The Silverstone Festival, formerly known as the classic is a big racing event for older racing cars. As our Team Brit Mclaren is now out of homologation (10 years since its initial certification) it is now eligible to race in the G2/GT4 class. I was invited to race with Dale Albutt, someone I raced in Britcar in 2021. He usually drives an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 car so I would be playing mentor this weekend to help him get on the pace in a new car. The track took the historic layout where you take the faster cut through at the Vale chicane.
I did the start of qualifying in the sister Mclaren 570S that Team Brit own, number 67. Despite the cars being absolutely identical there is a slightly different feel from the normal car I race. During my three qualifying laps I struggled to get the most out of it and also the faster cut through at the Vale chicane. Dale did our best time of the session of a 1 minute 12.3 which put us P5 in class and P36 overall on the busy 45 car grid. I was quite disappointed in myself for the session and really psych’d myself up for the race.
Sitting in the assembly area for the race there was a big debate on the track condition and the best tyre to be on. After qualifying a significant amount of rain had fallen but at this time the sun was shining again. I elected to start on wets but the start seemed quite unorganised with cars well out of their usual two by two formation. That being said after the lights went out I got my head down in the tricky drying conditions. The sheer number of cars on the track and the multi class nature meant I was always involved in a battle during the opening laps. An early safety car on lap five neutralised the field and I made the decision the track was now dry enough for slicks and pitted. With the safety car still out the team took the decision to do our driver change one lap later. My stint was very interrupted with battling, safety car and tricky track conditions which left me a bit deflated. Dale drove the car to the best of his ability before being interupted by another safety car and heavy rain downpour. He pitted on lap thirteen for wets again but the chequered flag fell the next lap so there was no time for him to capitalise on the tyres. We finished where we started, P5 in class and 39th of the 41 overall finishers. It was not the race either of us had hoped for but given the changing conditions, multiple pitstops and safety cars we were unable to show our ultimate pace. It was an amazing event to be part of though and one which I am very grateful to say I have done. I would thoroughly recommend going in the future if you get the chance to