Carter Gets His Win As Cook And Orange Triumph At Silverstone
Day one of GT Cup Championship action at Silverstone ended with victories going the way of J&S Racing and Orange Racing with JMH on Saturday (29 July), while Phillip Carter had his moment of success in GTH.
The J&S Racing team struck first with Hugo Cook bagging the Sprint Race success, before finishing second to the in-form Orange Racing with JMH McLaren squad of Tom Roche and reigning champion, Simon Orange, in the Endurance contest.
Paul Bailey kept his title hopes going in the right direction with two wins in GTO, while FF Corse won out twice in GTC after a great tussle with Topcats Racing.
In GTH, the real success story was that of Greystone GT's Carter, who took a win and second place in a Driver of the Day performance.
Qualifying
The opening day in Northamptonshire began with a 15-minute qualifying session to decide the order for Round 15 of the '23 season. In GT3, another competitive field was headed by Cook who put his Audi straight onto pole position ahead of James Wallis, the latter taking up a seat at 7TSix this weekend alongside Paul Rogers.
Behind them in GTC it was a rapid start for the FF Corse Ferrari, with James Owen putting their invitational entry onto the group pole despite pressure from the AF Corse 488 and the Topcats Racing Lamborghini Huracan.
Championship leaders Kendall Developments left it late to go to the top of the times in a tight GTO squabble, Bailey getting the qualifying honours while a rapid effort while RAM Racing's Charles Dawson went to the summit in GTH.
Sprint Race
A dramatic start to the first 25-minute Sprint race of the weekend began with Oulton Park winners Orange Racing powered by JMH charging to the front with a rapid getaway and dive through the middle of the front row starters by Tom Roche.
Unfortunately, it proved to be too electric as he picked up a 10-second penalty for a false start, despite pulling clear of technical leader Cook with a rampant first half of the race. While Roche sadly retired late on, Cook was unchallenged as he burst away from the chasing McLaren 720S of Wallis, while RAM Racing's GT3 Mercedes rounded out the class podium thanks to Adam Knight.
In GTC it was all seemingly looking rosy for Topcats Racing, as an exceptional stint from Gilbert Yates put their Lamborghini in prime position for group success. A fuel problem then crept in late into their race, leaving Yates crawling to an agonizing halt while FF Corse's Owen - who had been closing in on his rival - swept by the take the group win.
GTO spoils went to Bailey in his ever-improving Lamborghini, while in GTH it was a superb performance from Phillip Carter who took a long overdue Sprint win for Greystone GT in his McLaren 570s after fending off the closing Mercedes of Dawson. Feathers Motorsport's James Guess climbed to third in the group.
Pit Stop Race
Roche's pace meant that Orange Racing's McLaren took up pole position with Simon Orange behind the wheel, and he dived into the early lead ahead of the Audi of Sacha Kakad - sharing with Cook.
Orange would pull away from a safety car interruption to lead the car to its mandatory pit stop, after which Roche maintained the car's lead and came home an untroubled 4.1s clear of Cook - who set the fastest lap of the race late one - for a fourth overall win of the season and fifth in GT3. The 7TSix McLaren lost time in its opening stint, but a shorter pit time and the charging Wallis installed in the driving seat enabled the car to climb back up to third overall ahead of RAM Racing's GT3 Mercedes.
The GTC battle was once again a close contest, with Charlotte Gilbert and Owen battling it out up front in the group in the opening stint. The pair made their changes with the latter's Ferrari coming out ahead, after which Tom Fleming swept home to give FF Corse a double victory from the Topcats Racing team.
Bailey added more crucial points to car #28's overall tally by bringing the Lamborghini home first in GTO once more, his co-driver Ross Wylie hopping into the car in the second half and charging through the overall order to an eventual finish of seventh on the road. Chris Murphy bagged second in group for Woodrow Motorsport in his BMW M3 GTR, third going to the National Motorsport Academy Lotus Evora.
A GTH masterclass enabled RAM Racing to add their first win of the weekend, with Seb Morris aiding Dawson to victory ahead of the in-form Carter and Michael Broadhurst (Greystone GT) who trailed by just over three seconds. Third went to Morpheous Racing after a charge by Phil Keen in the second half of the contest in their Mercedes.
#67 Simon Orange
“We had a 20-second success penalty for the Pitstop Race so I wanted to try and get as much lead as possible and the safety car spoiled it a bit. But it was good, comfortable in the end, the lads have done a good job getting the car ready. I had 15 seconds to hand over to Tom, and that’s because the lads have got the car right, it was just nice cruising round - I think Sacha had a problem with his tyre pressures which made it a bit easier. Tom was cruising around there, making no mistakes - same again tomorrow!”
#28 Ross Wylie
“It was nice to get out and dust the cobwebs off! It was good fun, I enjoyed it. We’re still learning the car so that was pretty much a test session and it was fun. It’s not what I’m used to driving but the guys have done a great job preparing, Paul is getting up to speed with it and hopefully we can only improve from here. Paul keeps coming away with championship points, I just keep my head down and focus on the job in hand!”
#14 Phil Carter
“First win full stop, it was good. Maximum points today, we haven’t done that before - it was good, I can’t quit believe it! We had a bit of luck as well so I’ll take it, the whole day was excellent - really good fun.”
#42 Charlie Dawson
“It could have been perfect, first in the Sprint Race would have been nice but the track changed quite a bit from qualifying and I was trying to go as fast as the morning but I was failing miserably! It’s been really good competition in GTH, we’re only doing a couple of Invitational starts but you’ve got a lot of good Pros - Tom Canning, Phil Keen, and obviously Seb [Morris] in the car with me and I’m really surprised by the level of the Ams too, it’s a really competitive series!”
