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MUNDIAL - GT EM INGLATERRA

Quinta, 01 Julho 2021 06:05 | Actualizado em Sábado, 23 Março 2024 07:50

Class podium on a tricky

Silverstone 500 race weekend
Second position in the GT3 Silver-Am class with Stewart and Lewis Proctor was the highlight of the second round of the Intelligent Money British GT Championship and the Silverstone 500. The result mirrors that of the opening round of the series at Brands Hatch, giving the #5 pairing a commanding 16.5-point advantage in the championship.
 

The team, along with much of the field, tested at the circuit on Friday ahead of the opening practice session on Saturday morning. The newly liveried #90 XPEL McLaren 570S GT3 raced by Jack Brown and Ashley Marshall lost a little track time with a coolant leak, but both sides of the garage were able to subsequently work through their respective programmes ahead of qualifying.
 
Lewis saved his best right until his final lap in qualifying to jump up to ninth overall in the 31-car field, first in the Silver-Am class. In the GT4 class, both Jack and Ashley again proved very evenly matched for ultimate pace, lapping the 3.66-mile circuit within less than a tenth of each other to record a combined lap time good for fourth position.
 
Stewart started the race in the GT3 and enjoyed a good battle with the #18 of Michael Igoe before pitting as scheduled on lap 31. Lewis who was able to make good progress early in his run but a drive-through penalty for track limits came as a bit of a surprise for the Scottish racer, having not been warned ahead of the actual penalty.
 
This made for a lonely race from that point forward, retaining the second position through the final pitstop cycles to take the chequered flag in tenth position overall and on the second step of the Silver-Am podium.
 
In GT4, Jack started the race in the XPEL McLaren from fourth place and found himself closing down on the #27 Aston Martin driven by Matt Topham, who in turn was trying to pass a rival ahead. Carrying extra momentum through Farm Curve on lap eight, Jack dived to the inside of the #27 into Village, but unfortunately, contact was made and he spun the McLaren. He was able to resume but had dropped to sixth position.
 
A front right suspension issue however with 70-minutes remaining was the downfall of their race, losing multiple laps affecting repairs before Ashley was able to finish the three-hour race in seventh position.
 
Balfe Motorsport now continues preparations for the forthcoming GT Open round at Oulton Park, quickly followed by round three of the British GT Championship at Donington.
LEWIS PROCTOR, #90 McLaren 720S GT3
 
“Obviously I’m relatively happy with P2 in class, but it was actually a frustrating race. We got the penalty for track limits, but I had no warning about this, they came all in one go and I had to then head to the pit lane. It was a lonely race after that, and while we had great performance on low fuel levels, we’re still missing something on full tanks, so this is an area that we need to look at ahead of Donington Park.”
ASHLEY MARSHALL, #90 McLaren 570S GT4
 
“The suspension issue finished off our hopes of a successful Silverstone 500. The XPEL livery looked amazing and we had so much potential and really did expect to be on the GT4 podium. This is motorsport and there are always parameters that you cannot control, but still, we expected better than the final result. Credit to the team for keeping us in the race, it was a big effort from all of the GT4 crew to ensure we got the race finish.”
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