Silverstone 500 British GT, Practice & Qualifying - 06/05/23
Words and Images by Mitcham Media
A strong start to May with the Silverstone 500, the third round of the British GT for 2023, featuring a packed grid with 43 teams taking to the most well known UK circuit. The split of cars was very much bias towards the higher end with 24 GT3 and 19 GT4 cars.
Even with a mandatory Starbucks stop en route got us to Silverstone around 8:30 to walk in and have a look through the paddock before first practice kicked off at 9:30am.
The Silverstone 500 also featured a support races from feeder series with Ginetta Juniors and Ginetta GT Championship as well as open wheel action with the GB3 and GB4 Championships. With all five classes it meant the paddock was vast and busy.
Along with the paddock, there was also the forward parking which was a feast of brand new beasts and modern classic.
Highlights included a McLaren P1 and 911 Dakar amongst the array of Cayman GT4s, 911 GT3’s, 911 Turbo’s and selection of Ferrari fast backs. The personal favourite was the 911 Dakar, with this being the first time seeing one in the flesh.
Back into the paddock, and with it being first thing the teams from across all championships were cleaning, prepping, and warming up the cars in anticipation for practice, qualifying and racing.
As far as the eye could see, lining the pit lane garages were all the GT team transporters, most of which were mobile hospitality suites featuring better facilities than some high end hotels. Even with the size the artics did very little to mask the sound from the GT cars warming up ready to head out for the first practice session.
The teams had an hour to shake the cars down and start setting some lap times to see how the pack were shaping up against each other.
It’s difficult to gauge from spectating who’s getting the edge, especially with the variety of visual and audio queues given by each car. The Lamborghini Huracan GT3 cars certainly looked the most agressive, the mostly raw carbon Barwell Motorsport liveries made the cars look even more like stealth fighter jets, but the screaming naturally aspirated V10 was anything but quiet and sneaky.
Ever the Porsche fan, it was fantastic to see the two 911 GT3R’s of Team Parker Racing taking to the track for the 500, especially as they’re not normally entered into the British GT.
Unsurprisingly it was the Mercedes AMG GT3’s which were putting in the fastest times with the Loggie and Gounon run by 2 Seas Motorsport taking the quickest lap (2:01.977) for the GT3s, while Meakin and Vaughan took the quickest for the GT4 group in the 718 Cayman GT4 RS with a 2:15.722.
The two hour gap between the first and second practice sessions for the GT cars featured qualifying for the Ginettas, GB3 and GB4 cars. As always the Ginetta racing became a full contact sport, not helped by the rain starting to set in making the track more and more slippery.
By the GB4 qualifying the circuit resembled more of a swimming pool than a race track with huge plooms of water being through up from the back of the open wheelers.
As 12:30 rolled around, and the rain showing no signs of easing up, the GT cars once again took to the track for the second hour of practice with a stark contrast to the mornings session.
For this second hour we’d wandered from the national circuit up to the international near the wing, a section of track which is seldom used outside of the Formula One.
The conditions were dire, you could hear the cars fighting for traction as the engine note fluctuated under acceleration out of corners. With traction reduced cars were also spending more time sliding (and in some cases spinning) which while exciting to watch made for some nail bitting near misses.
The conclusion to the Saturday should have been qualifying, with the GT3 cars to take to the track first. On the out lap there was a near immediate red flag as a car had hit standing water before being sent straight off. Once the track was cleared a second attempt at starting the qualifying session was quickly halted as the Beechdean Aston Martin hit the same patch of standing water meeting a crumping stop.
The call was made to abandon the qualifying sessions and instead use the second practice lap times to set the grid for Sundays racing.
Keep an eye out for the next post from the Silverstone 500 covering race day. In the mean time check out more shots from the wet Saturday below.
