Race Report from Silverstone (Copy)

It was fabulous to finally have some of my sponsors attend to watch the racing, take in the thrill of being at the track and enjoy the hospitality of the day.

Silverstone Race report

We were back in action this past weekend for rounds 13,14,15 and 16 of the GT CUP championship at Silverstone on the Grand Prix circuit with Paddock Motorsport and my team mate Moh Ritson in the McLaren 570s GT4.

Friday Practice

The team had a testing programme for us to run through on the day but issues with the car understeering and pushing on through right hand corners hindered us slightly. Joseph our race engineer and Steve our head mechanic made some changes to the set up and by the last session the car felt great.

Saturday Qualifying

My teammate Moh did the qualifying session today and managed to qualify in P4 for the sprint race later.

Saturday Sprint Race

Moh had a good start and held position but unfortunately couldn’t gain any places and managed to bring it home in P4 for some solid championship points and we now start P4 for the Endurance race.

Saturday Endurance Race

It was now my turn to do the first stint in the car starting P4. I got a awesome start and gained 2 places by the time we got to Copse corner, then got squeezed on the exit between 2 cars and had to back out to avoid contact with them both, but I was still in the mix of it in P4 in class then going through Becketts a Porsche came together with a Ginetta flipping it onto its roof right in front of me. I had to take avoiding action and was forced on the grass luckily I managed to get through unscathed but dropping me down the pack to P12 in class with P11 three seconds up the road. The chase was on and I got my head down and pumped in a great lap managing to catch and over take the P11 car in a lap and half. Same again for the P10 spot I had ground to make up before I was on the back of them and could make a overtake. I brought the car in for the driver change in P8 but with our success penalty from Oulton Moh joined the race in P12 and that’s when things went from bad to worse. Moh had a coming together with another car resulting in a broken wheel and obviously a punctured tyre. He managed to limp back to the pits and have it replaced but our race was now over and we finished 32nd . But we dust ourselves down, reset and go again tomorrow.

Sunday Qualifying

It was my turn to qualify today and the track seemed really busy, I struggled to find space to do a flying lap meeting traffic at some point around the circuit. I managed to get in one half decent lap which put me in P4 for the sprint race and I knew I would have good race pace in the Sprint race.

Sunday Sprint Race

I got a really great start and with the 3 guys in front of me we managed to create a gap to the cars behind in our class. I had a great battle with the 3 in front of me and managed to get up to P3, for the remainder of the race it was nip and tuck with the Featherstone’s Aston Martin who just managed to pip me to the 2nd place spot. Another podium finish this time in P3 and more great Championship points.

Sunday Endurance Race

Moh started the sprint race this time from P3 and drove well bringing the car in for me to take over in P2. We then got held up in the pits and could not get released due to the amount of cars going down pit lane, finally I got out and back on track in P4. It was head down time and I started to push really hard to catch the guys in front but 2 laps into my stint we had a fault with the traction control unit kicking in intermittently causing the car to keep slowing down. I managed to finish P6 in class despite the issue with the car, getting some more good championship points, I was a bit disappointed as I thought I could have had a chance to go for another podium if we hadn’t have had the issue.

All in all a mixed weekend but despite the issues we learnt a lot again as a team and we still managed to gain some good Championship points putting us P4 in Class.

With thanks to Jakob Ebrey for the imagery.