500 to 1: British GT's title race sees new kings crowned at Silverstone

By Steve Hindle•May 9, 2023•In Automotive, Endurance & GT, Motorsport•1 Minute

British GT’s annual visit to Silverstone for the 500 never fails to deliver a splash or two of the spectacular; last weekend, we saw the bar raised yet higher, and the emergence of new title challengers following three hours of breathtaking duels, fuelled and refuelled by two long safety car periods and several significant lapses of concentration by leading Am’s.

Howard Fielding was trackside to capture the best of the action.

Century Motorsport's BMW M4 GT3 showed a level of pace that made all those racing Lamborghinis, McLarens and Mercedes' take heed that this is going to be the car to beat in 2023, and that Dan Harper is a young man clearly destined to claim his place amongst the best of the best.
Leung and Harper celebrate their historic win
Saturday's heavy rain meant that each of the qualifying sessions was cancelled, drivers having to rely on their best times posted in FP2.
... which was good news for the Nearys, seeing their Team Abba car take pole position. Dad Richard held a comfortable lead until the first stop but once in traffic, they found themselves losing ground, including in this battle for 12th with the McLaren of Kevin Tse and Chris Froggatt.
In GT4, Optimum's McLaren Artura, with Charles Clark & Jack Brown paired behind the wheel, proved to be the class of the field after a place-swapping tussle with Raceway's Ginetta (which was later disqualified following a pit lane infringement).
Also earning their title challenger credentials were Academy's Erik Evans & Matt Cowley. Cowley is the driving force here and delivered a truly solid stint to bring the Mustang home to the podium.
Winning Pro-Am in GT4 and finishing second overall was the One Motorsport Mercedes-AMG of Ed McDermott and Michael Broadhurst.
McDermott knew he'd earned this one as he celebrated with Broadhurst on the podium.
Also earning silverware for the Optimum squad were Mark Radcliffe & Rob in the McLaren 720S, finishing a fine third in GT3 ...
... Just half a second behind in P4 was the Beechdean Aston Martin of Andrew Howard & Ross Gunn.
A second GT3 Vantage joined the Silverstone grid, making it a debut British GT appearance for Blackthorn Motorsport and its 2022 British Endurance Championship GTC champions Claude Bovet and David McDonald.
Former championship regulars, Nick Jones & Scott Malvern returned for a one-off appearance with Team Parker Racing's new 992-spec Porsche.
Whilst teammates Alex Martin & Charles Bateman joined them with their 991.2-spec car.
An errant stop by Ian Loggie, missing his pit box marks, added time and frustration for the 2 Seas crew, resulting in co-driver Jules Gounon finding himself down in P20 as he started his stint. The Oulton Park winners worked hard to make up ground but could still only finish in P7.
Also having issues was the sister 2 Seas car of James Cottingham and Jonny Adam. Adam took the lead soon after the safety car restart and looked in command for a dozen or more laps until tyre degradation saw his pace reduce and all hopes of a repeat Oulton Park win disappear.
Strong drives from both Mark Sansom & Will Tregurtha gave Barwell reason to smile, the duo bringing their Huracan home in P6 overall and P1 of the Silver-Am's.
Chasing hard was the Sky Tempesta Racing McLaren of Kevin Tse & Chris Froggatt, but time lost in traffic meant that P3 in class was the best they could achieve.
The Only Fans car of Harry George & Darren Burke proved to be a worthy watch. Burke's pace and race craft always guarantees a show and as this pairing get used to both the new car and each other, the results are sure to get ever stronger.
Another GT4 pairing who look set to make strong gains as the season progresses are Century's Carl Cavers & Lewis Plato. They worked hard for P3 in class, but it's clear that there's much more to come from both the drivers and their car.
And finally, it was a welcome "hello" to former touring car ace James Kaye, racing his own M4 GT4 and paired with 24H Series regular Vasily Vladykin; ironically in the car that Vladykin normally shares with Cavers and David Holloway, but as Cavers primary commitment is to Century and British GT, Vladykin decided that he wanted in on the action too.

All images by Howard Fielding

BMW M4 British GT Century Motorsport Dan Harper Darren Leung Silverstone 500

Written By

Steve Hindle
Steve Hindle

Steve has lived his life with motor sport; from childhood years as a fan, to racing around the greatest tracks in Europe, first as a driver and later as a team principal. Today he's a familiar sight trackside and in the pit lane, notebook in one hand, camera in another, capturing moments and contributing to some of the leading titles in motor sport and automotive media.

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