Race Highlights
Catch up with Sunday’s race with the official highlights package on YouTube.
Century Motorsport leads championship on GT3 comeback
Century Motorsport’s #44 BMW M4 GT3 Evo leads the overall and GT3 Silver-Am class championship standings — as well as GT3 Teams’ — after its first GT3 British GT appearance since 2024.
On its GT3 comeback, it scored the most points on offer despite not taking the outright win, because the winning #3 Optimum Motorsport McLaren GT3 Evo featured guest drivers Garnet Patterson and Yasser Shahin, who were ineligible for points.
That said, Patterson/Shahin became British GT’s first Silver-Am drivers to win overall since the 2024 Silverstone 500. It was also the first win by an Australian driver(s) since September 1997, when Charlie Cox won at Croft in September 1997 — in a Harrier LR9 GT97 GT1 car.
Ultimately, Century’s #44 BMW scored the maximum 37.5 points with Jonathan Beeson and SRO GT Academy teammate Charles Clark, being part of the 26-car grid contesting the full 2026 season.
Clark, in the final stint, lapped quicker than Patterson’s #3 McLaren but fell 1.438 seconds short at the flag.
As the race reached its fifth caution period, strategy played a part in Century’s success as team principal Nathan Freke explained to DSC.
“As it happened, #90 (Optimum McLaren), who was our undercut threat, actually had an issue, so that took the pressure off us, and we just decided to wait out for as long as we possibly could with JB to hunt for a Full-Course-Yellow, and when it seemed like the race had completely calmed down, we were preparing to box.
“And then we looked at the TV screen, and Duncan Cameron in the (#55 Barwell) Lamborghini was sitting in the gravel, and we absolutely knew at that point we were pitting.
“The beauty was that the #3 Optimum McLaren car had already been out for 15 laps at this point, so we were actually quite keen to get the safety car period over and done with so Charles could go hunting on a brand new set of tyres and low fuel, and we really thought we had a chance to overturn and challenge for the victory.
“But sadly, the safety car took a little bit longer than expected and only left something like seven minutes of green flag racing, and whilst Charles took the majority of the lead out of the #3 car over those laps, it was just too little time to do it.
“And it’s a nice feeling, because 2024 in British GT3 was a challenging year for us, and as a result, we didn’t get any cars in 2025 in GT3.
“So coming back to British GT3 and a podium on the first round is a very special feeling for us, and it just sets us off on the right foot.”
Century’s success marked its first Silverstone 500 podium since Darren Leung and Dan Harper’s 2023 victory, and it is the team’s first overall GT3 podium since the 2023 Donington Decider.
Paradine claims podium after early dominance falls short
Paradine’s #91 pairing and 2023 champions, Leung and Harper, turned heads when they qualified on pole with a dominant qualifying performance.
At the race start, Leung built a 2.5s lead after just one lap over Rob Collard (#63 Barwell Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2).
That gap quickly disappeared for the safety car deployed for 2 Seas’ stricken #18 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Kevin Tse.
Its contact with the other #1 2 Seas Mercedes of Charles Dawson and Kiern Jewiss quickly eliminated the 2025 champions as likely challengers for the win against Leung/Harper.
The #91 BMW led most of the race, repeatedly rebuilding gaps after caution periods but dropped out of contention towards the final half of the race.
“We had our chips down in very good positions,” said Leung. “But the problem is that the pack spreads out so much here quite early in the race that when an intervention happens, different strategies make sense to different cars.
“So it splits the strategies, and then not everybody’s going to win from that. So unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of that today.
“There’s obviously still some homework to see if there’s one or two things we could have done differently to cover things in a different way, but from what I can see, the #3 car just got blessed with being in the right place at the right time. We’ll be back next year to give it another go.”
Orange Racing by JMH leads Pro-Am standings as Beechdean follows suit
The #67 Orange Racing by JMH McLaren GT3 Evo claimed fourth as Marcus Clutton and Simon Orange bettered their fifth-place finish in the 2025 Silverstone 500, and now lead the Pro-Am standings.
It was their strongest start to a season together, beating their seventh-place finish at the 2025 Donington Park season-opener.
Second place in the points was the Beechdean duo Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn, who finished sixth overall in the #7 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo in an encouraging return to the Pro-Am class after the team won the Silver-Am title last year.
Howard climbed seven places at the start, showing impressive early pace.
The British GT stalwart ran in third, as did Gunn during his first laps behind the wheel, and defended against a charging Ben Barnicoat (#77 Optimum McLaren), still holding onto third until being passed just before the end of the opening hour.
Beechdean finished third in the Pro-Am category, behind the #67 Orange Racing JMH McLaren and the non-points scoring guest entry, the #91 Paradine BMW.
Innovation Racing celebrates star-studded British GT debut with pole and victory
Innovation Racing made an immediate impression on debut, taking pole and victory with its #74 Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo in the hands of teammates Hadley Simpson and Thomas Holland.
Forsetti Motorsport were the last team to take both pole and race victory on its British GT4 debut two years ago.
It was also the first time in two years since a team other than Optimum or Century won in the GT4 category, and Ginetta’s first win since 2023.
From pole, Innovation’s Holland was quickly challenged by one of their main rivals, the #21 MK Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo, driven by Will Orton.
Orton took the lead from third place, before Holland fought back and returned the favour after 30 minutes of racing.
MK Racing’s Aston Martin couldn’t match the Ginetta’s speed, but Orton and teammate Jessica Hawkins put up a fight to the end and brought second place (27 points) at the turn of the team’s maiden full-season British GT campaign.
Third in the GT4 was the #59 Optimum McLaren Artura of Luca Hopkinson and British GT newbie Josh Stanton on 23.5 points, all top-three in the GT4 Silver rankings.
Toro Verde GT heads GT4 Pro-Am with Ginetta
Along with Innovation’s Ginetta leading overall, the Toro Verde GT #42 Ginetta of Luke Shaw and Jack Mitchell, which started with the #74 on the front row, claimed GT4 Pro-Am victory.
Another Aston Martin sits second in Pro-Am, with the new team GBR Stratton and its #97 drivers, Ronan Pearson and John Hartshorne.
Whilst it was Pearson’s first taste of racing in GT4, Hartshorne dusted off the cobwebs in his first British GT race since 2014, which was in an Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 car.
In a Pro-Am category of six cars, the #61 West Surrey Racing BMW M4 GT4 Evo took a podium with its drivers, four-time BTCC champion Colin Turkington and Ernie Graham.
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
