This weekend Trackspeed Racing head to Silverstone for the fourth round of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship, and their toughest race of the season. Occupying three of the top seven positions in the championship standings, the Trackspeed Porsches face their stiffest challenge yet. With 45 other cars lining up on the grid for the three-hour spectacular, the Surrey-based team will look to carry their 2013 momentum, and build on their lead in the team Championship.
On the back of a dominant victory at Rockingham in the previous round, Gregor Fisken and Richard Westbrook will be looking to continue their ascendancy up the leader-board and bolster their current third place. Following a season’s best drive by Fisken around the twists and turns of Rockingham, Westbrook stepped into the breach to move the No.32 997GT3R into the lead and power away from the field to take the chequered flag by a 17 second margin. Although they will be saddled with an additional time penalty in the pits following their Rockingham success, Trackspeed’s Fisken is targeting a points finish for Sunday’s big race.
“We’ve got a big weekend ahead.” He said this week. “Three hours is a long race. We’ve got a huge success penalty of 20 seconds, so we’re going to have to work very hard to overcome that. We’ll adapt a similar strategy to Rockingham; be as fast as we can with a setup that is kind to the tyres over the duration of the race. We’re mindful that Rockingham was a Porsche friendly track and it’s going to be more of a challenge at Silverstone against all the other marques.
“We’ll work to get the best finish we can and bring the car home over the three-hours, hopefully in the top-five. The series is so competitive and we’ll see a lot of teams improving, so a fourth place would be great, a podium finish would be fantastic.”
Although David Ashburn and Nick Tandy failed to secure any points at Rockingham, following an unceremoniously punt off the circuit by an Ecurrie Ecosse BMW, the duo still leader the Avon Tyres British GT Championship standings by a half point. The polka-dotted Porsche had looked strong under the Rockingham sunshine, securing pole-position and maintaining third position just ahead of the pit-stop window, before the incident that caused extensive damage to the 997′s suspension. Despite the No.31 car suffering from serious handling issues, Ashburn gritted his teeth to finish his stint and hand over driving duties to Tandy. However, within a few laps of Tandy taking to the Rockingham tarmac, it became apparent that retiring the Porsche was the safest option for the driver and car.
This time around, Tandy is relishing the extended race length of the Silverstone 500 and how it’ll effect strategy. “We’re looking to bounce back from a disappointing end to our Rockingham weekend.” The Porsche Supercup racer shares. “We still lead the points so we are still in the best position, but scoring solid points this week is very much the plan. I’m looking forward to the longer race duration, it gives us more scope for strategy input into the race. Also with so many cars on track dealing with traffic will be key.”
Whilst Phil Keen and Jon Minshaw had led the lionshare of the two-hour race at Rockingham, a broken throttle body scuppered their hopes of finishing on the top step of the podium. After taking the lead from Ashburn in the early stages, Demon Tweak’s Minshaw stayed at the front of the field until the pit-stop window, where Keen continued to set the pace. Then as the racing restarted following a safety car, the problem manifested itself, causing the No.33 997 GT3R to limp around the two-mile circuit. Despite a valiant effort by Keen to bring the car to the finish line, the Englishman was forced to withdraw in the closing stages of the race.
With a win to their names from the opening round at Oulton Park, Minshaw and Keen will be looking to bounce back at Silverstone, and build on their 25 points that currently places them seventh in the Championship standings. With 150% points on offer this weekend, a top-five finish could propel them back into the title fight, that has the other two Trackspeed Racing Porsches firmly in the mix.
The Silverstone 500 weekend kicks off on Saturday with a pair of one-hour practices at 9:00am and 12:00pm respectively, then it’s on to 45 minutes of qualifying at 4:30pm. The three-hour race will start at 1:00pm Sunday, with live coverage on MotorsTV from 12:45pm.
Source : Trackspeed Racing