Steve Burgess and Ben Dimmack started the 2022 GT Cup season with a winning treble at Donington Park. Three wins in the GTO Class and a third overall in their RAW Motorsports run Radical RXC, leaves them top of the table.
Burgess started Saturdays sprint race from seventh on the grid, but was quickly into a three car battle for second place.
For the first five laps he kept Morgan Tillbrook’s second place McLaren GT3 in sight, before finally having to settle for third overall and their first class win of the weekend. “The leaders just got away from the start and couldn’t close on them,” said Burgess.
It was Dimmack’s turn to start race two, but a first lap incident immediately brought out the safety car. “I was following the safety car for most of my stint,” he said, after holding fifth as the green flag was waved from lap five. But only six laps later it was out again. “I followed the safety car in, but I had some trouble with the accelerator and had to work around it. A very frustrating stint for me too, I just wanted to race,” he added.
Burgess was briefly in third again, but was rapidly caught by three GT3 cars, dropping three places to sixth on the 30th lap.
“The gap between me and them diminished rapidly, but the car was OK though,” he said.
In the closing laps he was caught by Will Tregurtha’s Mercedes GT3 too. They swapped places on lap 36, but Burgess took it back a lap later, before finally having to surrender and take seventh overall with another class win.
The safety car was out for much of Sunday’s sprint race too. The first spell went green again from lap six, with Dimmack eighth. He soon demoted Shamus Jennings’ Porsche for fifth at Redgate, and John Dhillon’s Lamborghini too before the safety car appeared again.
Fifth place had looked safe but the safety car had allowed Neary’s Mercedes and Dhillon to close in again. “The undertray had worked loose and it was difficult to steer, one minute oversteer and then understeer. They both got me on the last half lap,” he added after finishing seventh overall with another class win.
The fourth and final race of the weekend had Burgess taking the opening stint.
Seventh on the opening lap, Burgess found his way passed Mark Sampson’s Mercedes on lap three, but the top five had already gone well clear.
More safety car action saw Burgess make his stop as the green flag appeared, so he opted to stay out and led the race for one lap before pitting himself. “It was quite good for us as we caught the leaders again, but lost out again in their aero,” he said.
Dimmack came back out in seventh, but was having problems with power again. “It just seemed to lose power and then cleared again,” he explained.
They slipped to ninth overall a lap from home, but were still well clear of any class rivals, so it was four wins out of four in the class.