Busy busy busy to be ready for the Silverstone 500 and beyond

Forty cars will make up the grid for this weekends Silverstone 500 round of the British GT Championship which will feature both returning faces and a very busy week of motorsport ahead for many of the Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage customer team contingent.

Two GT3's from the TF Sport camp again return after their somewhat mixed encounters last time out at Snetterton when podiums were first salvaged and then lost over the course of that round's two sprint races.  Andrew Howard and his Beechdean AMR team also come back to what will be a very busy week for them what with this third round of the domestic GT season in Northamptonshire before having to wizz down to Le Mans for their Michelin Le Mans Cup - Road to Le Mans commitments at the home of endurance racing at the Circuit de La Sarthe. TF Sport will also be making that journey down south for their Le Mans Cup entry for Flick Haigh and Tom Gamble.


AMR factory drivers Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorenson and Jonny Adam will of course also need to make that journey to France after the end of the race for their factory duties in the final round of the World Endurance Championship. They then all return for the next round of British GT the weekend after Le Mans!!


Optimum Motorsport have now also decided to compete at this third round of their national GT  Championship in preference to racing at Spa Francorchamps in their parallel International GT Open Series commitments. That has been put down to them wanting to improve upon their more favourable positions in the British GT overall and Silver Cup tables compared to that of their European adventures. Their young gun Olivier Wilkinson reunites with co driver Bradley Ellis after his last racing exploits in the GT Open with AMR factory river Darren Turner where another podium was their reward.


Joining the whole wrath of full season GT4 cars from the TF Sport, Academy and Optimum stables will be the brand new car recently obtained by the David Appleby Engineering prepared Generation AMR SuperRacing team with money man James Holder returning to the Championship with a double duties stint from his mentor and friend Matt George. This duo raced one of their two new V8 Vantage GT4's at the GT4 European Series last week only missing out on a potential podium through the inconsiderate act of others.

Also at the GT4 European Series event last weekend were the two Academy Vantage GT4 cars which both sadly sustained either technical issues and/or accident damage that will all need to be repaired and rectified in time for this weekends events. If there is a one team that needs and justifys a change in fortune is this one!!


Snetterton delivered the first points and podium finishes for the #47 TF Sport GT3 car of Graham Davidson and Jonny Adam and the #97 TF Sport GT4 car of Tom Canning and Ash Hand whilst the #11 Beechdean AMR GT4 duo of Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher took their second podium of the season so far to lead their Pro-Am GT4 Championship.

Whilst others showed themselves in a better light than what they possible did in the opening races from Oulton Park at the start of the season, too many again became victims to questionable driving standards from others that would either limit or curtail their efforts in Norfolk. At least Silverstone will be the widest race track that they will race on this year so hopefully inter-car contact will become hopefully less of an issue in Sundays 3hr race.


SILVERSTONE TIMETABLE

Saturday 8 June
09:30 – 10:30: Free Practice 1
11:40 – 12:40: Free Practice 2
15:40 – 15:50: Qualifying – GT3 Am
15:54 – 16:04: Qualifying – GT3 Pro
16:08 – 16:18: Qualifying – GT4 Am
16:23 – 16:33: Qualifying – GT4 Pro

Sunday 9 June
09:00 – 09:10: Warm-up
12:35 – 15:35: Race