Silverstone Sunday 15th May 2016
After almost going to Brands Hatch the week before for the Sprint version of the Blancpain series, it was a no-brainer to head to Silverstone as a 52 car entry was declared for the 3 Hour Endurance Cup race on Sunday afternoon. While the World Endurance Championship does cater for GT machinery, it's fair to say that the Le Mans Prototypes steal the headlines somewhat so the Blancpain series gives an opportunity for entrants to battle on a more even playing field. I say even playing field but a Balance of Performance equation is used to keep a certain level of parity throughout the grid consisting of various examples of Audi R8, Bentley Continental, Jaguar G3, Lamborghini Huracan, Nissan GT-R, Ferrari 458/488, Mercedes-AMG, BMW F13 M6, Aston Martin Vantage & Porsche 911...
After a hugely frustrating journey to Silverstone on Sunday morning (when I had no idea the M1 Southbound was shut for roadworks until I arrived at Junction 22!!) it was at 9.15 when I arrived at the circuit. Qualifying for the 3 hour race had been red flagged though as I arrived so thankfully I didn't miss too much action. The 60 minute session was split into 3 segments with the fastest time set by the car irrespective of session counting for the grid. Quite a good way of deciding the grid and also it illustrated which of the 3 drivers in each car was the quick one or the tugger!
Emerging fastest from the enormous entry was the Lamborghini Huracan of Jeroen Bleekemolen with a surprise 2nd place for the Franck Perera piloted Audi R8. Surprise because the car was entered in the Pro-Am Cup so Perera is definitely the Pro part of Pro-Am! The 52 car entry had been reduced to 51 as the Porsche 911 of Nicolas Armindo had been badly damaged in a practice session on Saturday evening in a very strange incident.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04TJ88m_f0I
As to the race itself, the HTP Motorsport Mercedes-AMG of Dominik Baumann/Jazeman Jaafar/Maximilian Buhk emerged victorious after 3 hours which seemed to go very quickly...probably due to the sheer amount of cars on track! The Safety Car made an appearance with 45 minutes left and somewhat spoiled the natural conclusion to the race. Not only did it stay out too long in a bid to try and get all cars back in correct track position but, far worse, the lights were turned off on top of the car ready for a restart that simply didn't happen. Quick thinking from the leading drivers meant that all cars stayed in position ready for the actual restart 2 laps later. When action resumed with about 20 minutes left the winning Mercedes was stalked by the Audi R8 of Laurens Vanthoor but always kept a healthy distance up to the flag.
A mere 43 cars were entered for the Lamborghini Super Trofeo pair of races over the weekend! This series has had a reputation as a playground for wealthy amateurs and, given some of the driving witnessed on Sunday, the playground still contains a few wild drivers....With a mandatory 10 minute pitstop window halfway through the 50 minute race, following the action became a little difficult at times especially as the Safety Car was needed on 2 separate occasions. The fantastically named Vito Postiglione (wasn't he a character in The Godfather??) winning. Bizarrely I witnessed 2 drivers enter The Wing pits while watching at Club corner and emerge several seconds later coming back down the pitlane in the "wrong" direction as apparently the gate was closed barring re-entry to the circuit at Abbey! The perils of having 2 pit & paddocks at Silverstone with the Blancpain teams operating from the old pits at Woodcote, but surely drivers had been briefed not to do this!
I'd never seen the SEAT Leon Eurocup in the flesh before and despite a small 12 car entry, the reversed grid race on Sunday was quite entertaining. Stian Poulsen ran away with things at the head of the field but a frantic scrap for 2nd place provided the excitement. Only 8 cars finished what was a fairly destructive race, especially early on.
The days only single-seater action was provided by the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup (NEC) F.Renault 2.0 is being gently squeezed by the rise of the new FIA F4 category around the world but 24 cars at Silverstone indicates there's life in the category yet. The very talented Brit, Lando Norris is dovetailing a campaign in the NEC & Eurocup F.Renault with BRDC British F3 and he simply dominated proceedings on Sunday morning. Not much action to report sadly in what was a very processional race, with only 4th placed Jehan Daruvala overtaking for position in the top 5. Viewing from the stand at Woodcote the series use of incredibly small numbers on the rear wings meant that car identification was very hard work. My eyes aren't the greatest but the use of minuscule or non-existent numbers on racing cars is getting worse!
On a sunny but slightly cool day, this was a good days motor racing and it was nice to see 4 "International" Championships on these shores. The Blancpain GT series is without doubt a fantastic series and hopefully the vast numbers of cars will still be seen in future years. Admission on the gate was £20 and a good programme was £5
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