This weekend Phil Keen and Jon Minshaw led Barwell Motorsport and the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 to victory in round five of the British GT Championship in the GT3 class.
Named the Silverstone 500, this round was different to other British GT races, with endurance key as all classes completed a single three-hour race.
As always Silverstone placed high demands on the tyres through its famous fast corners including Copse as well as Maggotts and Becketts. Due to heavy rain at the start the entire grid began on the Cinturato WH tyre, but with the track drying and just an hour to go, some teams moved onto the slicks, the P Zero DHC tyre for the GT3 category and the DH tyre for GT4, which seemed to be the best option.
Team Parker Racing’s Rick Parfitt Jnr and Seb Morris started at the front of the grid for the third time this season in their Bentley Continental GT3, beating Barwell Motorsport’s Liam Griffin and Alexander Sims by just 0.071s in qualifying.
The race started under safety car due to the poor weather conditions and it was a close fought race, but Keen and Minshaw eventually took the win in their Lamborghini after a series of incidents, meaning the safety car was in place for large parts of the race. Notably the championship leaders going into this round, TF Sport Aston Martin drivers Jonny Adam and Derek Johnston, were forced to retire after an accident.
In the GT4 category Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse pairing Ciaran Haggerty and Sandy Mitchell claimed theirs and the McLaren 570S’s maiden class pole but the race was won by RCIB Insurance Racing and the Ginetta G55 GT4 driven by Aaron Mason and Robert Barrable.
For this race spectators were also treated to an additional class, the GT4 European Series, which was won by PROsport Performance drivers Joerg Viebahn and Peter Terting in a Porsche Cayman PRO4 GT4.
Jonathan Wells, Pirelli British GT race engineer, said: “We expected it to be a very exciting race with a big emphasis on strategy as it was the first three-hour race of the year. That proved to be an understatement in the end, as the weather added an extra dimension and gave us the first opportunity to try the DHC and DH slick tyres as well as the Cinturato WH tyre this year. The WH performed very well with the majority of teams completing the first two hours on a single set of tyres, and the slicks performed as well as expected in the cool and damp conditions in last third of race.”
Jon Minshaw, Barwell Motorsport said: “It’s great to be on the top step of the podium, after a difficult start to the season. Race control made all the right decisions today, starting the race under the safety car and bringing it out as required due to tricky conditions. Tyre choice was critical today with the track drying out with around an hour to go, making slicks the best option.”
The results of this weekend mean Barwell Motorsport is leading the GT3 team standings while RCIB Insurance Racing heads up the GT4 class.
The next round moves to Belgium taking place at the world-famous Spa-Francorchamps from 08 – 09 July
