Macmillan AMR on Pole for Silverstone 500

Photo: British GT

Macmillan AMR will start the Silverstone 500 from pole position after Jack Mitchell and James Littlejohn combined to score the fastest combined lap time in Qualifying on Saturday. 

Littlejohn topped the GT3 Am session with a lap time of 2:01.741 while Mitchell set a similar time to set an combined lap time of 4:03.573.

As Mitchell was the slower of the Silver pairing, he will be behind the wheel of the No. 24 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 for the start of tomorrow’s three-hour race.

“The BoP’s perhaps a little more in our favour this weekend and you can see that from how close it is at the top,” commented Littlejohn.

“Jack and I did a really good job compared to the other Astons given the extra weight we carry as a Silver pair, but maybe I lost a little bit of time as we’d never run new tires here before qualifying.

“One-lap pace isn’t our strongest suit anyway because we work harder at managing the pace over a stint given the extra weight.

“Some of the newer cars are naturally better at that, but at Rockingham we were able to build a gap at the start, which helped us towards the end when we weren’t as fast.”

Rick Parfitt will line up alongside him in his Team Parker Racing Bentley Continental GT3 while the Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3 and championship-leading Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 will be on the second row.

Series returnee Adam Christodoulou set the fastest time of the session, a 2:00.312, but a slower time from Richard Neary in the Am session means Team ABBA with Rollcentre Racing will start sixth.

GT4 points leaders Will Tregurtha and Stuart Middleton will start from class pole position for HHC Motorsport, with a combined time of 4:26.554.

It is the second pole of the season for the No. 55 Ginetta G55 GT4.

Sandy Mitchell and Ciaran Haggerty will start from second in the Black Bull Garage 59 McLaren 570S GT4, meanwhile.

The two Invitational-entered cars took part in the GT4 sessions, and Stratton Motorsport’s Lotus Evora went 2.2 seconds faster with its combined time than the HHC car.

The Silverstone 500 starts at 1:35 p.m. local time tomorrow, and will be streamed live on the series’ Facebook page.

RESULTS: Qualifying

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.