British GT Silverstone: All aboard for the Silverstone showcase

Nearly a month on from a chaotic, disrupted, double-header at Oulton Park, the British GT Championship moves on to one of its biggest events of the season – the Silverstone 500.

BRITISH GT SILVERSTONE: ENTRY LIST | DAN HARPER INTERVIEW | TIMETABLE

The three-hour enduro boasts a beast of an entry with 43 cars set to do battle around the home of the British Grand Prix for a three-hour test which will prove to be a much different challenge compared to the twisty, tight, North West Easter weekend opener.

GT3

A win and a podium has put Barwell Motorsport’s Sandy Mitchell and Alex Martin on top of the table by five points from their Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 team-mates Rob & Ricky Collard, but they’ve got extra competition this weekend with 24 entries in the top class.

Leading that line is the return of the champ – Darren Leung has made a one-off return, fresh off an LMGT3 win at Imola in the World Endurance Championship – where he’ll be once again reunited with the Century Motorsport squad that took him to the title in 2023 alongside Dan Harper. While pre-season, Leung was meant to be with fellow champ Harper for this event, his GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup co-driver has joined Michael Johnston so Leung is picking up a new Pro for the weekend.

And what a Pro Leung will have alongside him. None other than Dries Vanthoor will be alongside him in the #1 BMW M4 GT3, and with Leung winning the 500 with Harper last year, he’ll be hoping that the BoP – subject to a few complaints from BMW drivers at Oulton – will be more back in his favour.

In other big news, Jann Mardenborough will be returning to British GT for the first time in a decade as he joins Team RJN to race a McLaren 720S GT3 Evo alongside Chris Buncombe, who raced alongside brother Alex last time out. Alex, for sake of info, will be joined by regular co-driver Simon Watts in the second RJN entry.

There’s an additional McLaren in the top class as Optimum Motorsport bring its Le Mans Cup squad of Fran Rueda and Andrew Gilbert.

In what is possibly news that rivals the return of Leung, there’s going to be a Ferrari on the grid for the first time since 2020 as Sky Tempesta Racing debuts the Ferrari 296 GT3 on British soil for the first time, with Chris Froggatt and Alexander West adding an extra entry to what is looking like an ever-growing Silver-Am category.

GT4

A win and a second plays a win and a third at the top of the GT4 standings with Team Parker Racing’s Seb Morris and Charles Dawson facing off against Forsetti Motorsport’s Mikey Porter and Jamie Day – the former a multiple winner in the GT Cup opener at Donington Park last weekend – with the secondary category proving just as competitive as usual.

Pro-Am crews tend to dominate the Silverstone 500 thanks to the lack of the Silver Cup penalty, and it’s perhaps that opportunity of taking a win that has led to an extra entry in that sub-category with Breakell Racing stepping up from the British Endurance Championship to join in the fun with their Mercedes-AMG GT4 which will be driven by Carl Garnett and Harley Haughton in what will be not-unfamiliar territory considering how long the BEC races tend to be but with a step up in the level of competition.

While they’re new to the championship, there’s some familiar faces in an unfamiliar squad. A second Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo is on the grid as CMR makes an appearance in Britain with the team’s GT4 European Series drivers Freddie Tomlinson and Stuart Middleton hoping they can try and take a victory they were denied 12 months previously because of pitstop penalties.

The three-hour race gets underway at 12.30pm local time (1.30pm in Europe) and GT REPORT will be streaming the race live.