When Tom Wrigley completed his hat trick of victories at Knockhill last month, the general consensus was that the destination of the 2016 Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup title had been decided, and it was a case of when, not if, the Rob Boston Racing ace would seal the crown.
As anyone in the paddock will tell you though, “anything can happen in motorsport” and last time out at Rockingham, the title race was blown wide as open as Wrigley suffered a double retirement, which opened the door for Will Burns to slash his points lead from 93 to just 19.
Wrigley will be looking to reassert his dominance this weekend at Silverstone and the 24 year old remains the title favourite, his pace advantage over the season having produced nine victories and thirteen podium finishes in the first fourteen races, plus an unmatched four pole positions so far.
Burns is the driver with the momentum behind him now though after drawing level with Wrigley’s tally of thirteen top three finishes this season at Rockingham, as he continued a consistent, podium-focused campaign that is reminiscent of Adam Morgan’s title-winning run in 2011.
With it now incredibly unlikely that the title will be decided this weekend, both drivers’ focus will be solely on out-scoring the other and avoiding a repeat performance of their dramatic race-ending contact at the circuit twelve months ago after Wrigley had qualified on pole for the first time.
While those two have eyes on the title, one driver benefitting from having the pressure off is Jamie Orton, who is the current in-form driver in the series with four victories in his last six races and he will be looking to steal the spotlight from the title contenders once again this time out.
Two other drivers heading into the weekend with momentum are Mark Davies, who secured his first Supercup win for three years at Rockingham as part of six top five finishes in the last seven races, and Tom Hibbert, who has picked up a second place finish in each of the last two meetings.
Carl Boardley and Ben Green have both tasted podium success in recent meetings as well and will also be factors at the head of the field this weekend – Boardley having secured one top three result on each of the last three weekends, while Green took a double podium at Knockhill.
The podium battle this weekend will be bolstered by a pair of exciting debutants in newly-crowned Ginetta GT5 Challenge champion Ollie Chadwick and 2014 Ginetta Junior victor Jack Mitchell, who will both make their Supercup debuts having gained experience in British GT this year.
They will be battling it out in a Pro class field that also features Ginetta stalwarts Reece Somerfield and Rob Gaffney, the former returning to the grid after missing Rockingham, as well as Callum Pointon, who enjoyed a breakthrough top four finish last time out.
In the AM category meanwhile, Colin White is fully on course to defend his class title with his CWS Racing squad. The Ginetta stalwart has taken fourteen class victories in the seventeen races to date, which has built him a seemingly unsurmountable 115 point lead.
The only driver remaining in the field that has beaten White to victory this season is Chris Ingram, who took a second win of the campaign at Rockingham to almost certainly cement second in the points, with Fraser Robertson now hunting down the Grahame Tilley for third in class. David Brooks, Gary Lancashire and Chris Car complete the AM entry.
The weekend’s action begins with qualifying at 09:00 on Saturday, with the opening race following that afternoon at 14:05. Two more races come on Sunday at 10:15 and 15:50, the second of which is set to be televised live on ITV4 and itv.com.
Full championship standings ahead of the weekend can be found here.