TF Sport back on point in British GT

With track conditions at Silverstone on Friday not conducive for much set up work, Saturday morning presented the record breaking forty two grid with similar wet and sometimes wildly windy conditions ahead of the important Qualifying for Sundays Silverstone 500.

Making the most of the Friday running was the #2 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Mark Farmer and Nicki Thiim who headed the AMR runners in P4 but then went some better in Free Practice 1 this morning to head the field albeit with a slower time. Healthy inter-AMR team rivalry was brewing up amongst the Vantage GT4 runners with the #75 Optimum car of Patrik Matthiesen and Mike Robinson dicing for top honours with the brand new chassis from the Generation AMR SuperRacing guys of Matt George and James Holder within the same sessions.


As the track sessions and the hours passed by, the track slowly but surely began to dry giving the chance to the #99 Beechdean AMR and #96 Optimum Vantage GT3's to shine running both P3 and P4 respectively by the end of that session although its was very apparent that many (including these cars) were still trying to 'keep their powder dry' from the then pace setting BMW. Again the #75 Optimum GT4 was running strongly again (P2 overall in class) with a gaggle of four other AMR GT4's just a few placed behind.

With the Silverstone 500 being a single - elongated multi compulsory pit stop race, Qualifying was the first example this season of an aggregated Qualification period from both Pro and Am defined driver to determine the cars starting position on Sundays grid and by the time the first cars hit the track for that it was all in stark contrast to the mornings weather.


GT3 Am's were out first and it was the #47 TF Sport car of Graham Davidson to head the bunch to the other three Vantage GT3 cars finishing his 4 laps P2 overall and just 0.022 seconds behind the Ram Racing Mercedes AMG of Ian Loggie. The #2 TF Sport car of Mark Farmer, the #96 Optimum of Ollie Wilkinson and the #99 Beechdean of Andrew Howard came home P5, P6 and P7 respectively out of the sixteen cars. A good start from these guys.


GT3 Pro's were out next and it was AMR factory driver Jonny Adam who pipped fellow factory driver Marco Sorensen in the #99 Beechdean to claim both top honours and indeed GT3 pole position for tomorrows three hour race. Whilst Nicki Thiim brought the #2 car home in P4 Optimum's Bradley Ellis was sadly unable to submit a time due to a brake issue and will therefore start from the rear of the GT3 grid tomorrow.

Moving over to the GT4 Am drivers it was the #95 TF Sport car of Patrick Kibble who again showed his raw pace to claim the top position of the timing screen and that was with a lap time being deleted for track limits with the #14 debuting Generation AMR car of Matt George half a second behind in P3. The #75 #35 Optimum cars ran line astern to claim P10 and P11 with the remain four AMR GT4's spread between P13 to P17.


The final runners were therefore the GT4 Pro's and it would be Martin Plowman aboard his #11 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT4 who would take overall honours in his group with a lap time 0.146 seconds faster than his nearest rival and one car ahead of the equally fast Josh Price in the #95 TF Sport car.


With all calculations being made the twelve Aston Martin Racing Partner team runners will start as:-

GT3

P1 #47 TF Sport Graham Davidson/Jonny Adam
P4 #2 TF Sport Mark Farmer/Nicki Thiim
P5 #99 Beechdean AMR Andrew Howard/Marco Sorensen
P15 #96 Optimum Ollie Wilkinson/Bradley Ellis

GT4

P1 #95 TF Sport Patrick Kibble/Josh Price
P7 #11 Beechdean AMR Kelvin Fletcher/Martin Plowman
P8 #75 Optimum Patrik Matthiesen/Mike Robinson
P9 #97 TF Sport Ash Hand/Tom Canning
P10 #35 Optimum Jack Butel/Connor O'Brien
P18 #61 Academy Micah Stanley/Ben Hurst
P19 #62 Academy Will Moore/Alex Toth Jones
P21 #14 Generation AMR Matt George/James Holder


Sunday morning warm up for the British GT grid will be between 09:00 and 09:10 with the start to the three hour race beginning at 12:35. Full race coverage will also be streamed live from the SRO social media platforms.

Sunday is even looking mildly warm and dry!!

Photo credits - Jacob Ebrey / Steve Jackman (Eat my Pixels)