Audacious double overtake secures Silverstone 100 victory for the Kells
Having missed out on a first GT Cup 100 victory by 0.024sec back in March, a breath-taking double overtake round the outside of Copse ensured James and Darren Kell left Silverstone (3 August) with victory in the second 100-minute race of the season.
Elsewhere, Charlotte Gilbert marked her return to GT Cup with yet another victory, as she and Fraser Fenwick headed a Topcats Racing 1-2-3 in GTC, while SVG Motorsport took double glory in Groups GTH and GTA. Paul Bailey and David Brabham ensured the latter's namesake BT62 returned with a victory in GTO, having earlier taken pole position.
Qualifying
The final qualifying session of the weekend stayed dry, despite rain forecast depending on which weather app you were glued too.
That allowed for an intriguing fight in Group GT3 to unfold. Darren Kell started off the session much like he’d finished yesterday, as he lit up the timing screens in his Track Focused McLaren. But Peter Erceg is getting ever faster in his PB Racing with JMH Audi and he squeezed every ounce of speed out his R8 to storm to group and Overall pole position with a 2m00.977sec.
GTC went to Saturday’s Driver of the Day, Dominic Paul, who is rapidly looking like a veteran in his Triple M Motorsport Lamborghini Super Trofeo, as he overhauled what had been a Topcats Racing domination at Silverstone so far this weekend to put himself on the second-row of the grid for the second GT Cup 100 of the season.
Luke Bennett stormed to another GTH pole for Innovation Racing, but the World Esports champion was put under early pressure by Feathers Motorsport’s Archie Clark as the Aston Martin racer set the pace early in the session. Bennett later powered ahead to end with a brace of poles in the Ginetta.
Bailey steered the glorious Brabham BT62 to the top spot in GTO, while SVG Motorsport completed a GTA double as its BMW M4 claimed the honours.
Silverstone 100
The rain which had been the main topic of discussion for the whole weekend finally arrived in the build up to the second 100-minute enduro, but the warm ambient temperatures dried the track enough for slicks to be the order of business for the start.
Immediately, Darren Kell put those Pirelli tyres to good use as - starting from the outside of the front row - he kept his foot pinned through Copse to get the preferential inside line for Maggotts and powered his way past Peter Erceg into the lead.
He wouldn’t keep it, though, as Paul Bailey was driving like a man possessed. Starting from third, in half of the second lap he vaulted himself up to the lead. Taking second from Erceg at Copse, he used the grunt of the Brabham to then snatch the overall lead away from Kell at Stowe. Aided by Dominic Paul also battling his way into second in the GTC Lamborghini, Bailey had a handful of seconds of a lead over the competition.
Bailey soon allowed the slowly closing Kell & Erceg to sneak their way back through as rain finally arrived, taking the safe option to remain in contention as cars headed to the lane. Handing over to James Kell and Marcus Clutton respectively, the pair were joined by G-Cat’s Greg Caton and the battle continued at a ferocious pace until the heavy rain came again. Electing to swap onto wets, the trio didn’t have long to battle as the only safety car of the race was called for to recover the BT62, which had unfortunately had a wheel issue in the hands of David Brabham.
On the restart, Kell braked slightly later and, staying slight further left on the run into Copse, he swept past Clutton and Caton into a lead he wouldn’t relinquish. Victory was ideal redemption for the first GT Cup 100 at Donington Park back in March, where he lost out to Mark Smith by 0.024sec.
Second went the way of Clutton & Erceg, whilst a raft of penalties late in the race promoted AF Corse’s Marcos Vivian and Francesco Castellacci into third overall and in Group GT3. After his earlier pace, it looked as though Paul was set for a lights-to-flag GTC win in his Triple M Motorsport Lamborghini, before a mechanical fault robbed him of the opportunity.
Instead, it was a Topcats Racing benefit. Electing to pit later into the window than their rivals, Charlotte Gilbert handed over to Fraser Fenwick in the lead of the Group. The latter’s pace proved too much to handle, and the pair capped a successful championship return for Gilbert with yet more silverware. The sister car of Jack Gadd and Daniel Brown took second, whilst Mark Havers and Jarrod Waberski rounded out the podium.
GTH went down to who could handle the wet/dry track best on their slick tyres. After early race battles between Archie Clark, Matt Eddolls and Simon Griffiths, the rain and safety car shook up the order. With none of the front-runners switching to wets, the final 13 minutes all depended on who could find the most grip. That proved to be SVG Motorsport’s Owen Hizzey, who benefitted from Marc Elman keeping neat and tidy in the first stint to leap forward at the mandatory stop to keep ahead of Clark’s co-driver Tom Canning to the flag. Bennett rounded out a stunning debut weekend for Innovation Racing with third alongside Griffiths.
Staying out of trouble, and keeping consistent, allowed Neil Wallace and Ian Astley an untroubled run to the GTA honours. Despite stopping out on track, Bailey and Brabham completed enough laps to be classified and took the GTO win.
#9 Peter Erceg
“It's been a good day really, we made good progress from yesterday to put it on pole. I didn't have a radio during qualifying so I didn't know about it until I got in! The race start didn't quite go to plan, I think Darren did a bit of a wall of death round the outside and a bit of an off-track overtake but we got him back. We've been running this car for three years now, but the Pirelli tyres are brand-new so learning that has been a bit of a difficulty but ultimately it's going in the right direction so we're happy."
#88 Darren Kell
“The race was frenetic! There was a lot of action in the first half in my stint, it was a bit damp at the start but managed our way through that and then as is the way here the gods of Silverstone threw us a curveball and gave us a shower when we didn't want it! So our stop for rain tyres wasn't perfect and lost us a bit of time."
#82 Archie Clark
“That was awesome, I really enjoyed my stint especially because I had a little bit of drizzle which reduced the grip and it made it a bit more exciting! I was having a really good battle with Matt Eddolls in the #95 which I really enjoyed and managed to pull a little bit of a gap."
#28 Paul Bailey
“That's only the second race in two years with the car so I was really pleased that I got into P1. I think when the other two cars were catching up with me, it was pretty obvious that we had a tight race and I thought 'I don't want to get in your way, it's the last lap of my stint - David will catch up!' But he didn't because we only had three bloody wheels on the car! But I think we both drove really well, especially the fact that David stayed out on slicks in that rain. Had the car not had a problem with the wheel falling off, the track would have dried off and we might have even won the race - who knows. We're now looking forward to Donington."
