Huge Grid for Biggest British GT Round of Season

A total of 51 cars are set for the British GT Championship’s highlight event of the season this weekend, the Silverstone 500.

The standard GT3 and GT4 entries, plus a handful of one-off extras, will be joined by much of the GT4 European Series grid, bringing the overall GT4 count up to 33 for the three-hour race around the Northamptonshire circuit.

ENTRY LIST: Silverstone 500

The main story of the GT3 class is the series debut of the Ferrari 488 GT3, which will see seasoned Ferrari outfit FF Corse bring the new-for-2016 car into the field for a one-off run at the hands of Marco Attard and Adam Carroll.

Carroll had been at Barwell Motorsport for the past three races but he has been replaced in the No. 6 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 by Alexander Sims.

Barwell, meanwhile, is to bring a third Lamborghini to Silverstone. This will be driven by the team’s Blancpain GT Series regulars Richard Abra and Mark Poole, and will carry No. 666.

There’s also an increased presence for Team Parker Racing, the crew that comes to Silverstone fresh from a victory at Oulton Park two weekends ago. The No. 24 Bentley Continental GT3 will be piloted by Ian Loggie and Callum Macleod.

Finally, Mike Brown and Jamie Wall will race an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 this weekend, under the MB Motorsport banner.

Amongst the British GT4 field, there is a new Ginetta G55 GT4 courtesy of Fox Motorsport, the team that owns FF Corse’s Ferrari 488. This No. 48 car is to be raced by Paul McNeilly and Jamie Stanley.

Dennis Strandberg and Matt Nicoll-Jones will compete in an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 on Academy Motorsport’s return to the series. Academy is the outfit that won the team’s championship last year, but it decided against a full-season entry this year.

The sole Toyota GT86 GT4 in the field, run by GPRM and driven by Stefan Hodgetts and James Fletcher, will make its return this weekend, having been absent from the grid since round one at Brands Hatch in April.

Jonny Adam and Derek Johnston still lead the GT3 standings for TF Sport, but Barwell’s Liam Griffin is closing in on the Aston duo, 21.5 points behind.

Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson of Optimum Motorsport are still in the GT4 championship lead, and are 19 points clear of Beechdean AMR’s Jack Bartholomew and Jordan Albert.

As 37.5 points will be awarded for a win at this endurance round, theoretically both classes could have different championship leaders come Sunday afternoon.

The GT4 European Series is set to bring 17 GT4 cars to Silverstone, with a variety of machinery including the Chevrolet Camaro GT4, Ekris BMW M4 GT4, Porsche Cayman PRO4 GT4 and more.

The Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 will finally make its British GT debut, although the Brookspeed car of Graeme Mundy and Steven Liquorish is part of the European series.

A few teams including Lanan Racing had announced their intention of running the new Porsche this season but the cars have still not been delivered in time.

The race will start at 12:50 p.m. local time on Sunday, June 12, and it will be shown live on Motors TV to British audiences for the first time since Brands Hatch.