Feathers Motorsport (FMS) made a victorious start to the season on its return to the UK-based GT Cup series, earning a brace of dominant GTH Class victories and another podium finish at Donington Park, last weekend. This resounding success means that series debutant Archie Clark and his co-driver, the 2019 Aston Martin Racing Driver Academy winner Tom Canning, lead the overall championship standings as well as the GTH Class points table, after three rounds. The performance also marked the perfect return to the championship after FMS’s sabbatical from 2024.
The 16-year-old Clark, driving an Inspire Engineering-prepared version of the ultra-successful Aston Martin Vantage GT4 on his first appearance for the Northamptonshire-based FMS, recorded his maiden car racing victory in Saturday’s opening 25-minute Sprint Race. He then followed that up with second place in class in the afternoon’s second sprint, having started from the GTH pole in both. Accomplished and level-headed, Clark led throughout the opening race and only lost the GTH lead at the start of the second encounter when a Lamborghini spun on the exit of Redgate further up the field, forcing avoiding action from the chasing pack. Clark reacted calmly, saving the Vantage from damage, and retained second place which he controlled to the flag with another mature drive.
These performances justifiably earned Clark, who is a long-term protégé of FMS partner Base Performance Simulators, the series’ Driver of the Day award. Sunday was another first for the FMS organisation which recorded a little slice of history by claiming the GTH Class victory in the inaugural GT Cup 100 race. The event, run over 100 minutes, and featuring a mid-race refuelling stop for the first time in the series, was a significant change for all the teams to manage. Clark once again recorded the class pole, and got his head down from the start building up such a margin over the second-placed Ginetta, that even when he pitted to hand over to Canning; with the stop lasting 198 seconds to take into account Saturday’s success and Tom’s Pro status, the Aston Martin still emerged in the class lead.
The FMS team delivered a flawless stop, and the 23-year-old Canning rewarded his crew with a typically precise and rapid stint ensuring the Vantage finished 30sec ahead of its nearest rivals. It was the 13th class victory for the FMS machine, now in its third year of competition in the series. Clark said: “I couldn’t have dreamed for a better debut with Feathers Motor Sport. The whole weekend has been a big learning curve for me. I’m still getting to know the Vantage, I’m getting used to multi-class racing and even the Grand Prix layout at Donington Park was something to get my head around. I can’t thank the team enough, the car was beautiful to drive, Tom was brilliant as a teammate and the whole team has been so supportive. I’ve loved every minute of my first GT Cup weekend.”
The GT Cup championship continues on 17-18 May at Brands Hatch, in Kent, with the more familiar format of two sprint and two pitstop races over the two days.
