SILVERSTONE 24H GETS BUMPER ENTRY

Near-capacity grid for touring car-only endurance

This weekend’s Silverstone 24 Hours has attracted the largest grid for almost a decade, with 45 crews signed up so far.

This year the race will be run by Dutch endurance organiser Creventic after being sold by former Britcar boss James Tucker last year. The Silverstone 24 Hours will form the first leg of Creventic’s new Touring Car Endurance Series, which will also hold events at Slovakiaring (24 hours) and Meppen in Germany (12 hours).

This weekend’s event at Silverstone will also count for points for the main 24 Hour Series, which operates for both tin-top and GT cars.

Creventic’s Natasha Mark said she was happy with the entry figure.

“We have 45 entries, with teams and drivers from 21 different countries, and many from the UK and Ireland so we are very happy,” she said.

“The entire Touring Car Endurance Series came about because the feedback we got from the announcement that Silverstone would be Tc-only was so strong. We wanted to persuade drivers who normally compete in our other events with GT cars to get back to their roots and find a drive with one of the touring car teams to score points towards the main 24 Hour Series.

“Being the promoter of the Silverstone 24 Hours is a new challenge. But there should be a 24-hour race like this in the UK, a country that many consider as a leader in motorsport.”

The entry is the largest for any 24-hour race at Silverstone since the 2008 Britcar 24 Hours, which boasted a 51-car entry, the largest in the event’s history.

Barwell Motorsport head Mark Lemmer has been around Silverstone’s 24 Hours event since its inception in 2005. He said: “The race has a big future as a touring-car only event. The cars easily fit the circuit noise restrictions and the racing is such good value now.”