GT3 HITS CENTREPIECE SILVERSTONE EVENT IN BRITISH GT
Liam Griffin's striking Lamborghini took its first win on UK soil last time at Oulton Park – Photo: Jakob Ebrey
One of the biggest British GT Championship grids ever assembled prepares for take-off at Silverstone’s former bomber base this weekend as part of the series’ blue riband three-hour, 500-kilometre event.
A 51-strong entry comprising GT3 and GT4 cars is set to do battle around the Grand Prix circuit on Sunday in what could prove a pivotal skirmish in both of this year’s title races thanks to a maximum 37.5 points being on offer to the victors.
Oulton Park’s two one-hour races a fortnight ago threw up some interesting results, which will likely play a part in determining the outcome this weekend. There’s also the added uncertainty of additional GT3 (a class total of 18) and GT4 cars (16), as well as the GT4 European Series entries (17) which, despite not counting towards the British GT result, will be involved in their own race on track at the same time.
GT3: CAN ANYONE CHALLENGE BENTLEY’S PARFITT JNR AND MORRIS?
With TF Sport’s dominant start to the season ended at Oulton Park who would bet against a fourth different winner in five rounds? Team Parker Racing, that’s who, after the outfit finished third and then overcame a pit-stop success penalty to score Bentley’s maiden British GT victory last time out. Three podiums in four outings make Rick Parfitt Jnr and Seb Morris the form crew heading to Silverstone, although they’ll again have to overcome a success handicap – this time totalling 20 seconds – if they’re to make it consecutive series victories.
Standing in their way are Barwell Motorsport’s two full-season Lamborghini Huracans, a model that claimed pole position during Silverstone’s recent Blancpain GT Series round. It also scored a maiden British GT win during the opening race at Oulton Park thanks to Liam Griffin, who’s joined for the first time this weekend by 2015 series runner-up Alexander Sims. With no pit-stop success penalty to serve you can expect the #6 machine to be a serious victory threat, while the sister car driven by Oulton pole position pairing Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen should also feature prominently.
TF Sport’s three-race winning streak, which began at last season’s Donington finale, came to an end at Oulton where Derek Johnston and Jonny Adam were instead content to score two solid results. The championship leaders enjoy a 21.5-point advantage over Griffin heading to Silverstone where the Aston Martin crew will be keen on returning to winning ways. Should they do so Adam will equal the record for most number of British GT3 victories, which stands at 11.
Alasdair McCaig and Rob Bell finally enjoyed a trouble-free run at Oulton to secure theirs and Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse’s first podium of the season. A 15-second success penalty aside, the pair should go well again this weekend at a circuit where the McLaren 650S GT3 has already achieved great results, including an overall British GT victory last year.
Reigning GT3 champion Andrew Howard and his GT4 title-winning co-driver Ross Gunn lie sixth in the standings after a solid if unspectacular start to the season aboard their Aston Martin V12 Vantage. Silverstone therefore offers the Beechdean AMR pair an ideal opportunity to make progress, especially given that Gunn dominated last year’s race in the junior category.
AmDTuning.com’s pit-stop strategy and subsequent display of superb defensive driving helped Lee Mowle and Joe Osborne to score their first rostrum of 2016 at Oulton. Anything inside the top-six at Silverstone would be an excellent result for the crew whose BMW Z4 GT3 has always been good on the brakes but traditionally lacked the straight-line speed required this weekend.
Elsewhere, a raft of fresh GT3 entries will be making their presence felt. Experienced FF Corse pairing Marco Attard and Adam Carroll give the all-new Ferrari 488 its championship debut, while both Team Parker Racing and Barwell Motorsport each field an additional Bentley and Lamborghini. There's also an extra Aston Martin V12 Vantage on the grid courtesy of MB Motorsport.
In the Teams’ championship just 9.5 points separate early leaders TF Sport from reigning champions Barwell Motorsport, while Team Parker Racing’s second entry could also help them close the gap from third.
Tom Hornsby
