BMW Motorsport Customer squad, Triple Eight Racing, today delivered a second podium appearance in the 2015 Avon Tyres British GT Championship season, with a nail-bitingly close second-place finish in the three-hour Silverstone 500 endurance race, narrowly missing the win by 0.5s at the flag.  Following on from a class-leading performance the week prior at the Blancpain Endurance Series on the Northamptonshire circuit, the successful duo again converted qualifying pace into a good race performance, after receiving sound strategy from the pit wall and delivering the required pace in changeable conditions to set up a thrilling 20-minute sprint race finale. The British duo started the race fourth, after a solid qualifying performance that saw Osborne improve on his 2014 lap time, and Mowle marginally slower than his previous best. As ever, having to strike a balance that gave 2009 European GT4 Champion Osborne a car to challenge with, and businessman Mowle a driveable platform, was again the biggest issue for the Greatworth-based team in qualifying. After a dry Saturday, the weather turned for the worse and a heavy downpour on Sunday morning ensured the track would be greasy at best for the just-past-midday start time. Heavy rain followed 20-minute prior to the race getting underway, and everyone opted for the wet selection from series tyre supplier, Avon. Taking the start, Mowle made good progress in the monsoon-like conditions, and after some bumping and boring on the opening tour of the 3.66-mile Grand Prix circuit, remained fourth after the Beechdean Aston Martin of Andrew Howard spun off at Maggots, but Ahmad Al Harthy’s Oman Racing-prepared Aston Martin got the better of his Seven Investment Management-sponsored BMW Z4 GT3. As is often the case at the Silverstone 500, British GT’s blue-riband event, strategy is the name of the game. With the wet conditions gradually easing, it wasn’t long before former Triple Eight racer, Derek Johnston, brought out the first Safety Car of the day. This opened up the race for a number of teams willing to take a risk and play the long game. From here the three-hour race was turned on its head, with the series’ usual suspects side-lined by some creative thinking from other corners of the pitlane. Triple Eight Racing were however on-form, and after completing two of their three mandatory pitstops during the first safety car period, and emerging on slicks, were perfectly positioned to get a jump on their rivals. Mowle emerged from the pitlane after 40 minutes and set about delivering a pace that would ultimately keep the team in the fight. At the halfway point of the race, Mowle was up to sixth from a lowly tenth, and the team radioed him to pit, to enable Osborne to run to the flag, with the 26-year-old only having completed around 15-minutes of his allocated 100-minute drive time.

 Rejoining in eighth, little was expected of Osborne as media focused on more fancied rivals currently occupying the top-five positions. This was an error on their part, because the British ace should never be underestimated, let-alone when in such a rich reign of form as he. A stunning battling drive at Brands Hatch a fortnight ago in the Blancpain Sprint Series, a class pole-position and near victory a week later in the Blancpain Endurance Series at this very circuit; the Olney-based racer was clearly ready to demonstrate his skills once more. Regularly the quickest man on track, Osborne got on with the job in hand as his rivals encountered issues (Mackinnon/Plato – RAM Racing Mercedes and Minshaw/Keen – Barwell BMW), while some (Al Harthy/Lloyd – Oman Racing Aston Martin) were purely out-driven.  First came a 2:05.434, before a 2:05.255, and a 2:04.899 on lap 53 were vital in reeling in the McLaren 650s GT3 of Adrian Quaife-Hobbs and putting a gap on the likes of fellow BMW racer, Alexander Sims. A huge accident for the race leading 22GT Aston Martin of Mark Farmer brought out the final safety car of the race. This bunched up the field, leaving Osborne second in class, third on the road, with just the Optimum Motorsport Ginetta between himself and race leader Quaife-Hobbs. A frantic 19-minute finale brought added excitement to a genuinely thrilling, if at times ultimately baffling race, with Osborne’s pace unrelenting as he began to smell a maiden British GT victory alongside Mowle. A late lap of 2:03.779 brought the pair within a second of each other, before a GT4 Porsche blocked the McLaren driver on the last lap, reducing the deficit to just half a second as they crossed the line, with Sims five seconds further back. It was a superb podium result for Osborne and Mowle, a second visit to the hallowed steps in the 2015 season, which keeps them firmly in the title hunt, just 19 points adrift of championship leaders, Sims and Attard. The Triple Eight pair are just 7.5 points off second place, which continues to be occupied by Liam Griffin and Rory Butcher.Quotes from the Triple Eight Racing drivers after Silverstone:Joe Osborne: “The weather at the start made it pretty interesting for the Gents, and the Pros had it easy this week, on slicks and with safety cars on track! Strategy-wise the team were brilliant across all three stops, and the only reason we didn’t win today was that we were lacking a bit of pace against the all-new McLaren. Fundamentally that was it. Track position-wise we were unlucky with the second safety car; I had a GT4 between Adrian, and myself which cost me a few seconds. But then he got unlucky with traffic and it looked like it might get very close indeed between us, but not close enough! Lee put in a very mature drive; he’s covered all bases and is really flourishing, not making mistakes. This time last year we had negative points, so now we’re in a position where we can win the championship, and that’s the aim for us.”Lee Mowle: “It was fantastic! We discussed prior to the race how we’d deal with safety cars, and to double-stop under those circumstances was always an option. It wasn’t easy, especially at the start, but I settled in quickly and that gave me an edge. I think I had four seasons in one race; dry on wet tarmac, wets on dry tarmac etc. Joe gave me some words of wisdom, and Keith (Cheetham – Team Director) was great on the radio, and I could see how the race was going to unfold. I knew though that first and foremost I had to bring the car home for Joe. The team were great and Keith’s calls were mint. It was a really good performance from the whole team.

2015 British GT Driver’s Championship 1) Sims / Attard - 83 pts 2) Butcher / Griffin - 71.5 pts 3) Osborne / Mowle - 64 pts

2015 British GT Team’s Championship 1) Oman Racing Team  - 129.5 pts 2) Barwell Motorsport - 89 pts 3) Triple Eight Racing - 64 pts