Jones and Malvern head into the fifth event of the British GT season determined to get back into the mix with their Team Parker Racing-run Porsche 911 GT3 R after a difficult last outing at Snetterton where the car was held back by an unfavourable balance of performance.
While the pair still managed to record a top-10 finish in the second race in Norfolk to at least get some points on the board, far more is expected at the home of the Belgian Grand Prix, which has traditionally been a strong track for the Porsche.
Ahead of this weekend’s two-hour race, the team took part in a test day at the track, where they received technical support from Porsche and were joined by a factory driver to provide additional feedback. After some additional work on the car’s setup and mechanicals, the #66 911 GT3 R should once again be a competitive proposition around the 4.4-mile circuit, meaning both drivers have set their sights on coming away with a strong result.
Nick Jones said: “I’m really looking forward to Spa, it’s such a phenomenal circuit to drive, even more so in a GT3 car where the speeds are so high. It’s dream-level stuff. It’s not been an easy first half of the season for us, but we’ve put extra work in ahead of the final few rounds and hopefully we can have an upturn in luck, starting from Spa. I’m feeling good in the car, and everything felt solid during the test day we did, which helped a lot. Hopefully we can get ourselves right into the fight for some good points this weekend.”
Scott Malvern added: “I’m feeling good about our chances at Spa. We had a really productive test day there, and having the support from the Porsche factory helped us confirm that we were maximising the performance of the car, which was very encouraging for us. As was Nick’s performance as he lapped a full three seconds faster than he’s ever been at Spa, which shows how much work he’s putting into his own driving. We are unquestionably due a good weekend, if only for the amount of graft the team are putting in at the moment. It would be great to pay that back with a haul of points this weekend.”
The fifth round of the Intelligent Money British GT Championship gets underway with free practice at 09:00CEST on Saturday, July 23, followed by FP2 at 12:20. Qualifying is at 16:20 with the two-hour race taking place on Sunday at 12:25. Live timing will be available for all sessions via TSL Timing and qualifying and the race will be streamed live via the British GT website and GT World YouTube channel.
