Shaun Balfe and co-driver Adam Smalley finish third in British GT Championship

Fulbeck's Shaun Balfe and co-driver Adam Smalley saw their hopes of British GT Championship glory dashed at the weekend.

The duo - who had already won the Silver Am category crown - had needed a fine finish to the final round at Brands Hatch to improve on their third place in the overall standings.

However, issues in qualifying which have plagued their campaign again returned to haunt the pair in their Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.

Lined up for the session all was well but, with less than half of the out lap completed, Balfe suddenly ground to a halt.

The car was towed back to the pitlane with the crew working frantically to try and fix the problem and get Smalley out in his session.

Unfortunately their efforts came to nothing with neither driver recording a lap time, leaving them on the back row of the 14-car GT3 grid.

Balfe commented: "Free practice had gone fairly well and we were looking at getting the set-up to suit qualifying and we were setting times capable of making the top three.

"Ideally we needed to be at least between the Barwell Lamborghinis of Rob and Ricky Collard and Sandy Mitchell and Alex Martin and the very short qualifying session was really important.

"But, with no warning, the car just stopped and a failed crank sensor left us stranded."

From the start of the race, Balfe had settled in 12th, chasing Mike Price's Mercedes, which then became a four-car train for 10th.

For a couple of laps he explored moves on Price before he was 'let through' on the main Grand Prix circuit to take ninth and chase Andrew Howard's Aston Martin.

Howard made a mistake going into Westfield which allowed Balfe to capitalise and his next quest was Mark Smith's McLaren.

The initial four second gap soon came down and, with 23 laps gone, they were split by just 0.214 seconds.

Three laps later Balfe took a look at Paddock Hill Bend and then nosed ahead at Westfield but, having exited just slightly wide, Smith managed to squeeze back down the inside.

The safety car had been out earlier for a couple of laps and the race was still under caution at half distance and up to the pit stops where Smalley was having to serve a 10 second success penalty before rejoining.

The race was live again on lap 42 with Smalley still ninth which was where they took the chequered flag having had little time to progress. The duo were then promoted to eighth after a post-race penalty was issued.

Balfe added: "It was a disappointing weekend, but third in the Championship and Silver Am champions isn't a bad year.

"We have had various rolls of the dice, but it was missing the qualifying that settled it."

Son Tom was out for the final time this season in the Ginetta Academy.

He started race one from fifth on the grid and held his place on the opening lap.

He was pushing hard to stay in touch with the lead quartet, when two cars went off at Druids Hairpin and brought a premature end to the race.

Sixth into Druids at the start of race two, he was under some initial pressure from Mike West.

Having consolidated his place he began to challenge Paul Thomas for fifth and, by the end lap three, he was through.

He gained another place when Luke Shaw pitted, but was still 13 seconds away from a podium finish, before finishing his season with fifth again in the third and final race of the weekend.