cars, with seven of them becoming stranded in the gravel, and bringing out the red flag.
45-minutes later racing resumed and both drivers were faced with the prospect of a one-hour stint each. Shaun was first up, doing a good job to maintain the class lead as multiple Full Course Yellows were required for incidents.
Having to serve an additional 20 seconds in Compensation Time for their win at Silverstone in their final pitstop, Adam decided to not take any risks, bringing the car home for the Silver Am victory, and eighth overall, further extending their advantage at the top of the table.
Duckhams Yuasa Racing will next be in action in the British GT Championship at Spa-Francorchamps, over the weekend of June 21-23.
Adam Smalley
R - 1, G - 1
Championship: Silver Am –1 (125 points), Overall - 3 (65.5 points)
“Qualifying was pretty good. I was fourth fastest in my group, just two tenths off the fastest time, which was alright. Shaun did a mega job as well to put us P3 overall, so I was pretty happy with that.
“We had a 20 second success penalty carried over from Silverstone, so it was all about damage limitation in the race. We knew we weren’t going to have a strong result outright, but the race went smoothly. We got into the lead at the start and built a little bit of a gap. It was washed out in the first pitstop, but the race was then red flagged.
“That shifted the order up a little bit, so we came out a bit further behind than we’d expected. Shaun did a great stint, kept it clean when other people didn't, and we made some good progress. I got in for the last hour and it was almost follow the leader. We were in a good position in eighth overall, and leading Silver Am, so I knew I didn't need to do anything crazy, and just took the points. I'm pretty happy with that, as it was a good solid weekend and a nice way to celebrate 125 years of Duckhams.”
View photos from the race here
