Turner stays cool in GT4 European Spa sizzler

Darren Turner soaked up the heat of Europe’s hottest June in recorded history to deliver a typically strong performance on his debut in the ultra-competitive GT4 European Series at Spa-Francorchamps, with British GT title-contending team Grange Racing by FSR, last weekend.

The works Aston Martin driver, who along with his teammate Dan Lavery, won the previous weekend’s British GT4 class at the same venue, stayed on with the team for a one-off foray in the double-header at the Belgian Grand Prix venue and raced to fourth in class in a chaotic and feisty opening race.

“Dan was really excited about racing at Spa in the British GT Championship,” said Turner, “so the team decided to stay on and do the GT4 European races the following weekend. That meant we got to have double the fun and gain some vital experience for the team at the same time.

“Grange Racing by FSR is still so new and every extra weekend at a racetrack just helps in terms of understanding, data and familiarity. And, of course, not being a British GT Championship race, it was a bonus opportunity to race without the pressure of it being a round of the series we’re focussed on.”

Turner and Lavery drove a qualifying session each, Turner’s lap setting the grid position for Race 1 and Lavery’s for Race 2.

“It wasn’t the best qualifying session for me,” said Turner. “I had traffic on my first lap, and then while my second lap was better, I made a mistake at Bus Stop which cost me 0.4s. But even without the mistake it wouldn’t have made much difference to our starting position.”

Turner started the first hour-long encounter in aggressive style and raced his way up the order from 21^st to 17^th; fifth in class. Picking off a couple with opportunistic moves, Turner revelled in being in the mix of a highly competitive 43-car field.

“It’s super competitive,” he said, “which means the field is really close. Ultimately that means there is a little bit of push and shove, but that’s fine, it’s the right side of aggressive. It’s really enjoyable.”

The event, which supported the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, may have been run in perhaps the hottest conditions anyone had seen, but being Spa, it still couldn’t resist raining a third of the way into the race. “That made things a little trickier,” said Turner, “especially for Dan, who took over the car for the second half of the race.

“He had a lot to contend with. This was his first race at this level, and his first day-to-night race (Race 1 was held late on Friday evening), but he got stuck in and did a brilliant job. He kept his nose clean, stayed in the fight and came home 17^th!”

While the duo finished fifth on the road in the Pro-Am Class, they were promoted to fourth when the car in front was penalised for multiple track limit violations.

The second race was held on Saturday morning, prior to the start of the 24 hours, in even hotter conditions. Lavery started from 30^th on the grid and ninth in class, but his race lasted a little more than a lap when he was caught up in an accident that damaged his steering rack, forcing him to retire.

“It’s a shame for him,” said Turner. “He had a great opening lap, making up four places. Then there were four of them going into Turn 1 with Dan down the inside of a Ginetta. He got hit from behind by an Alpine which sent him into the side of that Ginetta. That was game over.

“Overnight we’d made some changes to the car that had given Dan a lot of confidence. He was really enjoying the car and feeling super-happy – and so it was gutting for him. It would have been interesting to see what the car felt like after those changes, but that’s all part of racing.”

While Turner steps out of the Vantage now until the British GT double-header at Snetterton in the middle of August, he’s as busy as ever. Next up is the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where he will demo the mighty Aston Martin Valkyrie up the hill, from 10-12 June.