Darren and James Kell survive a rain-affected 100-minute endurance race to take all three wins over the action-packed GT Cup weekend at Silverstone.

Despite starting second behind PB Racing, a great move by Track Focused’s James Kell late on rewarded them with yet another win. 

Early Drama at the Front

It was a great start for Track Focused, who took the lead going into turn one. Meanwhile, pole man Peter Erceg dropped to fourth by the end of the first lap. Darren Kell’s lead was short-lived, however, as he dropped to third. 

SB Race Engineering were the leaders going into the second lap with driver Paul Bailey at the wheel of the #28 Brabham BT62. Triple M Motorsport found themselves second with Dominic Paul threading his way past the two cars on the front row. 

With seven minutes gone, the #58 Topcats Racing Lamborghini spun on its own, dropping him down the field. The #30 Ginetta of Simon Griffiths soon followed, who also spun on his own. 

Kell and Erceg then made their way past Domonic Paul of Triple M Motorsport in second to promote themselves up a place. Now released from the back of the Lamborghini, the pair began to cut into the lead of Bailey. 

PB Racing then began to keep Track Focused on their toes, with the fastest lap of the race going their way with 15 minutes gone. 

Further back, the battle for the GTH lead was heating up, with Feathers Motorsport overtaking Oselli Motorsport for the lead in a close battle in class. 

There was then a spin from fourth-placed and leading GTC leader Paul, who lost the rear of his #4 Lamborghini at the exit of the loop. This promoted DWG Motorsport to class leaders, but this didn’t last long with him retaking the lead after a couple of minutes. 

27 minutes into the race, light rain started to fall around parts of the circuit, but there wasn’t enough of a downpour to trigger any pit stops. With traffic slowing the leaders up, the top three were separated by just over three seconds.

Brent Millage was the first retirement with 35 minutes gone, as he pulled his Ginetta off the road and out of the way. 

After staring at the back of the McLaren for most of this race, Erceg finally got back past Darren Kell for second place at Club Corner. The following lap, PB Racing took the race lead after Bailey went deep, giving an opportunity to Track Focused too to get past. 

Things then went from bad to worse for Triple M Motorsport, as they suffered a suspected engine blowout. With smoke pouring out the back of the #4 Lamborghini, Domonic Paul pulled it over and retired the car from the race.

As the race reached the halfway point, the pit window opened. Most of the grid pitted at once, including our two leaders, who handed over to their other respective drivers. PB Racing was held for an extra 15 seconds due to Marcus Clutton being a pro driver.

However, when the two teams found themselves back out on track, Clutton was just 10 seconds adrift from the Track Focused McLaren. James Kell quickly showed pace and started to extend his lead.

Rain Hits Teams with Strategy Curveball

With 40 minutes left to go, rain started to fall, and this time it materialised into a moderate downpour. Just over 15 minutes after making their pit stop, PB Racing were in the pits again, this time for wet tyres.

Critically, Track Focused stayed out, allowing Clutton to undercut Kell by the time he had done his pit stop the following lap. Whilst all this was going on, SB Race Engineering, which was leading the race earlier on, was forced to retire after losing a wheel on the Hangar Straight. 

This inevitably brought out the safety car with just 28 minutes to go. Due to a recovery vehicle needed to recover the car, it was a lengthy 14-minute delay. When the safety car did pull into the pits, that’s when the moment of the race took place.

As Erceg was putting pressure on G-Cat Racing’s Greg Carton into the first corner of Copse, Kell seized a golden opportunity. He swept his way around the outside of both of them in a superb move for the lead and is definitely in contention for overtake of the season. 

Chequered flag

Despite Clutton keeping Kell honest for the rest of the race, he kept his cool out front to take a clean sweep for Track Focused throughout the weekend in the GT3 class and overall. 

Even though they lost a wheel, SB Race Engineering were classified and declared GTO winners. Fellow GTO runners CTR Developments retired earlier on in the race with overheating problems.

The GTC class was topped by Topcats Racing’s Fraser Fenwick and Charlotte Gilbert. Finally, SVG Motorsport again topped both their classes (GTA & GTH).

Runner-up Peter Erceg had this to say after today’s race:

“Yeah, it was good. I mean, obviously, it was nice to start on pole. The track conditions were a little bit breezy at the start. I didn’t get the best of starts; my start was alright, but one of the competitors went a bit wide, and that ended up compromising me for the first few corners. 

“Unfortunately with Marcus’ one we couldn’t hold the lead, so we ended up second, which we probably deserved a bit more today, but we’ll take second and be happy with that.”

With the absence of Paddock Motorsport’s Mark Smith this weekend, Topcats Racing has taken the lead in the championship.

GT Cup will return on the 20th/21st of September at Donington Park Circuit for the penultimate round of this season’s championship.