BRSCC PRODUCES A THRILLING SILVERSTONE GP OPENER
The British Racing & Sports Car Club’s opening race event of 2025 kicked off the new season in tremendous fashion on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit, as many drivers, teams and race cars emerged from a winter’s hibernation and produced an enthralling spectacle as another campaign of club racing began.
Opening their season with a three-hour encounter, the Silverlake C1 Endurance Series performed the perfect warm-up ahead of the return of the 24 Hour race on the GP circuit at the beginning of May. Just shy of 50 teams took to the track for a busy qualifying, where regular C1 race winners Alpha Trojon took a commanding fastest lap but where shuffled back to ninth after the random top ten draw. This placed Silverlake Racing #458 o pole, leading the early stages ahead of JW Bird Motorsport, both Trojon Motorsport cars and the second Silverlake car.
After the first few pit stops took place and an hour’s racing was complete, the order had shuffled around with CSC Racing’s two cars sandwiching Alpha-Trojon within the top three. A near 20 minute safety car for a roll-over at Luffield helped close up the field, JW Bird’s #347 taking over in front with Liam Griffin at the wheel. As more stops rolled through, Alpha-Trojon took up their typical place at the head of the field going into the final hour, looking set to add another victory to their tally.
Heading into the closing stages, Alpha-Trojon had to reduce its pace in order to make the finish without needing another fuel stop, and despite lapping several seconds slower than normal, their gap to the fight for P2 was more than enough to calmly cruise to victory. That battle for second was an intense affair in the final laps, and at the flag Silverlake saw both cars cross the line in podium positions. However, their #558 car would be penalised three laps for failure to provide footage which promoted Abbott Racing into 3rd behind Silverlake #458. AF Racing and WRC Developments completed the top five.
Saturday’s main event saw the season opener for the PBS Brakes SuperSport Endurance Cup, with a pair of BMWs on the front row together. Pro-B class winner Julian McBride saw off an initial challenge from William Lynch’s orange 3 Series and aside from a shuffle of the order through mandatory pit stops, McBride would be in control of the race from start to finish. Two safety cars in the first hour of the race helped to keep the competition close across the classes.
The Lynch BMW was one of the key retirements of the race, pulling up on the exit of Copse not long after half distance. Once all of the on-track battles were settled, McBride’s E46 M3 cruised to overall and Pro-B victory by just under a minute and a half ahead of Pro-A victor Chris Murphy’s BMW M3 E36. Jason McInulty’s Lotus took third overall and Pro-C victory, followed by the Gilbert/ Huggins Caterham and Clubman-A toppers Bruce Robinson and Colin Turkington in the top five. Additional class wins went to Rory Pickles’ Audi TT (Clubman-B) and defending champions Adam Read & David Drinkwater’s BMW Compact (Clubman-C).
The BRSCC Mazda MX-5 paddock burst back into life at Silverstone, with all three championships out on force to kick off their 2025. Both the Kent Models Mazda MX-5 Championship and Clapham North Mazda MX-5 Clubman Championship shared a grid together on the Saturday, producing more than 50 cars lining up for race one. In the MX-5 Championship ranks, Ali Bray took a draft-aided pole by 1.3 seconds but faced much stiffer competition come the start of race one. He was chased race long by returning former champion Steve Foden, but Bray held firm to clinch the win ahead, with Adam Sparrow, Richard Wootten and Will Chadwick completing the top five.
Foden managed to briefly depose Bray from the lead in race two, but the AB Motorsport quickly took it back in time before a safety car neutralised the rest of the race. Finishing under yellows, Bray’s second win was confirmed ahead of Sparrow, Foden, Wootten and Chadwick. Sunday saw a standalone grid race with another frantic lead scrap, with Bray completing the hat-trick from Foden and Sparrow, the latter fending off a late challenge from Chadwick who took to the grass on the Wellington straight on the final lap. Harry Storer wrapped up the top five.
Over in the MX-5 Clubman ranks, Jordan Pimley made the best possible start to the season on his full time return. Running with the MX-5 Championship front runners, Pimley dominated proceedings to pick up the win, with 2024 champion Jonny Greensmith fending off Jack Warry to hold on to second place. Jake Paice took an excellent fourth, with Beau Parry rounding off the top five.
Race two was a much closer affair, mainly characterised by the lengthy safety car that saw the finish under yellow. On this occasion, Jack Warry seized the opportunity to pinch the lead from Pimley to remain there once the race had been neutralised, taking the victory and the 100 points to go with it. Pimley still claimed second ahead of Greensmith, followed by Parry and Del Paice.
The opening salvo for the Clapham North Mazda MX-5 SuperCup ended up as a personal duel between Will Blackwell-Chambers and the incoming Thomas Langford, fresh from the 2024 MX-5 Championship title. The pair took off from the front row and locked out the top two with Blackwell-Chambers victorious in race one, while an intense three way fight for third went to Ollie Hall from Alistair Dendy and Club class winning debutant Sam Middleton.
The same leading duo again dominated race two on Sunday morning, as Blackwell-Chambers remained on the top spot with Langford in his wheel tracks, while Dendy took his first podium in the closing stages ahead of Hall and Middleton again clinched another Club class win with fifth overall. Even though Middleton led initially from his first front row start thanks to the top ten reversal for race three, Blackwell-Chambers chased him down and secured the hat-trick, with Langford again second and Hall securing another third. A track limits penalty for Dendy dropped him to fourth, with Middleton’s trio of Club wins also secure in fifth.
Another fast and competitive entry took to the Demon Tweeks Audi TT Cup Racing Championship at Silverstone, where defending champ Bradley Burns tried to start as he meant to continue from 2024. His lead in race one was snatched away when a driveshaft problem forced him out, thus handing Sam Heading P1 on the road. However, Sam was penalised ten seconds for an out of position start, promoting Matt Luff to the win from newcomer Jordan Stilp and Will Stacey on the podium. Andrew Rogerson and Carl Swift completed the top five finishers.
Luff led straight off from pole in race two and wouldn’t be headed from start to finish, leading all of the battling behind him for second place backwards. Swift and Stilp were able to break away to pick up the podium places respectively, while Will Stacey lost out in the closing stages thanks to an engine failure at Vale, bringing out an early chequered flag. This gave Heading fourth and Rogerson fifth, while Burns crucially worked his way from the back of the grid to sixth. Burns was then shuffled onto the second row thanks to the random top ten draw for race three, quickly taking the lead and winning from Heading, Luff, Luke Handley and Ross Makar.
Making its highly anticipated debut on the Silverstone GP circuit, the all new BRSCC Pro Sports Sprint Series attracted a highly eclectic and varied entry of race cars for their first trio of races. Leading the line were Steve Gambrell’s Porsche 991.2 Cup Car and John Seale’s Lamborghini Huracan, who duelled superbly in the opening two encounters. Despite the Huracan taking pole, Gambrell hit the front and wouldn’t be headed in race one, with Aaron Cooke’s Ginetta completing the top three.
A fantastic battle for the lead in race two eventually went Gambrell’s way with Seale settling for second and Simon Mauger’s CUPRA TCR Gen 1 in third, before Seale’s Huracan was forced to the sidelines for race three. This left Gambrell’s Porsche to complete the clean sweep out in front in the final encounter, dominating from start to finish and leaving Cooke and Mauger to complete the top three behind him. Other impressive performances over the weekend came from Luke Woodhouse’s VW Golf GTi Clubsport and the duelling Fiesta ST240s of Maggie Webster and Connor Blackburn. A big thank you to all Pro Sports Sprint competitors that turned out!
Written by Scott Woodwiss
