Team Parker Racing enjoyed a podium finish in the British GT Championship as the series made its annual visit to the famous Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium at the weekend (July 29-31).

With bad luck hampering their efforts so far this season, there was joy for Jamie Orton and Seb Hopkins in the #65 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport RS as their persistence paid off with a second-place finish in GT4.

On the other side of the garage, Nick Jones and Scott Malvern battled performance balancing difficulties in the #66 SD Sealants Porsche 911 GT3 R, securing a top-ten result though a second-hour puncture likely cost the pair a number of positions.

The GT3 duo worked hard through Friday’s test sessions and Saturday’s free practices as they and the team focused on getting the car in a good place for qualifying, topping the times in FP1. However, they had to battle with some handling issues, with both drivers combining to start 15th overall and tenth in GT3 Pro-Am.

Jamie and Seb were consistently at the sharp end of the GT4 field as they dialled their machine in through the early sessions, finishing qualifying fourth overall in class and giving themselves a good chance at their first podium of the season.

Both Nick and Jamie started well in each car and kept themselves in contention through the first hour of the contest, before the mandatory mid-race pitstops were undertaken. In the GT3 Scott quickly settled into a solid pace but found it hard to compete with rival manufacturers’ machinery which seemed to have an advantage.

Reporting a heavy vibration during his stint, he brought the car in to change the rear tyres – a move which underlined his feel for the car as his left rear was beginning to delaminate down to the cords, something which would have put the pair out of the race if it had blown on track and caused damage to the machine. Regardless, he pressed on and crossed the line tenth overall and sixth in GT3 Pro-Am for some solid championship points.

In GT4 Seb came out of the pits and was straight into battle before he began to reel in Tom Edgar by a couple of seconds a lap. With the Toyota having strong straight-line speed it was hard for the teenager to find a way past in the technical middle sector of the lap, but his persistence paid off in the closing stages as he swept past, pulling away to cross the line second in class on his first racing visit to the circuit and scoring a memorable podium.

The weekend’s results remain provisional pending the outcome of an appeal from a pair of teams after a post-qualifying ruling, meaning championship positions are currently unable to be updated. There is now a summer break for the British GT Championship side of Team Parker Racing, before the series resumes at Brands Hatch in Kent over the weekend of September 10/11.

Nick Jones

“The first 45 minutes of my stint the car was great and that’s thanks to the hard work of everyone at the team for getting it in a nice place for me to drive. After that the tyres started to drop off so I suffered a bit and couldn’t do what I had been doing. I tried to drive around it as best I could and had a big one-handed moment coming onto the run up to Blanchimont which got my attention.

“I’m gutted for Scott getting the puncture because as other teams had penalties it would have helped us gain a few more places. The problem was that I could not defend against other cars in a straight line because they were just so much faster than we were, and we were having to work hard in the corners to make the time back up. “

Scott Malvern

“It feels like the same story again, it’s disappointing. Everything that happens during the race seems to suit other manufacturers’ cars. We make our time in the corners, so as soon as the tyres fade, which they do for everyone, we lose that advantage, which you also saw with the Lamborghinis, so any car which makes its time up in the corners is at a disadvantage.

“As a team we did everything we could, in qualifying we matched what the Pro Porsche cars did at the 24H test so I am not sure what more we can do when we’re matching factory teams and drivers on pace and other cars are lapping two seconds faster. It’s frustrating but everyone at the team has executed the weekend as best as they possibly can, just as they did at Snetterton and as we keep doing. It’s just out of our control.”

Jamie Orton

“It was quite hard at the beginning of the race as it didn’t feel like we had much of a pace advantage, and I worked to try and not lose places. I made a few small errors early on with a full tank of fuel but some of the other cars in front were just faster and I hope that will be addressed. I think we might get more performance in the car but with success penalties and I would prefer that, being able to race people rather than just having to sit behind them and hope they make a mistake. A big thanks to everyone at Team Parker Racing for their efforts and to Seb for doing the hard bit in making the pass in his stint. I am over the moon with this podium.”

Seb Hopkins

“It was a good race and finishing P2 is where we really deserve be. We’ve had the worst luck this season, so it is great to finally be on the podium and for everyone’s efforts to pay off. There was a McLaren closing in on us towards the end and it seemed to have so much more pace than us, so the fact that we made it through into second before it caught up was a good thing!

“We struggled with the car’s handling a bit throughout the weekend, but we have strong one lap pace. That Jamie and I could be quick in qualifying helped us start where we needed to be and that’s helped us achieve this result. It’s a great moment for us all so we will embrace it and enjoy it and I have to say thanks to Jamie and everyone in the team for what they did for us.”