+ Optimum’s McLaren beats Century and Paradine BMWs
+ Innovation triumph on GT4 debut with Holland and Simpson
+ Result: 2026 Silverstone 500
Optimum’s strategic masterstroke helped Yasser Shahin and Garnet Patterson lift the historic 1932 RAC Trophy at the Silverstone 500, while Innovation Racing and Hadley Simpson – as well as Thomas Holland – converted pole position into GT4 victory on their series debuts in British GT’s blue riband season opener.
In terms of pure pace, the three-hour encounter should have been won by Darren Leung and Dan Harper who controlled the race from pole position for the first two-and-a-half hours. But a combination of Safety Car timing and Optimum’s pitstop gamble ultimately restricted Paradine’s BMW to third overall behind another M4: Century’s example shared by Jonathon Beeson and Charles Clark.
As well as finishing second, the Silver-Am duo also lead GT3’s early standings by dint of Shahin and Patterson’s guest entry status. However, their overall victory will go down as the first for an Australian since Charlie Cox won at Croft in September 1997.
Further back, Holland and Simpson converted GT4 pole position into victory over MK Racing’s Aston Martin of Jessica Hawkins and Will Orton, while the Optimum McLaren shared by Luca Hopkinson and Josh Stanton completed a top three covered by 1.8s. It was the first time in two years that a team other than Century or Optimum had won the class, as well as Ginetta’s first victory since 2023.
Another G56 was also firmly in contention before unfortunate pitstop and Safety Car timing restricted Luke Shaw and Jack Mitchell to fifth overall. However, Toro Verde’s duo did at least celebrate winning the Pro-Am class.
GT3: STRATEGY TRUMPS SPEED
Starting ninth, Optimum’s #3 McLaren wasn’t an obvious candidate to win British GT’s showpiece event. But a good getaway and clever strategy call approaching half-distance caught the more fancied runners by surprise before Safety Car timing ultimately helped seal the deal for Shahin and Patterson.
They were also aided by several frontrunners hitting trouble.
The chances of 2 Seas’ most likely victory candidates took a literal hit on the opening lap at Copse where team-mates Charles Dawson and Kevin Tse came to blows. The latter retired with broken front left suspension soon after, triggering a short first Safety Car period, while the Mercedes-AMG shared by the reigning champions finished 18 laps down.
Leung blasted clear at the first restart, setting the tone for what could have been a record-breaking afternoon for himself and Harper who were chasing consecutive 500 wins and a third in total. Their cause was further aided by a fire removing Barwell’s Rob Collard and Hugo Cook from second place and the unfortunate Safety Car timing plus stop-go penalty that derailed Morgan Tillbrook and Ben Barnicoat. The latter’s short but sweet second stint vaulted Optimum’s #77 McLaren from sixth to second thanks to passing moves on Patterson, Marcus Clutton, Ross Gunn and Cook, but also inadvertently cost the car time when its rivals made their second stops during the third FCY/SC period.
But while one of Optimum’s off-beat strategies cost time, another ultimately helped Shahin and Patterson claim victory. Theirs was the first GT3 entry to stop twice, and although it was made under green flag conditions after 70 minutes, it opened up the possibility of completing the third mandatory driver change during a hoped-for Safety Car period.
Two duly appeared in quick succession at fortuitous moments for the #3 crew who made their final stop whilst running 11th during the fourth neutralisation, which coincided with the race ticking into its final 65 minutes – the maximum stint length permitted.
Leung, meanwhile, handed over to Harper with 40 minutes left aware that Optimum’s McLaren had effectively gained a free pitstop. Paradine’s crew were running the perfect race up to that point but had no answer for the rapidly advancing Patterson.
There was worse to come for the guest M4 when a fifth Safety Car period played perfectly into the hands of Beeson and Clark who were on the limit of their drive time when Duncan Cameron beached his Lamborghini. The subsequent pitstop whilst everyone else circulated at reduced speed helped Century’s BMW rejoin behind Patterson but ahead of Harper who ran out of laps to catch a top two separated by 1.4s at the finish.
Orange Racing powered by JMH converted its strong start into fourth overall thanks to Simon Orange and Clutton’s faultless performance, while Barwell’s Alex Martin and Jarrod Waberski finished one place ahead of where they lined up in fifth.
Beechdean’s Aston Martin frequently found itself near the front before an incident with 2 Seas’ Aaron Walker compromised Andrew Howard’s final stint. He and Gunn recovered to complete the top six ahead of Optimum’s Tillbrook and Barnicoat, and Walker and Andrew Gilbert – whose 2 Seas outfit won Team of the Weekend for their efforts to strip and rebuild the car after a fire in testing. Paddock’s Mark Smith and Martin Plowman, and Mahiki’s Steven Lake and Josh Rowledge rounded out the first 10.
GT4: INNOVATION TAKES ITS CHANCE
A controlled drive coupled with reactive strategy around the Safety Car periods helped Holland and Simpson score a debut victory for Innovation Racing.
While Holland and Simpson started on pole and were perhaps pre-race favourites aboard the #74 Ginetta, the road to victory in the 500 is rarely a straightforward one and both the drivers and team had some key calls to make across a race that featured five caution periods that threatened to turn strategy into a lottery.
Holland took the start but soon found himself under pressure from Jamie Orton’s MK Racing Aston Martin, which blew past to lead on the opening lap. However, Holland continued to tail the Vantage before re-taking the lead down the Wellington Straight on lap seven.
From there he pulled a near three-second gap by the time the race’s second caution period provided an ideal window to hand over to Simpson. The leading pack pitted as one, with Orton and Shaw in the Toro Verde GT G56 following Holland in.
Shaw and Mitchell had proved the biggest threat to Innovation in qualifying, and Mitchell backed that up in the second stint by working his way past Hawkins in the MK car before hauling in Simpson and making a fine pass out of Aintree to lead. The decision to pit early in favour of running Mitchell long later would prove costly, however, when the driver change at half distance under green flag conditions took longer than their rivals’ subsequent stops during the third caution period, which scuppered the chance of an outright win.
By contrast Innovation’s second well-timed stop got #74 back out into a lead it would never lose. Holland built a five-second gap back to the MK Aston before swapping with Simpson for the final time under yet another convenient Full Course Yellow period in the final 30 minutes.
The upshot of that late Safety Car was the top three GT4 contenders restarting the final sprint to the flag covered by fractions. Approaching the final lap, Simpson lead both Hawkins and Stanton’s Optimum McLaren by less than a second but was never seriously challenged en route to victory.
Stanton and Hopkinson completed the podium after a fine drive that included Stanton fending off a very late challenge from the Jack Collins/Branden Templeton Century BMW, which itself finished less than four seconds behind the overall winner and made it as many different brands inside the top four.
While the overall strategy failed to deliver the victory their pace deserved, Shaw and Mitchell still secured the Pro-Am glory in fifth overall ahead of John Hartshorne and Ronan Pearson’s GBR Stratton Aston Martin, and Ernie Graham and Colin Turkington who overcame a mid-race drive-through to score a class podium for WSR Flexifly on its GT racing debut.
Next up it’s Oulton Park where British GT’s three-hour format gives way to a pair of 60-minute races over the Bank Holiday weekend of May 23 & 25.
