Silverstone Sunday 2nd June 2013

After a 7pm finish at Donington the night before, it was up at the crack of dawn for a trip to Silverstone and a meeting that I'd been looking forward to all year. On the equivalent Sunday a year ago the Blancpain Endurance Series provided a superb 3 hour race in wet weather. Thankfully it was dry and sunny this year (if a little cool in the wind) and a superb 57 cars took the start at 2.50pm. The British GT series started 48 cars last weekend on the same circuit so there appear to be no cracks in the GT3 class at the present time.
9 different manufacturers are represented in the Blancpain series and after qualifying on Sunday morning it was the "works" Aston Martin Vantage of Darren Turner/Stefan Mucke/Frederic Makowiecki who took pole and went on to win the 3 hour race with a fairly comfortable 20 second margin over the 2nd place Audi R8 of Stephane Ortelli/Rene Rast/Laurens Vanthoor. The RJN Nissan led the race early on, having qualified 2nd, but faded as the race wore on to finish 10th overall. It did however win the Pro-Am Cup division. 3rd overall went to the other Team WRT Audi and the battle for 4th place went down to the very last lap with Steven Kane's Nissan muscling his way past Markus Paltalla's BMW Z4 at Brooklands. The sheer spectacle of such a massive grid of cars is fantastic. Even the Le Mans 24 hours doesn't start as many cars on a circuit twice the size! As last year there wasn't a safety car interruption which meant that not only were driving standards very good but as a spectator following the action was relatively easy. I must remember to bring a personal radio with me next year though as the PA wasn't working in the Stowe and Club area......
Winner Turner/Mucke/Makowiecki
Aston Martin Vantage ©Steve Bounds

2nd Ortelli/Vanthoor/Rast
Audi R8 LMS Ultra ©Steve Bounds

3rd Stippler/Sandström/Mies
Audi R8 LMS Ultra ©Steve Bounds

4th Luhr/Dumbreck/Kane
Nissan GT-R Nismo Photos ©Steve Bounds

I was pleased that the Blancpain race was such a good race because racing hadn't been that great earlier in the day. First race of the day was for the Northern European Cup Formula Renault championship. British driver Matt Parry added a fourth win of the season ahead of fellow Brit Jack Aitken, both driving for Fortec Motorsport. The main Eurocup series for the category were racing at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend so the grid was smaller than usual with 23 entries. Club corner is usually one of the best overtaking sports on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit but the only driver to attempt a move all race promptly spun. Thank you for trying Jakub Smiechowski!

The Lamborghini Gallardo is an awesome car but put one in the hands of several wealthy amateurs (plus Adrian Newey) and boredom ensues. Mr Newey managed to put his version into the barrier at Chapel on the green flag lap and the race itself was red flagged after the No.7 car turned right into the barriers near the bridge down Wellington Straight. After a long delay rebuilding the armco, an uneventful race followed.
The third of the support races of the day was the first of two visits to the UK this season for the Auto GP championship. 17 cars took the start for a strangely convoluted race of only 13 laps. It should have been 14 laps but Fabrizio Crestani stalled on the grid and there was another green flag lap....All cars had to make a pit stop too which led to some confusion at the PA less Club corner! The race was won by younger brother of Takuma, Kimiya Sato.  A strange championship this. Superb cars but one wonders what the merits are for the drivers involved. Is it a place for up and coming youngsters to gain experience of faster single seaters or is it a back water for the more "experienced" driver. Given that Saturday's race was won by Narain Karthikeyan, you decide!
This was an odd meeting. Silverstone, the "home" of racing in this country somehow thought it was a minor clubbie as there weren't any programmes on sale upon entry at the gate. "The National Paddock" I was told was the place to purchase one. Given that it's a fair trek to get anywhere at Silverstone, is it too much to ask to have programmes for sale as you get into the circuit? Not only were they difficult to find, apparently there weren't many of them printed either. The PA not working is a big gripe aswell. I sat at Club in a stand meant for the disabled as the others aren't open, I watched at Stowe in a stand that the gate was only open to let marshals & photographer's in. The only infrastructure improvement visible is the construction of a college between Woodcote and Copse. Apparently ticket sales for the Grand Prix are well down this year and I'm not surprised. Silverstone are openly looking for investment into the circuit  They need it badly.
Admission was £20 on the day and many thanks to Peter for his help in managing to purchase one of the few programmes on sale in the Silverstone Racing Club for £3. I felt a little bit like Charlie Bucket with his Golden Ticket such is it's rarity. It will be worth a fortune on Ebay in years to come....

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