Jack Mitchell and James Littlejohn are confident their Macmillan AMR Aston Martin Vantage is getting ‘stronger and stronger’, after bagging another podium with second at the blue riband three-hour Silverstone 500 event on Sunday.
After claiming a second pole position in consecutive events – sealing race one pole at Snetterton last month – Mitchell was out-muscled into the first corner by eventual race winner Rick Parfitt Jnr in the #31 Team Parker Racing Bentley.
“The plan was to protect the lead obviously, but Rick got a really good start and we were struggling to keep with him at first,” Mitchell said.
The blazingly fast Bentley couldn’t fully escape Mitchell’s clutches however, with the Macmillan racer battling back to close the lead gap heading into the first round of pit-stops. Despite the extra weight as a silver pairing, the 19-year-old is confident that the ever-improving Macmillan Aston Martin can continue to challenge at the front.
“The extra weight as a silver pairing killed us a little bit over the longer distance, but we’ve working hard on our race strategy and we’re improving each race.”
Mitchell’s partner Littlejohn was equally positive about the #24 Aston Martin’s overall speed, and believes that an impressive set of results in 2017 despite a lack of testing means the duo are destined to improve even further heading into the second half of the season.
“We haven’t done any testing this year, so we’re on the back foot a little bit, but every race we’re getting stronger and stronger,” Littlejohn commented.
“It’s my first year in GT racing, and it’s Jack’s first year in GT3, so we’re developing the car and ourselves race by race.”
