British GT Silverstone notebook

➤ Silverstone hosted British GT’s blue-riband three-hour race over the weekend. The 180-minute test was a big change for teams after a pair of one-hour sprint races at both Oulton Park and Snetterton started the season.

➤ Ram Racing took victory in GT3, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 team taking the lead in the final four minutes after great stints from Ian Loggie and Callum Macleod. A very popular GT4 class win went to Team Parker Racing’s Scott Malvern and Nick Jones – the pair’s first overall victory in the class.

➤ Disqualification for JRM Group, because of an underweight Bentley Continental GT3, promoted the WPI Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 onto the podium for the first time. Team owner Michael Igoe was partnered by Lamborghini factory driver Dennis Lind for the first time in the three-hour race with the pair enjoying a strong run to fourth at the flag – which was then promoted to third.

➤ Callum Macleod devoted his first British GT win since Spa 2017 to his father who passed away last year. The result was just reward after he and team-mate Loggie were taken out of the Outlon Park race whilst fighting the Team Parker Racing Bentley for the lead.

➤ Reports from the Silverstone race weekend: QUALIFYING | RACE REPORT | GALLERY

➤ Multimatic’s Seb Priaulx and Scott Maxwell lost their third overall in GT4 – and Silver Cup victory – after they were handed a 30-second post-race penalty after a pitstop infringement. That promoted Beechdean AMR’s Kelvin Fletcher and Martin Plowman onto the overall podium and handed Tom Canning and Ash Hand the Silver Cup victory.

➤ Silverstone’s 42-car entry was the biggest the championship has seen since the same round in 2013. 16 GT3s and 26 GT4s made up the expanded entry with a number of one-off entries filling up the ranks.

➤ One of the extra entries came from ERC Sport – which ran a Mercedes-AMG GT3 for Lee Mowle last year – with Maxi Buhk and Peter Belshaw competing in a Mercedes-AMG GT4. It was Buhk’s first time racing the GT4, having previously been involved in its testing, but was supreme behind the wheel – finishing just behind race winners Malvern and Jones in the Team Parker Racing Mercedes.

➤ Watch the replay of the race here:

➤ Adrian Willmott’s neck injury – which alreaddy ruled him out of Snetterton – has ruled him out for the rest of the season. Creventic 24 Hour Series racer JM Littman filled his seat alongside Jack Mitchell in the Century Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 this weekend. However, he failed to set a racing lap as mechanical issues that afflicted the car all weekend struck again at the start of the race.

➤ Balfe Motorsport lost its chance at a first British GT victory after the door of the McLaren 720S GT3 refused to close at the final stop. After the race team principal Shaun Balfe explained it was a piece of debris that stopped the door from shutting.

➤ Despite a difficult race for the championship leaders, Adam Balon and Phil Keen still hold a 16-point lead over their team-mates Sam De Haan and Jonny Cocker in the GT3 class after an equally testing race for the sister Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo.

➤ In GT4, HHC Motorsport’s Dean Macdonald and Callum Pointon have had their lead slashed by Maxwell & Priaulx – the Mustang drivers just two points behind on 53. A podium for Fletcher and Plowman has moved them to within a point of second, they’re third on 52.

➤ The next round of the British GT Championship is the race at Donington Park on 23 June. Due to Nürburgring 24 Hours obligations, Adam Christodoulou will be forced to miss the two-hour race. He’s replaced in the Team Abba Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 by Tom Onslow-Cole, who has already tested with Richard Neary.