The lead of the GB3 Championship changed hands for the fourth time in as many rounds last weekend at Silverstone, while JHR Developments’ John Bennett moved firmly into contention for the crown with his third win of the season.
Bennett’s latest triumph had looked unlikely after struggling in testing, and he qualified only fourth for race one as Elite Motorsport’s McKenzy Cresswell finally hit form to take a double pole.
Rodin Motorsport’s Louis Sharp made the better start in the opener off the front row to move ahead into Copse before Cresswell fought back through Maggotts and Becketts. Having gained one place off the line, Bennett capitalised on the battle in front to squeeze between the middle of his rivals and snatch the lead at Stowe.
Further back, having made ground from sixth on the grid, championship leader Tymek Kucharczyk collided with Cresswell into Stowe on lap two after diving up the inside for third, putting the Hitech GP driver out and leaving Cresswell down in 10th.
Bennett remained ahead following a safety car period to take victory from Sharp, who returned to the championship’s summit, while Jarrod Waberski took his first podium in a non-reversed grid race by finishing third. Hitech’s Gerrard Xie had slipped back three places to sixth at the start but profited from the Kucharczyk/Cresswell clash to finish fourth.
VRD Racing by Arden’s Noah Ping climbed four spots to fifth ahead of Hugo Schwarze – who, like his two Elite team-mates, was enjoying his strongest performance of the season.
Having recovered to seventh ahead of Rodin’s returning Ugo Ugochukwu, Cresswell then made amends in Sunday’s second contest to take his first victory in 12 months despite the first lap almost following the same pattern as the opening encounter.
Having again been beaten off the line by Sharp, Cresswell repeated his challenge through Maggotts and Becketts, allowing Bennett to draw alongside on the Hangar Straight once more. However, this time it was Cresswell who prevailed into Stowe before pulling over 2s clear of Sharp, while Bennett resisted pressure from Waberski and Kucharczyk to complete the podium.
Ugochukwu held off VRD duo Shawn Rashid and Ping for sixth, the latter climbing from 14th on the grid, while Xie passed Rodin’s Arthur Rogeon and Schwarze for ninth.
Rogeon then scored his second reversed-grid triumph in the final contest after moving ahead of JHR’s polesitter Patrick Heuzenroeder and controlling proceedings after an early safety car period. Rashid concluded his strongest weekend in GB3 to date with his first podium in second, while Kucharczyk climbed from seventh to snatch third on the final lap from Schwarze, who lost a further place due to a penalty.
By finishing fourth, three places ahead of Sharp, Bennett ended the meeting just four points behind the New Zealander in the championship. Kucharczyk heads to the final two rounds in September a further nine points behind, while his team-mate Will Macintyre suffered a blow to his own title chances having struggled all weekend and scored a best result of just 10th in race three. Hitech leads Rodin in the teams’ race by 11 points.
Abba on song among the Silverstone supports
Richard Neary and Ian Loggie’s domination of the GT Cup continued last weekend at Silverstone, with the Abba Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 crew winning all four contests.
Neary, the 2021 champion, started with a comfortable triumph in the opening sprint race as several drivers behind faltered. The returning Andrey Borodin (McLaren 720S) collided with Fraser Fenwick (Lamborghini Super Trofeo), Steve Burgess retired from second when his Radical RXC suffered a rear-left puncture, while Beechdean Motorsport’s Andrew Howard recovered from an early spin to demote Topcats Racing’s Tom Rawlings to third.
Saturday’s endurance race was clouded in confusion. Loggie took over the Abba Mercedes for the opening stint and built a 17-second lead before handing over to Neary but a timing glitch initially resulted in them effectively losing a lap.
Burgess was classified as the leader on the timesheet before serving a drive-through penalty due to his pitstop being under the minimum allocated time, which dropped him behind Howard/Darren Turner’s Aston Martin Vantage, but Neary/Loggie were given their lap back at the finish, and the victory.
Neary immediately broke clear in Sunday’s endurance race as Howard prevailed in a battle with Burgess for second. A shorter mandatory pitstop time enabled the latter to reclaim the position but he was hunted down and passed by Turner, as Neary/Loggie triumphed by 30s. Loggie won by a similar margin in the final sprint encounter, while Howard took another runner-up spot after passing Burgess early on.
Linus Granfors reclaimed the GB4 Championship lead with his fifth victory of the season in the opener despite being chased throughout by Lucas Blakeley, while Alisha Palmowski took third ahead of pre-event points leader Harry Burgoyne.
Blakeley led the sequel and took advantage of an opening-lap clash between Granfors and Palmowski to romp clear and win by a huge 15.4s, the series’ largest-ever victory margin, as Granfors held off Burgoyne, Finn Harrison and Palmowski for second despite car damage.
Harrison prevailed in a three-car battle with Megan Bruce and Jack Taylor to snatch the lead in the reversed-grid race, pulling away following an early safety car period to take a maiden victory by 4s. Taylor finished second, while Branden Templeton edged a charging Blakeley to third. Chloe Grant was fifth ahead of team-mate Burgoyne. Palmowski lost out to the latter with engine issues on the final lap, while Granfors was only eighth.
Two close races between series dominator Chris Lulham and debutant Ian Aguilera resulted in each taking a victory in the Radical Cup UK, and Lulham extended his points lead with a more comfortable win ahead of Aguilera in race three.
Lewis Clark’s unbeaten Focus Cup run was ended at Silverstone, with the reigning champion just holding off Ian Mitchell in a photo finish for second in race one, while Jon Baker edged the pair to victory. Mitchell won the partially reversed-grid race, while Clark and Baker denied William Lincoln a podium spot on the final lap.
Anthony Barnes won both 7 Racing contests, edging Lewis Tootell by 0.360s in the opener and Mark Stansfield by just 0.038s in race two.
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