Race Report from the Silverstone 500

Friday Practice

Well the weekend started off not the best with the car continually going into limp mode which caused the team and the BMW technicians from Germany some major headaches because nothing was showing up when they plugged the diagnostics into the car. This meant in the 2 one hour free practice sessions we managed a total of nine laps. The guys worked into the early hours changing things on the car from injectors seals, injectors, plugs plus numerous other bits.

 Saturday free practice and qualifiying

 Saturday Chris went out in the car for the 1st free practice and with a few laps he was back in the pits with the car oil temperature getting almost to boiling point, we lost the rest of that session whilst they fully checked everything out and replaced the oil temperature censor that was playing up. I went out for the final free practice and the car was finally running perfect allowing me to get some good laps in ready for the impending qualifying session.

 I did the 1st qualifying 10minutes and was continually putting in green sectors every lap meaning I was getting quicker and quicker, on my final flying lap I was upon my time in the first two sectors showing I was on for a pole or P2 but I then got stuck behind car No7 a McLaren and lost 8/10ths in the last sector meaning I managed to qualify 5th overall. It was now Chris’s turn and again he was pushing hard but just could not get a clean lap in but managed to qualify P7, this meant when our times had been added together we qualified P7 overall in GT4 class.

Sunday 3 hour Race

I was nominated to start the race and once the lights went out managed to get a great start and stay out of trouble,  making up a few places on the first couple of laps allowing me to settle in to my rhythm and start to push hard. I was having some great battles, making up places and eventually after approximately 55minutes of racing bough the car in in P1 for the driver change over. It was now my teammate Chris’s turn and he started off really well, settling in nicely but got caught when the GT3 cars started to come through the field and lost out to the following GT4 cars who pushed through with them but he managed to bring the car in t=for the second driver change in P6. It was up to me again now to go out and try and gain some places but the car in front was 23 seconds ahead, I got my head down and started pushing like mad and soon managed to catch him and pass him, with the driver change overs I bought the car home in P2 ready for Chris to do the final stint. He rejoined the race in P6 and managed to push to the end holding that position. We think tho that we have ended up P5 because a couple of the cars who finished in front of us have been given penalties.

This was my first Silverstone 500 and first 3 hour race, I can honestly say it’s one of the best racing experiences I have had to date, all in all I had a fantastic weekend.

We now go to Donington Park on the 28th/29th May for another 3 hour extravaganza of no- stop action and I for one cannot wait.

With thanks to Jakob Ebrey, Stephen Fisher and Ricky at Sprite Photography for the imagery.