Radical Take Silverstone Sprint While Enduro Youngster Cooks Up Storm
Two superb races opened the GT Cup weekend at Silverstone on Saturday (30 July) as Enduro Motorsport's new Mercedes GT3 took a maiden win, sharing success with Raw Motorsport's Radical RXC.
Formerly racing in a McLaren 720S, Enduro Motorsport's Marcus Clutton brought a Mercedes to the visit to the home of British motorsport, but it would be his young co-driver Hugo Cook that shone as he helped his pro to two hard-earned GT3 group victories. Clutton joined Cook to charge to the front of the endurance race, but earlier the latter could not quite usurp the flying Steve Burgess, who was denied a double win by a late mechanical gremlin having won the Sprint race earlier in the day - taking two GTO wins.
GTH victories were shared between Valluga Racing and Greystone GT, with the returning Tom Barrow bagging a double GTB triumph for Saxon Motorsport. GTA spoils went to the Ginetta of JMH Automotive in both contests.
GTC was initially an all-Lamborghini affair, with Jensen Lunn taking a brilliant win for Topcats Racing with HEX.com on a weekend his regular co-driver Warren Gilbert would miss after an accident in testing. Ferrari and FF Corse would spoil the party in race two, Benny Simonsen charging from fourth to first to win the endurance race.
Qualifying
With six groups to fight for honours in at Northampton, the onus was on those at the top of the championship to do well in qualifying. In GT3, fastest out of the blocks was RAM Racing's Ian Loggie, already a multiple winner in Sprint races in 2022. The Scot was undeterred having jumped to the top of the times, beating youngster Cook in the new Enduro Motorsport Mercedes by 0.2s.
An impressive performance from Raw Motorsport in their Radical RXC put them third overall on the grid and top of GTO, Steve Burgess beating Richard Chamberlain's Porsche 935. GTC meanwhile was a three-car fight for the top spot, with a superb lap from returning GT Cup stalwart James Webb putting his Lamborghini on the group pole from Lucky Khera's similar Racelab Huracan Super Trofeo. McLaren took the top spot in GTH thanks to the in-form Will Dendy for Orange Racing Powered By JMH Automotive, while Barrow and Saxon Motorsport's BMW 150 GTR returned to top GTB.
Sprint Race
With one overall race win under their belts already this season, Raw Motorsport had the best chance to add to that tally when Burgess rocketed by the front row starters to grab the lead of the race into Copse corner for the first time. Following a lengthy safety car period after a first corner incident further back, Burgess made a break on the restart, dominating to win the contest ahead of a superb fight for second.
It would initially be about the chasing Simon Orange as he made a dive on Cook's Mercedes at Stowe for third place, the latter hanging on grimly on the outside before turning his attention to Loggie, completing a bold move around the outside of the RAM Racing man under braking for Copse to seal second place and the GT3 victory in the process.
GTC was a similarly fierce scrap for honours, with an all-Lamborghini battle for the top three spots in the group. Webb held the lead for much of the race, until a closing Jensen Lunn clawed back lost time and made a decisive move on the final lap in the dying seconds to win it for Topcats Racing with HEX.com team. Barrow dominated GTB, while the GTH group was won by title contenders Valluga Racing with James Wallis fighting through the pack to clinch victory, the Porsche driver getting the better of Stephen Walton's Makehappenracing Mercedes at Luffield in a feisty battle.
Pitstop Race
Cook's race one charge meant the fastest lap put him on race two pole position, but he would have to give chase after another fine getaway from the Radical put Burgess into the early race lead from row two. Cook caught and eventually passed his man at the Village section, but the car fell to third after spending 20 extra seconds stationary in the pits for being a new entry.
With a 20-second lead to play with, the Radical looked set for more success. Unfortunately, the eventual GTO winners fell to sixth when an issue slowed it late in the race, leaving a fabulous three-car fight for the win to make its way by. Now in Cook's Mercedes, Enduro boss Clutton took the reigns of the #66 car and cut inside Loggie at Village to grab the race lead, before fending off a flying Michael O'Brien who pushed his rival all the way to the chequered flag in the series-leading Orange Racing with JMH Automotive McLaren 720S.
GTC also enjoyed a tight dice for the win between the three Lamborghinis once more, Khera initially passing Webb for the lead before being hampered by a rear wing issue. Webb would again be denied victory after a charging Simonsen caught and passed the Huracan Super Trofeo to give FF Corse a fine group win, GTB and GTA again going to Saxon Motorsport and JMH Automotive respectively.
GTH would go the way of Greystone GT and their in-form duo of Mark Hopton and Euan Hankey in their McLaren 570S. The pair fought their way up to second place before grabbing the place on the top step of the podium, leaping them into third in the group in terms of championship points.
#66 Hugo Cook
"It was a bit of a strange race to be honest initially with the safety car. We knew at the start that the Radical would be really quick, and the same with the McLaren, so keeping them behind on the first couple of laps was pretty hard. But then on the restart, I knew I had to get past the other Mercedes and once I did it was just ‘get your head down and go’ really. The move past Ian was difficult, but once I got the run from Luffield I knew on the outside of Copse is probably where you want to be when you go side-by-side because I’ve got more road."
#9 Jensen Lunn
"A crazy weekend so far. Destroyed one of the cars in testing, Warren is in hospital - but he’s recovering. Great race really; we only had four laps at the end of the safety car. Managed to get past Lucky, had a good race with Lucky, managed to put a gap on him and then caught up with the Webbs and took a late dive on the last corner of the last lap, pulled it off and managed to get the win. I know Warren is watching in hospital - I hope he'd enjoy that result!"
#77 Euan Hankey
"Amazing day today, I’m so proud of Mark. To come third in the Sprint race all by himself, doing the lap time he did in qualifying and then in the race itself which helped our starting position for the Pitstop race - I’m made up. Some of the Ams he’s up against; some of them could be classed as not-so-Ams so I’m very impressed that he’s giving them such a good run for their money. The Pitstop race for me was great, Mark had a really good battle with the Paddock car and gave me the car in a good position, so I just had to do my thing. It was fun just doing lots of fast laps to hunt them down."
#56 Roy Millington
"Got off to a bad start, but managed to pull it back in so really happy with the result. Nice having that close combat racing with the Lamborghinis, proper racing. I was really happy with the last lap pass from Benny! We had a stop/go penalty, so when we got that I thought ‘oh no!’ but then the #13 got a penalty as well so it put us back on an even keel and it was good to see him do the job."
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