Tilley happy with third place at Silverstone
GRAHAME Tilley was back in action on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit for the latest rounds of the GT Cup, writes Peter Scherer.
After the morning qualifying session, his Mercedes AMG GT3 was ninth quickest.
“Quicker than I had managed in my Nissan, but I had a bit of understeer and was losing time in the slower corners,” said the 70-year-old Leicester racer.
Two first lap incidents immediately brought out the safety car in race one, with Tilley having held station in ninth.
Five laps later, the green flag was finally waved and it became a fourlap sprint to the chequered flag.
Into Village on lap six, Tilley dived inside James Webb’s Lamborghini for eighth, but any hopes of further progression disappeared as time ran out.
“Not a bad start but then I got boxed in and Webb got me through Copse. The car was fine but no time to do much after the safety car,” said Tilley.
In the second race, he had been in ninth again from the start but with the two McLarens ahead delaying each other in a duel, he was able to close.
After passing Leo Loucas on lap six, he closed on John Whitehouse and got him at Abbey a few laps later when he ran wide.
But the gap to sixth was out of reach and was still over 12 seconds at the flag, despite Will Tregurtha’s best efforts to close, after he took over for the second half of the race.
Conditions were changeable for the following day’s qualifying where Tilley was eighth best.
“It was damp and I couldn’t maximise early in the session as it was so unpredictable,” he said.
It was wet tyres for the race though and Tilley was 10th on the opening lap when the safety car appeared after two separate opening lap incidents.
With drivers opting to pit for slicks on a drying track, Tilley decided to stay out and was in fifth place when the race went live again.
He quickly got to grips with the conditions and was up to fourth on lap five and a magnificent second a lap later. Time was running out but he was being caught too, with Burgess’s slick shod Radical flying by after exiting Copse on the last lap.
“I decided to stay on wets, but was passed by two cars behind the safety car,” said Tilley.
“I got the places back and then Steve just powered ahead at the end, but happy with third,” he said.
It was dry for the final race of the weekend, with Tilley chasing Lucky Khera’s Lamborghini for seventh from the start.
He got ahead of Khera but lost out to the two McLarens he had battled with in the earlier races.
“I lost ground in the early laps and had a lot of understeer,” said Tilley as he pitted to hand to Tregurtha from eighth posiiton.
Tregurtha’s final charge managed to claim back one place.
“I tried hard but it was understeering everywhere and just too hard to make up ground,” he said.