British GT: Silverstone 500 – Mercedes the Class After Late Incident

Mercedes were the stars of Sunday at Silverstone, with RAM Racing and Team Parker Racing taking victory in the GT3 and GT4 classes, in the British GT Championship.

For RAM Racing, piloted by Callum MacLeod and Ian Loggie, the win came in dramatic circumstances after a crash with three minutes to go took out the #47 TF Sport Aston Martin that had initially started on pole. For the Mercedes-AMG it’s an unlikely result, after missing out the last round at Snetterton and dropping down the order at the start of the 3 hour spectacular.

In GT4, it would be the #66 Team Parker Racing taking the flag, after an esteemed performance from Scott Malvern helped himself and Nick Jones to their first victory of the year. Like TF Sport, the team secures the blue ribbon event after a mediocre season up to this point.

TF Sport Hold Ground in GT3

Sam De Haan sadly became the first casualty of the race after being spun around by Village by his teammate Adam Balon in the #72 Lamborghini Hurican. The #69 Barwell continued for another lap before taking to the pits. He wasn’t the only one, as Ben Hurst was collected by a Tolman at Luffield, beaching the Canadian.

Despite these incidents, no safety car was called, with just a long-term yellow flag on the Wellington Straight for broken debris in the middle of the track. This presedent continued as after overtaking the ailing Mark Farmer for fifth, Richard Neary stalled after an incident at Luffield.

As the first stint continued, eyes were on Glynn Geddie in the #7 Team Parker Racing, coming from the back of the GT3 grid, to run third by lap 15. Shaun Balfe had excited the fans after an exceptional overtake into The Loop, but was having a harder time passing Graham Davidson’s #47 Aston Martin for the overall lead as the race passed half distance. Balfe Motorsport blinked first. Overshooting his box, plus the success ballast from Snetterton looked to doom the team, but took advantage later as AM driver Graham Davidson remained in the car for an extended period of time, allowing Rob Bell to overtake when the #47 fed back out.

The #2 TF Sport had chosen an alternative strategy, keeping Farmer out for the full first hour, allowing Callum MacLeod to take the lead for the #6 RAM Racing Mercedes, also on an alternative route, having pitted just 20 minutes into the race.

Rob Bell in the Balfe Motorsport would not take the lead until past half race distance as RAM Racing went long. The McLaren’s domination would only become apparent with just over an hour to go, as Bell made a splash and dash to hand over to Balfe, maintaining the lead. This had been helped by the fact the #47 TF Sport also pulled off the same maneuver, though Davidson dropped to third behind the RAM Racing Mercedes.

Balfe looked to have wrapped up the race after its final stop, but a pitlane infringement saw them pick up a 10 sec Stop/Go penalty, dropping outside the podium places. This meant that Jonny Adam in the #47 TF Sport took the lead after the RAM Racing’s final stop. MacLeod was far from finished though, catching Adam.

With only 3 minutes to go, Adam, clearly struggling with tyres caught the #19 Ford Mustang at Maggots. Trying to lap around the outside, the Ford shut the door at Becketts hitting the Aston Martin. Adam would go around the outside at Church, but the Mercedes, spotting the gap, dove up the inside of the Mustang. 3 into 1 didn’t work and the Mustang again hit Adam, breaking his suspension as the TF Sport spun into the gravel. RAM Racing took the victory.

With Balfe out of contention, TF Sport did at least get one team on the podium as the #2 Aston Martin took second despite being 35 seconds off MacLeod. JRM Racing took the final podium place to continue their championship asperations, with Seb Morris even recording the fastest lap.

A top 5 for the #96 Optimum Motorsport Aston Martin was almost scuppered after slamming on his brakes infront of the #77 Fox Motorsport GT4, seeing the #96 spun around. Bradley Ellis completed the stint, benefiting from the late crash to take fifth, some 50 seconds behind the WPI Motorsport LTD Lamborghini Hurican. It had, until the end, been a miserable day for the Lambo’s with the #72 the best Barwell in eighth, behind the #99 Beechdeen AMR and the #7 TPR Bentley.

Curse of the Leader in GT4

The field remained static in GT4 throughout the first stint, with the #95 TF Sport pulling out a ten second gap by the time they pitted. This would not last, as the team were penalised with a Stop/Go penalty after a short pitstop. It would be a mistake they’d repeat for their second pitstop, eventually ruining their race.

McLaren inherited the lead with their #4 Tolman Motorsport car, driven by Josh Smith. The McLaren development driver would benefit further when Scott Malvern caught the ailing #95 Aston, holding both of them up before the Scot found a way past just before half distance. By this time the #4 Tolman had a four second lead, though this would not be enough to keep Malvern at bay. The Mercedes man had been the quickest individual driver in qualifying, but the #66 suffered during Nick Jones’ stints, making Malvern’s drive even more impressive.

It was now up to the #15 Ford Mustang to catch the McLaren in front, temporarily leading with 45 minutes to run, as the final stops were well underway. Sadly for Tolman, what could have been an easy race win, soon fell by the wayside, as a water leak took James Dorlin and the team out of the race.

Instead, Malvern retook the position. The #66 Team Parker Racing pulled away during the final run to the flag, managing the gap to the #30 ERC Sport. The result will be retribution for the Mercedes who failed to convert their pole position last time out at Snetterton.

The surprise of the race had been Maxi Buhk. The German’s pace in the second half helped the outfit that had been running outside the points for much of the race, after starting sixteenth. Completing the podium was the #15 Ford Mustang. Despite being compromised in the final pit stop, the Ford will be releived to have secured silverware on a day in which both Tolman’s and HHC’s struggled.