Chris Tolman, the managing director of Tolman Motorsport says he is delighted with the debut of the team’s new Mitsubishi Evo IX race car. The team gave the car it’s maiden run in the opening rounds of the 2015 Britcar Trophy Championship at Silverstone on Sunday. Gary Furst drove the new machine to a pair of third place finishes overall.
A disrupted qualifying saw Furst in third for the first race though come the start of the action, the changeable conditions saw the pole sitting McLaren MP4-12C GT3 and the GT4 Aston Martin which shared the front row pit after the green flag lap to change tyres.
That put the Mistubishi Lancer Evo on the pole for the start of the race but even with the delays for the GT3 and GT4 spec machines there was little chance of a Class 3 saloon car holding off the race bred supercars. Despite the fact that Furst was driving alone he was required to make the mandatory pit stop and wait in the pit box for the minimum time.
The McLaren passed Furst along with the FF Corse Ferrari 458 Challenge of John Seale. The Ferrari took the victory while Daniel Gibson drove a solo run to second place. That left Furst to hold off Andrew Howard and Paul Hollywood in the Beechdean AMR Aston Martin for the class win and third overall.
The second race of the day was gridded based on the results of race one which put Furst back into third place on the grid. More stable weather conditions meant that there were no promotions thanks to last minute tyre changes but a start line accident put the TVR Sagaris of Glynnsport out and deployed the safety car. An uneventful race after the restart saw the Tolman machine hold third place to the flag, the best spectator in a ding-dong battle between the Gibson Motorsport McLaren and FF Corse McLaren.
Chris Tolman said, “I’m delighted with this weekend’s performance. We’ve been working very hard over the winter to develop not only the car’s pace but also, reliability and this weekend shows that we have achieved both.
“Gary ran without any problems at all and put in a superb performance, staying out of trouble and getting the most out of the car. He was extremely consistent and the result is clear to see.”
The Tolman Motorsport Mitsubishi will not be racing in the upcoming Dunlop 24 Hours at Silverstone but will take part in the supporting Britcar Trophy Championship rounds on Saturday 25 April.