Popular British duo, Adam Wilcox and Phil Burton are returning to the Avon Tyres British GT Championship this weekend in a Ferrari 458 Italia GT3, nine months after retiring from their last race together. The Silverstone 500 three-hour endurance race will see Wilcox and Burton drive the #4 Mtech Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 in a one-off race deal.
At Donington Park last year, the Ferrari 430 Scuderia the pair had campaigned for five years finally gave up, preventing the pair from taking to the grid. A year that Wilcox summed up as ‘disappointing’ – no points scored and numerous retirements exposed the frailty of the 430 Scuderia – even a mid-season switch to Ferrari specialists, JMH from Gerry Wainwright Racing did little to boost fortunes.
Afterwards, Burton retired from racing, but a chance phone call from Wilcox last weekend saw the pair sort out a last minute deal to race the Mtech Ferrari 458 GT3 recently vacated by Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin. Meanwhile, Wilcox, has been working with the Blendini Motorsport team, assisting them as they take the step up from club racing in the UK Ma5da Series to British GT.
‘Adam caught me when I was weak,’ joked Burton. ‘Its an expensive drug, racing. It all sounded really good and I thought to myself, “why not?”
Wilcox adds, ‘I saw the news about Duncan and Matt leaving Mtech and thought we might be able to do something. Neither Phil or I have driven a 458 and we both said we wouldn’t race again unless we could do it in something competitive. We’re not planning to do anymore races, but the combination of being in a 458, with a well-prepared team, in a three-hour race at Silverstone; it was too good an opportunity to not look at.’
As you’d expect, the pair have still got their good humour.
‘Adam is doing five laps in qualifying and sticking it on pole, then he’s giving me a chance to get used to the car,‘ said Burton. ‘I only got my licence yesterday and did the medical on Tuesday morning, its been a busy week!’
‘I think we’ve got to be realistic,’ urged Wilcox. ‘I’ve not driven this year, neither has Phil. We don’t know the car, although it probably will feel like an evolution of the 430, a bit like how the 430 felt like an evolution of the 360. We’ll be happy if we can have a good race, finish, and enjoy our weekend.
‘Its a very different experience this weekend already, working with a team like Mtech is great. We just come along and drive; I don’t even need to download data to my laptop, it’s all covered.’
Mtech will again field the #41 Ferrari 458, with GT Cup Champion, Derek Johnston again pairing with Jake Rattenbury, after a successful debut together saw them finish eighth in a hotly-contested race at Rockingham some three weeks ago.
This weekends race will be broadcast LIVE on Motors TV this Sunday with coverage beginning shortly before the 1 pm race start. Coverage of the Silverstone weekends runs from 11:55 am to 6 pm and will include everything from the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series, the APR Volkswagen Racing Cup, and the Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT5 Challenge.
Track action at Silverstone gets underway on Saturday at 9am, with the first of the two free practice sessions. Free practice two begins from 12pm midday until 1pm and qualifying starts at 4:30pm for 45-minutes. After a quick ten-minute warm-up on Sunday morning at 9am, the three-hour race begins at 1pm, finishing at 4pm.
Source : British GT