SILVERSTONE GT4 SUCCESS AGAIN FOR TOPHAM/TURNER
Newbridge Motorsport Aston Martin crew Darren Turner and Matt Topham repeated their 2021 Silverstone victory in GT4 with a long-running strategy that took advantage of the Pro-am pair’s shorter pitstops.
Their second consecutive win was founded on keeping clean, as fancied Silver rivals hit strife, and spending 14 seconds less in the pits for each of their three mandatory driver changes. They romped to victory by over half a minute from Richard Williams and Sennan Fielding’s pole-winning Steller Audi.
Turner admitted to being disappointed with qualifying only sixth as the Audi checked in 1.4s quicker on aggregate times than nearest challengers Marco Signoretti/matt Cowley (Academy Ford Mustang). But, in the chaotic early laps, survival was the name of the game.
Will Burns (Century BMW) punted Signoretti wide at Stowe on lap one, before Josh Miller (R Racing Aston) turned Williams around at Village on lap two. Burns thus led Miller – who would be penalised for that contact, and a refuelling infringement – and returnee Jordan Collard until a right-rear puncture for the Speedworks Toyota dropped him and Tom Edgar from contention. Meanwhile, an undamaged Williams began his fightback, rising to third behind Burns and his team-mate Tom Rawlings before making his first stop on lap 10.
As Burns pulled away, Rawlings held back Ross Wylie’s Valluga Porsche and the recovering Signoretti, Topham keeping a watching brief behind. Content to set his own pace and not get involved in scraps, Topham ran longer than anybody in the opening stint, pitting 18 tours after Williams on lap 28.
Newbridge and Steller’s strategies diverged again thereafter, the Audi squad completing its driver changes five laps before the end of Turner’s long second stint. The three-time Le Mans class winner picked off Chris Salkeld (in for Rawlings)
and Cowley, then closed on Wylie’s impressive co-driver Matthew Graham before pitting.
Following a seven-lap burst from Topham, Turner took over again, rejoining 20s clear of Jack Brown (in for Burns). Losing half a minute in his final stop to a refuelling problem put Fielding back behind Graham in fourth, but he eventually worked an opening to claim third on the road – which became second when a post-race 40s penalty for Burns/brown dropped them to fifth.
“It was just a clean, non-dramatic race in terms of strategy,” said Turner. “We just need to learn how to get these tyres to work in qualifying.”