British GT shakedown – McLaren on top at the Silverstone 500

British weather is going to do its own thing on race day, and Silverstone this year proved to be a cold and wet weekend for the British GT. Racing happens rain or shine, and it did nothing to deter the fans that crowded the circuit, equipped with umbrellas and raincoats, to support their favorite drivers.

The 2024 Silverstone 500 gave McLaren a double victory, with Jack Brown and Zac Meakin taking first place in the GT4 class for Optimum Motorsport and Garage 59 winning the GT3 class with drivers Shaun Balfe and Adam Smalley.

The weekend at Silverstone began in challenging conditions, to say the least. During the practice sessions, which started under the rain, with all cars running on wet Pirelli tires, Garage 59 was on top for GT3 and the CMR Ginetta was on top for GT4.

In pre-qualifying, a drying track saw the teams gradually moving cars to slick tires, and over several laps, the Barwell Motorsport Huracan topped GT3, and the Mahiki Racing Lotus Emira was on top in GT4.

The constantly changing conditions, wet, dry, wet, made the weekend challenging to gauge for several teams, balancing the tire choices with the need to speed up the laps and make up grid positions to get closer to the pole.

The first GT3 qualifying session saw Tse and Goetz first with the Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo, followed by Clutton and Tillbrook in the McLaren, and then the Lamborghini Huracan of Mitchell and Martin. In the second qualifying session, Martin and Mitchell were the fastest, followed by the McLaren 720S of Gamble and Radcliffe, and the Century Motorsport BMW M4 of Leung and Vanthoor.

The combined GT3 qualifying top 3 results showed Tse and Gotz first in the Mercedes AMG, the Lamborghini of Martin and Mitchell second, and the BMW of Leung and Vanthoor third. The Beechdean AMR Vantage of Jessica Hawkins and Andrew Howard was set to start in 12th place, while the two Blackthorn AMR Vantage GT3 cars, driven by Petrobelli and Adam (No.87) and by Rowledge and Topham (No.10 ‘Skully’) started on positions 9 and 19 respectively.

In the GT4 class, qualifying session 1 saw the No.90 McLaren Artura of Jack Brown and Zac Meakin, driving for Optimum Motorsport, on the top of the list. Following in second the CMR Ginetta G56 of Tomlinson and Middleton, and the Forsetti Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR of Jamie Day and Mikey Porter.

The second qualifying session saw the No.90 in second, while the first spot was taken by the Mahiki Racing Lotus Emira of Ian Duggan and Gordie Mutch. Tomlinson and Middleton managed to stay top three clocking third with the CMR Ginetta.

The overall combined qualifying for the GT4 class set the No.90 Optimum Motorsport McLaren in first, followed by the CMR No.56 Ginetta and the Forsetti Motorsport No.7 Aston Martin Vantage AMR. The other Forsetti Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage qualified to start in 7th position on the grid, with drivers Warren and Orton.

At the start of the race, track conditions were already quite challenging due to the rain starting and stopping. Because of the wet conditions, Race Control decided to start the race from behind the safety car to prevent the additional hazards of a grid start.

With a few teams pitting early to mount rain tires, the few staying out on the track got rewarded by the opportunity to change tires as the first full course yellow was called for the RAM Racing Mercedes stuck in the gravel.
That got one of the 3 mandatory pit stops out of the way for most cars, except for a few that elected to keep going on track, including Petrobelli who was up towards the top of the race until about the end of the first hour of racing, when he went spinning and dropped down into third position in class. About 80 minutes into the race he took the Blackthorn AMR Aston Martin Vantage into the pits, just as another full course yellow – called for the RAM Mercedes once again in the gravel – was wrapped up to begin racing again.

Another round of pit stops at the top of the 2nd hour of racing saw a reshuffle in the GT3 with Goetz in the No.18 dropping into the 4th position, and Leung in the Century Motorsport BMW leading the group of GT3 cars. Unfortunately for the 2023 Silverstone 500 winner, sharing the car with WEC driver Vanthoor, some problems with the fueling system in the BMW prompted another pit stop for them and cause them to lose significant time.
An unfortunate tangle between Radcliffe’s McLaren and the Lamborghini of Alex Martin caused a long full course yellow, which then transitioned into safety car on track. During the FCY, several cars took the last pit stop, including both of the Garage 59 cars. Once the safety car left the track, a few of the faster GT3 leaders had to make their way through the traffic of slower class cars, which again mixed up things for the class leaders.
Track penalties also played a role for some, for instance Clutton dropped from lead to fifth after a stop and go for causing a minor collision with another car.

While a bit of confusion caused changes for the other cars, Smalley stayed steady on track with fast laps and created a small lead over the father-son team of Richard and Sam Neary, which eventually gave him the victory in the GT3 class.
The Neary’s team took second in class, and the Orange Racing team took third. However, a post-race penalty bumped the Orange Racing Team and gave Team RJN the third podium spot in GT3.

The GT4 class suffered through the same mishaps during the race. The Mahiki Racing Lotus of Duggan and Mutch had an issue with the limiter at the end of the full course yellow and lost two positions on track that way, while the sister car No.69 spun out of the race with less than 20 minutes to go. A few other Pro-Am cars in the GT4 got bumped following track penalties, and that opened the door for a few of the Silver Cup cars.
With the changing of the guard up top, Optimum Motorsport made up lost time and then began opening up a lead over the following cars. By the time they crossed the finish line, they were 90 seconds ahead of the Forsetti Motorsport Aston Martin, with the Mahiki Racing lotus of Duggan and Mutch coming in third.

Final podium results for the 2024 Silverstone 500 saw the GT3 class with the Garage 59 McLaren first with a time of 3:00:09.700 (Balfe/Smalley), the Team Abba Racing Mercedes AMG second (Neary/Neary), and the Team RJN McLaren third (Buncombe/Mardenborough).

The final podium for the GT4 class had the No.90 Optimum Motorsport McLaren first with a time of 3:00:11.090 (Brown/Meakin), the Forsetti Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR second (Day/Porter), and the Mahiki Racing Lotus third (Duggan/Mutch).

The next race will be the season’s second visit to Donington Park, as the initial Media Day was held at the circuit. The British GT Championship will then revisit the Donny Park circuit in early September, after the Spa-Francorchamps race in June and the Snetterton race in July.

The Championship’s last stop will be Brands Hatch in late September. There is still a lot of racing to go in the next events on the calendar, and we cannot wait to watch it unfold.