The Silverstone round of this year’s Blancpain Endurance Series (May 24-25) will bring factory supported racing Bentleys back to a British track for the first time in over 80 years.
M-Sport Bentley’s pair of Continental GT3 began their season with top ten finishes at the season opener at Monza despite some issues with tyre wear beneath the heavy machine. However, the team believe they have made significant steps forward in the weeks between the two events and are confident of raising the bar even higher on home soil.
“The team has come a long way since the first race,” said Brian Gush, Bentley’s Director of Motorsport. “As a new team, we learnt a great deal over the race weekend at Monza and we’ve had time to work on every area for improvement. We’re expecting the Continental GT3 to be well-suited to the long, fast corners of Silverstone so I’m hopeful of another strong finish in the points.”
The team of Jerome D’Ambrosio, Antoine LeClerc and Duncan Tappy are hoping to improve on both the seventh place finish from Monza and the best finish of 11th position that a works Bentley recorded in their last race on UK soil at the 1930 RAC Tourist Trophy race at Ards in Northern Island.
“We’re definitely looking to improve on our 7th place finish from Monza,” said Tappy. “The team has worked incredibly hard on every detail of our race operation to give us the best chance of success, and I can’t wait to take the car racing in our home country. We’re expecting a good crowd, and particularly a large turnout from the Bentley factory in Crewe. It’s a real honour to be one of the drivers bringing Bentley back to racing in the UK again.”
The all British team of Steven Kane, Guy Smith and Andy Meyrick ended the three hour race at Monza in eighth place after running second in the opening stint.
“The Silverstone race weekend is set to be really exciting for us as a team,” said Meyrick. “If the car is fast here, it’ll give us real confidence for the rest of the season. Racing in the UK in any car is always fantastic – to do it in a Bentley makes it incredibly special. We really want to give the British fans something to cheer about.”
MotorsTV will provide TV coverage of the event while www.theCheckeredFlag.co.uk will have reports from each of the weekend’s sessions.
