Shaun Balfe and Adam Smalley remain in contention for the British GT Championship
The title dream is still alive for Fulbeck's Shaun Balfe and team-mate Adam Smalley after the penultimate round of the British GT Championship.
The duo surged to success in the Silver Am category and finished third overall at Donington Park and have now consolidated third in the Championship.
Balfe and Smalley still have the slightest of mathematical chances to take the title but face a must-win in the final round at Brands Hatch later this month.
Balfe said: "The race at Donington was a real rollercoaster, but we can go to Brands with a very slight chance of the title and it's still game on for second as well."
Balfe was out first in qualifying with their Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo and was ninth best while Smalley, in the second session, was just 0.358 seconds off pole but that only got him seventh which aggregated left them with eighth on the starting grid.
Balfe explained: "We hadn't been able to work on single lap performance as testing on Thursday and Saturday practice had both been wet.
"We couldn't optimise it and just didn't deliver but it was so close in Adam’s session."
Balfe was in for the start and, after initially losing three places on the opening lap, he soon started to close in on Carl Cavers' BMW and by lap seven he was ahead and into ninth place.
Mark Radcliffe's McLaren was the next target and, with Matt Topham's Aston Martin falling back too, by lap 11 he was closing in on Richard Neary's Mercedes for fifth place.
Having taken Neary and Mike Price's McLaren both on lap 13, he was now fourth, but the gap to the lead trio had continued to grow.
Holding station, he pitted from a solid fourth to hand to Smalley on lap 42 for the rest of the race.
Having rejoined fourth, the gap to the leader was 34 seconds but Smalley was soon challenging Sam Neary for third place.
His rival responded and the gap began to open again before the race went under caution, firstly with a full course yellow and then under the safety car.
From the green flag it became a three-lap sprint to the chequered flag but, with Neary off after brake failure at McLeans a lap from home, Smalley sealed another Silver Am victory and third overall.
Son Tom was also in action in the Ginetta Academy.
He qualified seventh for race one and was up to fourth by lap two. With second and third places colliding on the final lap, he was able to move up to take second at the flag.
After finishing sixth in race two, he was vying for another podium in his final outing but contact on the last lap ended his race prematurely as he headed pitwards.
