Tom Kimber-Smith and Luke Hines have secured a double win in the season finale for the Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Magny-Cours, although it wasn't enough to stop Chris Niarchos and Tim Mullen from securing the 2006 title.

Heading into the final weekend of racing, which saw the two title rivals head across the channel to compete alongside the French FFSA Championship, Mullen and Niarchos held a four point lead and strengthened their position by taking pole position – of the two British GT runners – for the first race.

Just before the 43 car grid lined up for the start, rain forced the teams to switch to wet tyres, with Niarchos in the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari and Hines in the LNT Panoz running 16th and 18th after two tricky laps that saw a number of the French runners hit problems.

However, Niarchos was visibly struggling with his car as he tried to find some grip on the slippery track and with Hines revelling in the tricky conditions, he soon swept past the Greek/Canadian driver to take the lead – quickly extending an advantage and putting French cars between himself and the Ferrari.

On lap eleven Niarchos came in to hand the car over to Mullen, hoping the Northern Irishman could start to haul in the speedy Panoz, while Hines stayed out for another five laps before handing over to Kimber-Smith in sixth overall.

As all of the pitstops finished, Kimber-Smith held eighth overall, while Mullen was 17th and over 80 seconds behind. Continuing to pull away from the Ferrari, Kimber-Smith completed a dominant victory by lapping Mullen on the final lap of the race to claim a third win of the season – marking the first time that the Panoz had beaten the Ferrari in a head-to-head fight.

However, with only half points on offer for the two races, it meant the gap at the top dropped by just a single point heading into the final race on Sunday.

Starting alongside each other on the grid for the second race, Kimber-Smith took the advantage to head Mullen when the race got underway and – as was the case in the opening race – the Panoz soon opened up an advantage.

Knowing that a finish was all that was required to secure the crown, neither Mullen or Niarchos was going to do anything stupid during the race and the pair were happy to allow Hines to extend a 20 second lead in the second half of the race to give LNT a double victory to round out the first season of racing with the Esperante GTLM.

The title success means Scuderia Ecosse was able to retain the title it won last season, when Andrew Kirkaldy and Nathan Kinch dominated the championship to wrap up the crown.