SNETTERTON, United Kingdom: Oman Racing’s Ahmad al Harthy and Charlie Eastwood produced a stunning performance on the team’s return to action in the Intelligent Money British GT Championship at Snetterton 300 Circuit on Sunday with a supreme lights-to-flag victory in race one of the weekend.
Some six years since Al Harthy last competed in British GT, and over five months since his most recent race in the final round of February’s Asian Le Mans Series, the Omani starred after converting a richly deserved pole position into a tremendous race win in the 60-minute contest.
In addition to making headlines with victory on Oman Racing’s long awaited return to British GT, success for the TF Sport engineered No 97 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 also marked the first ever race win in the category for Irish driver Eastwood.
From sixth on the grid in a wet-and-drying race two later in the afternoon, Al Harthy and Eastwood combined to deliver another outstanding showing. Eastwood produced an awesome start, leaping into fourth and climbing as high as second during the early running. Even with a 10 second success penalty from race one, due to winning, Al Harthy was just as impressive and took the flag in fourth.
“What a dream start to my season with our new partners, new sponsors, and everyone at Oman Racing”, said a delighted Al Harthy, who is supported this year by Omantel, OQ and the Oman Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, “I’m so happy and proud to represent Oman and our partners, and delighted to be back and winning in our first race back in British GT.
“We’ve all been working so, so hard over the winter and the early part of this year to put together our programme and this is the perfect start. The team gave me such a beautiful car to drive, the guys at TF, Charlie [Eastwood] and I have all worked so hard these past weeks. I’m delighted with our results this weekend and hope to officially announce our next races very soon.”
Light rain did threaten ahead of race one on Sunday morning but it soon passed, and the action got underway on a fully dry track. Making a textbook launch at the rolling start, Al Harthy led away from his expertly taken pole position.
Under some pressure from the No 11 Bentley Continental GT3 during the first couple of laps, as soon as everything was up to temperature the Omani began to push more and into lap four his advantage was 0.8 seconds. Almost doubling his lead the next time around after setting the fastest lap, he then posted another fastest lap – a time of 1m50.501 seconds – on lap five.
By the 11th tour Al Harthy was more than four seconds to the good, nicely in control, and when the pit window opened two laps later the Oman Racing Aston Martin had already passed the pitlane entry, so he completed one extra lap compared to the other drivers.
Pitting at the end of lap 13, Al Harthy handed over the car to Eastwood and the Irishman joined the race with 34 minutes to go. When the order settled his lead was five seconds over the Bentley, and Eastwood then began to gradually increase his advantage by roughly a couple of tenths per lap.
Setting a personal best lap time of 1m49.654 seconds on lap 18, Eastwood boosted his lead to 6.8 seconds and by lap 29 he led by more than 10 seconds. Not putting a wheel wrong, he took the chequered flag at the end of the hour 8.2 seconds clear to seal a fantastic victory for Oman Racing in its first race back in British GT since 2015.
WET AND DRY CONDITIONS
Race two started on a wet track and Eastwood, from sixth on the grid, did a tremendous job off the rolling start by surging into fourth place around the outside into Riches. Then taking third two corners later, the Irishman chased the No 63 Lamborghini of Dennis Lind before the Safety Car was deployed on lap four due to several early incidents.
The racing resumed on lap six and Lind went wide at Riches so Eastwood swept past to grab second position. Working incredibly hard and doing a great job to keep the visibly faster Lamborghinis of Sandy Mitchell and Lind at bay, Eastwood defended superbly until having to succumb to an attack by Mitchell on lap 10 out of Agostini.
Holding third as the mid-race driver change pit-stop approached, with the treaded Pirelli tyres well past their best, Eastwood did a sterling job to keep Lind at bay but on lap 14 the Dane managed to get ahead at the Esses. Both drivers then pitted at the end of the lap, the Oman Racing car having to remain stationary in the pits for an extra 10 seconds – the success penalty from the race one win.
Al Harthy joined the track in sixth place and immediately closed down the Aston Martin of Andrew Howard. In a position to challenge on lap 16, the Omani then lost out through backmarker traffic and was badly baulked by slower GT4 cars. Slipping 2.5 seconds behind Howard as a result, Al Harthy swiftly stormed back onto the tail of the No 7 car.
Closing to within 0.6 seconds by the end of lap 18, as the fastest driver on track by some margin, Al Harthy produced a sensationally bold pass around the outside at the fast Coram right-hander on lap 19 to seal fifth position into the chicane. Immediately latching onto the tail of the Lamborghini of Leo Machitski, two laps later Al Harthy incredibly repeated the same Coram move to take fourth.
Pressing on and setting the fastest lap of the race at that point on lap 21 with a time of 2m04.325 seconds, as the track dried more and more, and with very little grip from the wet-weather tyres, the Omani continued to pull away from the pack behind. Wrapping-up an excellent fourth place, the result capped a hugely successful British GT return.
“P4 was the best we could hope for in race two, especially having to spend an extra 10 seconds in the pits as a success penalty for our race one win”, reflected Al Harthy, “It was so good to be racing wheel-to-wheel in my first race in more than five months. It’s very difficult to pass at Snetterton in GT3, but I knew I had more pace. The two moves at Coram on the outside were pretty special!”
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