Barwell Motorsport take the win at the 2022 Silverstone 500 after a late race challenge from Marvin Kirchhoefer saw the gap just 0.5s as the cars crossed the line at the flag. Sandy Mitchel reclaimed the lead as the Garage 59 McLaren 720S left the pit lane for the final time with 35 minutes left to run. Mitchel claimed a series record becoming the first two-time winner of the Silverstone 500. Matt Topham and Darren Turner also claimed the class record in GT4 with back-to-back wins, this time they had a 30-second lead on the road over the #90 Century Motorsport BMW of Jack Brown and Will Burns before the duo took a 40-second penalty for causing a collision.
Sennan Fielding made a late move on Matthew Graham to claim second overall for the Stellar Motorsport Audi and first in the Silver class.
The race results from Silverstone will remain provisional whilst the results of Oulton Park’s second race are confirmed. Any changes will not impact the GT3 or GT4 winners. Championship points will be awarded once the results are finalised.
GT3
With no designated pit window and a maximum driving time of 100 minutes per driver, the strategy calls for each team were wide open. These mixed strategies saw the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan and the Garage 59 McLaren 720S fighting throughout the race at various points as the pit strategies overlapped. The battle which culminated in the final stint was a result of a chaotic opening few laps in which multiple front-running cars became entangled. The 2 Seas Mercedes of James Cottingham and the Team Abba Mercedes of Richard Neary were involved in a collision which collected Ian Loggie at Club on lap one causing Cottingham to retire. Alex Malykhin took an early lead but was forced to take a stop-go penalty for making excessive contact with the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan of Sandy Mitchell.
Alexander West got off to a great start, fighting his way up the pack from tenth on the grid to second place before losing out to Morgan Tillbrook in the Enduro Motorsport McLaren. Tillbrook made swift work, closing down the gap to Adam Balon but was unable to find a way through before Balon pitted for the first stop at the 45-minute mark to hand over to Sandy Mitchell. It was this cross-over in strategy, with Sandy Mitchell up against the Am’s for a short period of time which handed Barwell their advantage and the marginal race win. Kirchhoefer took a new GT3 lap record in his attempt to chase down Mitchell but struggled in the traffic to make a move stick. The race went down to the final corner of the final lap. Enduro’s efforts and hopes were crushed when the car was disqualified for completing 70% distance without serving their three mandatory driver changes after the fire extinguisher went off during the final stop. The one-off entry of Joe Osborne and Nick Moss in the Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S took the final step of the podium after a trouble-free run whilst other teams around them suffered problems and penalties.
Redline Racing were on a charge up the order throughout the race after serving their early penalty. They managed to recover to a gap of 51 seconds, despite serving the stop-and-go penalty and took fourth place overall. The Team Abba Mercedes AMG took fifth on the road but Richard and Sam Neary were excluded from the results for a post-race parc ferme infringement. This lifted Flick Haigh and Jonny Adam into fifth overall. Rounding out the top 10, the Assetto Motorsport Bentley of Mark Samson and Will Tregurtha finished 6th, the WPI Motorsport Lamborghini finished off a strong recovery drive with seventh place after serving a penalty and starting from the back after failing to take part in the first qualifying session. Greystone GT claimed eighth in the hands of Stewart and Lewis Proctor, Paddock Motorsport finished ninth, Aston Martin and Beechdean stalwart Andrew Howard stepped in for Kelvin Fletcher who had filming commitments with the Sky Tempesta Racing Mercedes of Kevin Tse and Chris Froggatt completing the top 10.
GT4
Matt Topham and Darren Turner secured back-to-back Silverstone 500 wins with a 34-second lead across the finish line. The fight for the win went well into the final hour of the race, the Pro Am duo were under pressure throughout the race thanks to the varying strategies from the competition.
Richard Williams started the race on pole with the Steller Motorsport Audi and came under immediate pressure from Will Burns in the Century Motorsport BMW, Josh Miller in the R Racing Aston Martin and Marco Signoretti in the Academy Motorsport Mustang. Williams was taken out early on by the R Racing Aston, Miller received a 10-second stop-go penalty. Signoretti was caught up early on in traffic with a GT3 car and fell down the order. Jordan Collard suffered a right rear puncture in the Toyota Gazoo Racing Supra with damage forcing the car out of contention. Will Burns took an early lead in the BMW M4 after Stellar pitted early to switch Williams for Senna Fielding, allowing the pro driver a chance to claw back time. Century Motorsport, Valluga Racing and Newbridge Motorsport all opted to run longer opening stints, holding onto track position. Due to the Pro-Am pairing, each stop Newbridge made would be 14s shorter than the Silver Cup entries and with Aston Martin legend Darren Turner at the wheel and on fresh tyres, Newbridge quickly began making quick progress, establishing an early advantage and taking the lead overall before the second round of pit stops in the final hour of the race.
The Century Motorsport BMW looked on for a secure second place but took a 40-second penalty post-race for causing a collision, dropping them down to fifth overall. With Stellar out of sync with strategies compared to the other teams around them resulted in Fielding running fourth in the closing minutes, right on the rear end of Matthew Graham in the Valluga Porsche. Fielding eventually managed to take the position with a move into Vale in the final moments. The Academy Mustang finished fourth in class with Chris Salkeld and Tom Rawlings taking sixth position in the second Century Motorsport BMW.
