Darren at the double as Kell bags Silverstone Saturday brace
Darren Kell dominated the first day of action at Silverstone (2 August) as the GT Cup Championship hosted a pair of sprints, ahead of Sunday's hotly-anticipated second 100-minute race of the season.
There was a winning return for Charlotte Gilbert as Topcats Racing dominated GTC. She took victory in race one, before Jarrod Waberski did likewise in the sister Lamborghini Super Trofeo in the second event.
GTH was an all-Ginetta affair as sim racing star Luke Bennett won for Innovation Racing, before Owen Hizzey steered SVG to the top in race two. SVG Motorsport had plenty of reasons to celebrate as the team swept GTA, while Paul Bailey and Richard Chamberlain shared the silverware in GTO.
Qualifying
With rain forecast for later in the weekend, the dry and windy weather for the first competitive action at the home of British motorsport was a welcome relief as teams went out to try and beat the clock.
Getting quicker every time he steps inside the Track Focused McLaren 720S, it was Darren Kell who set the initial pace but had his first lap deleted for a track limits violation. That gave regular sparring partner Peter Erceg, in his Team PB Performance Audi, the opportunity to leap ahead and go onto provisional pole. However, Kell was only getting quicker, and on his next tour he logged a 2m00.610s effort to confirm a third pole position of the season.
Behind, there was an almighty scrap taking place for GTC honours as Topcats Racing teammates Waberski and Fraser Fenwick traded fastest laps in their Lamborghini Super Trofeos. It was Fenwick who struck first, before Waberski edged ahead. Fenwick kept closing in with every lap, but couldn’t find that last tenth to vault him back to the top - ending the session just 0.087sec down.
World Esports champion Luke Bennett showed his racing pedigree isn’t confined to the virtual world, as he stormed to GTH pole on his GT Cup debut in the Innovation Racing Ginetta G56. GTA and GTO poles went to Neil Wallace and Paul Bailey respectively.
Sprint Race 1
The first race of the weekend was a demonstration of Kell’s rapidly increasing race craft to go with his ever-improving speed. Despite being put under pressure from Erceg at the start, the bronze McLaren was the picture of composure through the high-speed sequence of Copse, Maggotts & Becketts, and onto the Hangar Straight.
Completing the first lap with almost a second of an advantage, it wasn’t long before he could take a breather as the race was neutralised for a time to recover cars which had gotten into trouble in the early laps.
On the restart, it was rinse and repeat from the start of the race as Kell once again got away cleanly and held off the ever-improving Erceg as the pair came home first and second overall and in GT3, while David Shaw rounded out the top three for G-Cat.
GTC proved that champions never lose their pace as Charlotte Gilbert, returning to the wheel of her title-winning Topcats Lamborghini, pulled off a textbook first lap overtake on pole-sitter Mark Havers at Stowe to take the lead and never looked back. Resisting late pressure from Dominic Paul - subbing for an injured Grahame Tilley this weekend - she crossed the line to take victory on her return to the GT Cup.
Bennett converted pole into a comfortable GTH Group win for Innovation Racing, whilst the Brabham made a winning return as Paul Bailey powered the BT62 to GTO honours. Wallace also took a lights-to-flag win in GTA ahead of Brent Millage (Innovation Racing).
Sprint Race 2
With the sun shining down on Silverstone for the second, and final, Sprint of the weekend it was a case of de ja vu at the front of the field as Darren Kell once again headed the 25-minute race with Erceg in pursuit.
Starting on the inside line from pole position, the Track Focused racer kept his foot in at the start and made Erceg stick to the dirtier outside line in his Audi R8. Full commitment round the first lap allowed Kell to open up a two-second lead, which only grew as the laps ticked by. As he took the chequered flag to claim a pair of wins, his advantage stood at nearly 12 seconds.
The action for GTC honours was intense. For the longest time, it was Fenwick who led the Group - aiming to emulate co-driver Gilbert’s winning return in race one - but was finding himself increasingly bottled up behind David Shaw’s GT3 Porsche.
Attempting to overtake Shaw at Stowe slowed Fenwick down enough to give Waberski the perfect opportunity to squeeze into the lead at Club Corner and ultimately to GTC victory. Fenwick finished second, with Paul securing another piece of silverware in the red-and-yellow Lamborghini in third.
GTH went the way of Owen Hizzey’s SVG Motorsport Ginetta, and it looked as though it was going to be a Ginetta one-two as Simon Griffith’s patience was rewarded with a great overtake on Archie Clark at Luffield to take second just minutes from the end. However, a last lap issue reversed the positions out of Griffiths' hands, allowing the Feathers Motorsport racer to take another second place.
It was double delight for SVG as Ian Astley copied co-driver Wallace to take GTA glory. GTO went the way of Richard Chamberlain’s fire-breathing Porsche.
#88 Darren Kell
“It's been an excellent day. I think we've nailed the car setup, for the first time we've been able to do some testing and get the car actually dialled into the track. We've had a couple of on-going niggles as well which we've resolved so that's helped with pace, and I've been getting more seat time in the car which is critical for me improving. My son James has also coached me a lot and been giving help and guidance, he's been giving me tips on how to get a good time round here so it all feels like it's starting to come together! Tomorrow's going to be an interesting one, the race is a long one and I think - subject to the weather - it could be quite testing."
#58 Jarrod Waberski
“It was a good race, started a bit further down as unfortunately Mark had a bit of an incident in race one but we got the car semi-repaired for the last race. I drove kind of the race with 50-degree lock right-hand down! But yeah pace was still pretty good and worked my way through the pack really and picked them off one-by-one. I tried to chase down the GT3s but just ran out of laps. Looking forward to the Endurance race tomorrow, we missed the one at Donington so this'll be the first time doing the 100-minute race which is something new for us. I've done a bit of endurane stuff in other championships but this is more learning for me as well and especially for Mark - it's more seat time for him and it's helping him develop and move forward."
#4 Dominic Paul
“It's fantastic to be back, I forgot how good a championship GT Cup is. It's the first time driving a Lamborghini, it's an amazing car to drive and it's great to be back. It's fantastic to be here at Silverstone, fantastic to be driving this car and fantastic to be in GT Cup. We're really looking forward to tomorrow actually, we've got the car well setup and it should be good alongside Will [Tregurtha]."
#30 Luke Bennett
“It's been a pretty positive weekend, I helped with quali this morning and getting pole by quite a substantial margin was nice and the Sprint race later on went to plan. It was a pretty eventful race, with a couple of incidents on lap two and a long safety car period but we managed to bring it home in P1. Slightly more unfortunate race in the second Sprint with Simon, still got a podium and we're happy."
