17-year-old Zac Meakin once again stepped onto the top step of the British GT Championship podium, wining round four of the series at Donington Park at the weekend (25/26 May), to move to the top of the GT4 standings.
After success last time out at Silverstone, hopes were high for further silverware at the Derbyshire venue, and things were looking good after topping the times in pre-event testing. Zac qualified third fastest in his group, but once the times were combined with teammate Jack Brown’s, they lined up second on the grid, just two tenths shy of P1.
Rain greeted all the team and drivers on race day, but after a wet warm up session, the track dried. As the cars were leaving the grid to start the formation lap for the three-hour race it began to rain heavily, leading the officials to abort the start. 10 minutes later, after all the cars had swapped to wet tyres the race began, behind the Safety Car.
Two laps later they were racing, and Zac hounding Stuart Middleton for the lead, eventually passing with a great move into the Melbourne Hairpin. With the track quickly drying, tyre management became key, so Zac dropped back behind Jamie Day and Alex Walker before pitting, playing the long game.
Jack took over the pair’s McLaren Artura GT4, now fitted with slick tyres, for his first stint. Not long after, a huge downpour, brought out the red flag after seven cars became stranded in the gravel, with Jack himself doing well to avoid being stuck, having also gone wide at the same corner.
Racing resumed 45-minutes later, once conditions improved, with Zac back behind the wheel. He began progressing through the field and within a few laps, was leading GT4 and managing the pace, despite numerous caution periods. Pitting for the final time, and with 20 seconds of Compensation Time add due to their win at Silverstone, Jack went back out to bring the car home for impressive back-to-back victories.
Now with a clear advantage at the top of both the GT4 Silver Cup and GT4 Drivers’ standings, Zac will be looking forward to his next outing in the British GT Championship, which will take place at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium over 22/23 June.
Zac Meakin commented, “I’m definitely getting used to being on the top step; it’s the best feeling! From Thursday on we’ve always been up there in the times, and always been competitive. I managed to get P3 in qualifying. I just missed out on pole, but the race was challenging with all the different conditions. For my stints it was always raining, and for Jack’s it was dry, but it’s all paid off. We had 20 seconds extra for our final stop, and we still came off with the win.
“A lot comes to the strategy. Adam (Tanner – engineer) did a mega job on the calls and got us to where we were, and from there it was smooth sailing. If we hadn’t had the final Full Course Yellow, it would have been a lot more of a struggle, so we kind of a bit of luck and everything paid off. I’m ecstatic about the results, as there’s definitely nothing wrong with P1!”