Silverstone delivered a tough test for Courier country GT3 racers in an action-packed second round of the Blancpain Endurance Series.
Forfar’s Sandy Mitchell delivered his best Silver Cup result of the season so far, but despite the fastest lap of race, a late safety car denied the pacy 19-year-old a place on the podium.
Mitchell and teammates James Pull and Jordan Witt had qualified their Black Bull Whisky-backed Lamborghini Huracan Evo second on the grid in the highly competitive Silver Cup, but the Angus star had it all to do when he took over for the final 65-minute stint in the three-hour race.
He rejoined 27th overall and 10th in Silver Cup category, but the Lamborghini Squadra Corse junior program driver set about fighting back through the field and posted the class fastest lap on his way to 15th overall and just off the class podium.
“Twelve months ago we hadn’t scored in the opening two rounds at Monza and Silverstone.
“We left Silverstone having scored points at both circuits this season, which is a real positive,” he said.
“Next stop is Paul Ricard, where we won last year. So we head there confident of a good result,” Mitchell added.
Dundee’s Finlay Hutchison, in the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo salvaged a hard-fought top eight placing in the Silver Cup after the team battled back from an opening lap incident for teammate Ivan Pareras.
“The guys made a huge step with the car this weekend, it’s been a lot more driveable and we made some good overall progress with the performance of the Audi compared to the first round at Monza,” said the 19-year-old.
First lap carnage left Fifer Jonny Adam sitting on the sidelines in the Northamptonshire sun after disaster struck for teammate Come Ledogar just a few corners into the race.
The Garage 59 Aston Martin Vantage of Adam, Andrew Watson and Ledogar had started down the order in the Pro class after a red-flag interrupted qualifying session.
Exiting Chapel at full speed, Ledogar was confronted by a spinning car and had nowhere to go, with extensive damage to the Aston Martin forcing an immediate retirement.
The next Blancpain Endurance round is the six-hour ‘into the night’ race at Paul Ricard in France on June 1.
