ecurie GTS – Silverstone

ecurie GTS saw the 2014 season kick off at the home of British motorsport; Silverstone Circuit the other weekend. Despite mixed weather on Friday while some drivers were testing, the sun shone brightly on Saturday morning and they dared to think that spring was in the air.

The entry list seemed slightly down on numbers for the day, no doubt the season opener at Goodwood calling a few of our regular drivers away. The organisers were also sad to lose Ivan Hayward who was hoping to start his racing career with us. Engine problems during testing on Friday meant he was unable to take part. 17 cars took to the grid for qualifying, eager to shake off the dust from the winter break.

Richard and Will were the only two drivers that missed out on the afternoon event; 15 cars took their places for the 45 minute pitstop race. From lap one it was obvious that the newly repaired Turner of Halstead and Macpherson was going to be tough to beat. They seemed to be in a class of their own and managed to build up a 25 second lead by the halfway stage. The rest of the race went without a hitch and they crossed the line with a 17 second time, to take overall victory and 1st in class 3.

A little bit further down the field things were far from decided and very entertaining. Brian Lambert retained second place at the start of the race and managed to hold it until lap 18. Some determined driving from Robi Bernberg in the TVR was rewarded when he managed to take the position in the latter stages, but it was not until they crossed the line that the result was decided, The TVR ahead by just half a second. Robi claimed a well-deserved driver of the race award, and 1st in class 4 for his efforts.

The early stages of the race saw a close group of cars in the higher positions; Nick Crewdson opened the driving in John Pearson’s car, closely followed by John Yea, John Andon and David Russell-Wilks in the midnight blue car. Nick was able to open up a gap from John Yea who sadly retired after 25 laps with gearbox problems.

John Andon and David Russell-Wilks were enjoying a good battle for fifth but David had to retire after the pitstops with a blown head gasket. John was recalled to the pit lane for a drive through penalty after exceeding track limits, but had done enough to secure 5th place.

Graham Bates made good progress climbing to 6th place in the race, getting past the Lotus Elite of John Hilberry on lap 13. John still took the class 2 win in the beautiful Lotus, the Austin Healey Sprite of Cameron and Cameron 2nd in class 2 and a very respectable 8th overall, beating several cars in the class above.

Unfortunately Craig Taylor picked up a 3 minute penalty for an early pitstop, despite this he still managed 9th, but did lose 2 positions. Jonathan Ostle and Jeremy Knight enjoyed a good battle in their MGBs it was Jeremy that came home first though in 10th overall.

We were glad to see close and clean racing up and down the field at Silverstone, with various dices all going on at the same time. Several drivers commented afterwards that if they had forgotten why they raced over winter, this event was enough to remind them!

Our next event takes place at Brands Hatch Indy on 3rd-4th May.

Dickon Siddall and Peter French have been responsible for much of the photography for the championship.

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