Thiim and Farmer take 2018 Silverstone 500 win

Nicki Thiim and Mark Farmer have taken the win in the Silverstone 500 for TF Sport, they become the 2nd pairing to have their names engraved onto the RAC trophy since 1932 after the trophy was re-instated from this event last year.Rick Parfitt Jnr, last years title holder found himself in a odd position in the morning with a team mate that looked as though he wouldn’t be racing with the rumours of food poisoning from the day before. So what do you do with a lack of drivers and spare as some of the biggest events in the world are taking place the same weekend or coming up very soon? you make a few phone calls and get the band back together (excuse the pun). Seb Morris started his 164 mile journey to Silverstone at 11:30am. Rick laid down some quick laps in morning warm up only 1 tenth behind Thiim who’s no slouch.

Start

A clean formation lap with slightly crossed over lanes saw the green flag drop and new comber Ricardo Sanchez pull away instantly to a small lead before continuing extend over the first few laps, already looking like they would run away with this one. Other movers the field like like Neary in the Team Abba Racing Mercedes #8 who jumped into 4th at the start and also Parfitt Jnr who had gained 4 places solidly from 14th to 10th. Lap 6 and Parfitt Jnr spun all on his own down at club corner to drop the Bentley to the back of the GT3 class.

No one expected an early like this but 20 minutes in on lap 11 Loggie in the #7 Bentley was the first to pit and begin the chain reaction.
Lap 17 and a change up front, second position was lost as a late diving move for Davidson in the Jetstream Aston tried to pass inside through Becketts but nosed the Aston into the back of the TF sport #11 machine pushing Mark Farmer into a spin, Davidson pitted shortly after to hand off to Maxime Martin.
The pitstops began to flow in full motion all starting drivers changing over but still the action continued as now the #7 Bentley had a coming together with a GT4 class car putting Macleod off in the gravel at abbey corner but eventually got out and back racing losing 5 laps though the car was certainly out of contention.
Maxime Martin was also called in by the Jetstream squad to serve a penalty after Davidsons contact with Farmer early on at Becketts corner.

More stops came with Haigh pitting to switch to Le Mans GT winner Jonny Adam and then last minute man Seb Morris had finished his journey and arrived just in time for his first stint with no practice but no stranger to the Bentley that he and Parfitt won the title in last season. Parfitt had pulled back even more time by the time of the stop and climbed into 4th position, what would have come if he hadn’t had that spin on lap 6.

As the one hour mark arrived the last starting drivers handed off to their team mates, Neary first to Christodoulou, Sanchez followed by Farmer and Mowle passing the car to Yelmer Buurman. Post pitstops an almighty battle had began engulf everyones attention, second place was being contested for by Struan Moore, Phil Keen, Adam Christodoulou and Johnny Cocker. The battle would go on for a few laps before Moore lost a couple of places and cocker spun out coming onto the wellington straight, this would all of course be helping Nicki Thiim in the TF sport machine as he was quietly climbing the order and picking off cars as they all had their troubles.

Next for troubles to strike was the quickest of the Mercedes, Team Abba Racing found themselves mid battle before the car suffered a failure within the suspension, a sheered bolt on the wishbone rendered the car un-drivable for Adam Christodoulou and he was forced to pull off into the international pitlane and retire the car. This furthering the TF sport comeback as Thiim now found himself in 3rd position with 2 more stops to go.

The race really began to calm down as the mid point hit and not a lot changed, Sorenson in the #17 TF sport Aston Martin dropped back out of contention due to success time in the its pitstop, the car certainly had pace as Sorenson posted the fastest lap but just not enough to claw back the lost time.

Thiim stretched his lead to 5 seconds by the end of the race claiming the win for himself and Mark Farmer and etching their names into history on the RAC trophy.

Phil Keen and Jon Minshaw crossed the line in second place just under a second behind was Jonny Adam in third position. Parker Racing crossed the line in 4th with the #1 Bentley in the hands of Morris, and Parfitt Jnr, a huge performance from that squad that started from the back of the GT3 field and also had a spin.