The UK GT Cup made a return visit to Silverstone at the weekend with what was yet another massive grid with just over forty cars across six groups and the fifth event of the season so far with two more events to go. The two-day event comprises a 15-minute warm-up session that then goes into a 15-minute qualifying session. This sets the grid for the first Race of the day which is a sprint race, lasting 25mins. The second race of the day is the pit stop race and this lasts for 50mins which includes a mandatory pit stop for a set duration and also driver changes.

Qualifying Saturday

The #88 Abba Mercedes AMG GT3 car of Sam Neary was the fastest car of the session and thus placing itself firmly in pole position. The group pole positions went to

• #9 car of Warren Gilbert Topcats Racing (GTC group)

• #35 car off Valluga Racing (GTB Group)

• #7 car off Raw Motorsports (GTO Group)

• #66 car off Enduro Motorsport’s in the Mercedes GT4 (GTH Group)

• #80 car off Scott Sport in the Ginetta G55 (GTA Group)

Sprint Race Saturday

Richard Neary of Abba Racing made what was a comfortable win off over 15 seconds ahead of the #61 car as driven by John Dhillon in the Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Third place went to the #7 Raw Motorsports Radical Rxc GT3. One of the highlights of the sprint race had to be Paul Bailey in the #28 SB Race Engineering Brabham BT 62 GTO, which started in last place and managed to carve its way through the field to finish fourth.

Pit Stop Race Saturday

The race started as expected with Richard Neary taking the initial lead. But due to an early incident that saw Simon Orange sliding his Ginetta on its roof out of Becketts, the safety car was subsequently deployed, and once the car was removed the safety car left the track to shortly reappear due to an accident involving the Team Hard Porsche off Richard Marsh and Sam Randon. This then shortly led to the start of the pit stops. Not long after the pitstops saw the fight for first place intensify with Ross Wylie in the #28 SB Race Engineering Brabham BT 62 attempting to take the lead from Sam Neary in the Mercedes AMG GT3. In the final minutes of the race, Ross managed to pass the Mercedes and grab what was the first win for the Brabham BT 62.

The GTB win went to Sean Winder and Adam Wilcox in the #19 car off JMH Automotive and the Porsche 911.1 GT3 Cup. The GTA win went to James Kellett and Alex Stevenson for Century Motorsport in their Ginetta G55. The GTH win went to Jon Lancaster and Rich Mason in the #22 Greystone GT McLaren 570S GT

Qualifying Sunday

A cat-and-mouse qualifying session went the way of Richard Neary, but it wasn’t made easy for the Mercedes racer as the Radical set the early pace. Richard took chunks out of Steve Burgess’ advantage but was lying second until the last lap of the session when he finally prevailed – snatching pole away by 0.155 seconds. Burgess maintained a GTO-class pole, while Tom Webb marked his return to GT Cup with a GTC pole in his Lamborghini Huracan. Enduro Motorsport took a double-pole as Morgan Tillbrook prevailed again in GTH as Valluga Racing’s Nick Phelps took pole in GTB and makehappenracing’s Ginetta G55 topped GTA.

Sprint Race Sunday

After the original start was red-flagged because of opening lap incidents, Sam Neary mastered the restart to secure a comfortable victory for Team Abba, more than 20 seconds ahead of the GTO-winning Radical of Burgess. John Dhillon took second in GT3 and third overall, having had to change a tyre on his Scott Sport-prepared Lamborghini on the grid ahead of the restart after picking up a puncture at Copse. Having fended off early pressure from Warren Gilbert in the Topcats Huracan, Tom Webb secured GTC honours on his return to GT Cup having benefitted from a spin for Gilbert to convert his class pole to victory. The latter eventually recovered to second in class. GTB went the way of Nick Phelps who added to his growing collection of silverware with a comfortable win in his Valluga Racing Porsche, while Josh Jackson took GTH victory in his Orange Racing McLaren 570S as he pulled clear of a squabbling James Guess and Tom Rawlings – the pair finishing second and third respectively. Makehappenracing was a clear winner in GTA, finishing 15 seconds ahead of Simon Orange – who finished second in his loaned Ginetta G55.

Pit Stop Race Sunday

After the first lap action of race one, the Pitstop race proved calmer but no less thrilling as Richard Neary and Burgess squabbled for the lead going through the first sequence of bends with the Radical leading for a time heading onto the Hangar Straight. That didn’t last for long, though, as Neary quickly battled his way back into the lead and set about extending his advantage in the three-pointed star. Handing over to Sam, success penalties cut down their advantage slightly with their biggest threat coming from the Scott Sport Lamborghini of Phil Keen – partnering with John Dhillon for today – who cut down the Mercedes’ advantage for a time but couldn’t close in enough to trouble the Nearys’ victory. Burgess and Dimmack completed their strong Sunday with class victory, a potential battle with Paul Bailey’s Brabham denied after a suspected oil pressure issue cut Bailey’s charge short having got up to sixth from a pitlane start. Topcats took the top honours in GTC, Jensen Lunn snatching the lead from Tom Webb after a thrilling battle early on before Warren Gilbert steered the Huracan home. Despite a track-limits penalty, they finished just ahead of Roy Millington and Benny Simonsen’s FF Corse Ferrari Challenge. Nick Phelps didn’t put a foot wrong as he completed his clean sweep of GTB, the Porsche racer claiming pole, both wins, and both fastest laps in class in a dominant day for the first-year racer. Feathers Motorsport won in GTH in a race-long battle with Orange Racing. Darren Turner emerged from the pits with a slight deficit to Michael O’Brien and shadowed the McLaren driver for a time, before using GT3 traffic to his advantage to power into the lead. Simon Orange put his upside-down Saturday experience behind him to breeze to the GTA win.

The next round will be at Donnington Park on the 8th and 19th September

The Sunday Qualifying and Race review is as supplied by https://www.gtcup.co.uk/

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