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New Silver-Am Category Introduced for 2021

British GT introduces Silver-Am class for 2021 season; new calendar also revealed…

Photo: British GT

The Intelligent Money British GT Championship has introduced a new class structure for the 2021 season with a Silver-Am category set to replace the existing Silver Cup.

From next year driver lineups with two Silver-rated drivers will be banned while teams wanting to run a Silver driver will need to pair them with a Bronze-rated competitor.

According to British GT, the rule change has been made to “redress the balance” between Pro-Am crews featuring amateur drivers alongside and teams running higher-graded Silvers, following an increase in Silver Cup entries for the 2020 season.

Four of the top five pairings in the overall championship standings are of Silver-Silver composition.

Silver driver categorizations in British GT are defined by the series because of not all drivers who are ranked Silver by the FIA “automatically qualify” for the series.

British GT defines Silvers as “promising but less experienced young drivers, GT4 graduates or those contributing some budget when paired with a Bronze-graded amateur.”

Silver-Am crews next season will score points for the overall championship whilst also receiving their own individual class accolades.

The GT4 division’s existing class structure is set to continue next season with Pro-Am, Silver Cup and Am crews permitted. 

Seven Dates on 2021 Calendar

British GT has also unveiled its provisional calendar for next season with seven rounds including an overseas trip to Spa-Francorchamps in July.

The campaign is set to begin at Oulton Park on Apr. 3-5 for the series’ traditional Easter Monday meeting, before heading to Snetterton for another sprint round.

The rest of the season’s events will feature standalone endurance races with visits to Brands Hatch, Silverstone, Donington Park and Spa on the cards.

Silverstone’s three-hour race – the longest of the season – has been moved two weeks back from its usual early June date to avoid a conflict with the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Donington’s two dates are subject to confirmation, while the provisional schedule avoids clashes with the schedules recently put out by SRO’s GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and the GT4 European Series.

2021 British GT Schedule (provisional)
Apr. 3-5: Oulton Park (2x 1-hour)
Apr. 24-25: Snetterton (2x 1-hour)
May. 22-23: Brands Hatch GP (2 hours)
Jun. 26-27: Silverstone 500 (3 hours)
Jul. 10-11*: Donington Park (2 hours)
Jul. 24-25: Spa-Francorchamps (2 hours)
Sep. 11-12*: Donington Park (2 hours)

Daniel Lloyd is a UK-based reporter for Sportscar365, covering the FIA World Endurance Championship, Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, among other series.

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