Intelligent Money British GT Championship Latest

Collard And Mitchell On Pole For Silverstone 500. (07.11.20)

Rob Collard and Sandy Mitchell, currently second in the GT3 drivers championship standings and driving the #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3, took pole for the Silverstone 500, the final round of the 2020 Intelligent Money British GT Championship, the #78 pairing lapping the 5.891 kms circuit in an aggregate time of 3:56.467.

Joining Collard and Mitchell on the front row of the 37-car grid will be the #6 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 driven by Ian Loggie and Yelmer Buurman. Loggie and Buurman set an aggregate lap time of 3:57.040.

Completing the overall top three on the grid for Sunday November 8’s three-hour race was the championship-leading #69 RAM Racing Mercedes in which Sam De Haan and Patrick Kujala lapped in 3:57.236.

Pole position in the GTC class went to the #24 Simon Green Motorsport / Lucky Khera Ferrari F488 Challenge entry, Khera and teammate lee Frost setting a combined time of 4:06.619.

Jenson Button and Chris Buncombe’s #3 Jenson Team Rocket RJN McLaren 720S GT3 could only manage eighteenth on the grid, the ex-Formula 1 champion and teammate Buncombe struggling to get tyre temperature and suffering from a lack of testing.   

The ten-minute GT3 / GTC Am session got underway in dry but cool conditions with a track temperature of 10 degrees.

With 25 cars on track for the GT3 / GTC sessions, the circuit was busy and finding space to put in the perfect flying lap was always going to be difficult. Rob Collard in the #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 set the early pace with a 1:59.232 on his second lap.

World’s Fastest Gamer James Baldwin went to the top of the timing screens with a 1:59.052 but Collard responded by going under 1:59 for the first time in the session with a 1:58.499.

As the chequered flag came out for the end of the session, Collard in the #78 Lamborghini was quickest with Baldwin second, having improved to a 1:58.773. Championship leader Sam De Haan in the #69 RAM Racing Lamborghini was seventh, having lapped the Silverstone GP circuit in 1:59.434.

Collard had made teammate Sandy Mitchell’s life a lot easier as the second session got underway, the young Scotsman putting in a 1:57.971 to put the #78 Lamborghini on provisional pole, .0783 seconds ahead of championship leader Patrick Kujala in the #69 Mercedes with less than four minutes remaining.

As the session drew to a close, the #78 Lamborghini was on pole position with a combined time of 3:56.467 with the #6 RAM Racing Mercedes of Ian Loggie and Yelmer Buurman completing the front row with a 3:57.040.

Photo: BritishGT.com

The GT4 Am session saw the #MSL Powered by Newbridge Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 with James Dorlin at the wheel go quickest with a 2:10.7878, less than a tenth of a second ahead of James Kell in the #23     Speedworks Motorsport Toyota GR Supra GT4. TF Sport’s Daniel Vaughan was third quickest with a 2:10.960 in the #97 Aston Martin.

GT4 Pro/Am leader Mia Flewitt in the #21 Balfe Motorsport McLaren, was quickest of the four Pro Am entries with a 2:13.257.

With sun setting and the track temperature dropping to 8.5 degrees, the GT4 Pro session got underway with Jamie Caroline put the #97 Aston Martin on to provisional pole with a 2:10.026 with less than four minutes remaining.

Sam Smelt, at the wheel of the #23 Toyota, pushed to the very end of the ten-minute session and snatched pole position in the GT4 class with a 2:10.003 on his final lap, .144 seconds ahead of Caroline and Vaughan’s #97 Aston Martin on combined times.

The lights go out for the three-hour Silverstone 500, the final round of the 2020 Intelligent Money British GT Championship at 12:50 local time on Sunday November 8.