Not since 2005 had the British GT Championship used the (Bridge) GP Circuit at Silverstone, but the prospect of a two hour race on this classic course had attracted a healthy and very competitive grid for the mid-August round. 26 cars were on the entry – 15 GT3s, 9 G4s and 2 Invitation cars – with four of these being entered by Chad Racing.

The #10 and #21 Ferrari Scuderias were again crewed by Tom Ferrier/Paul Warren and Chris Hyman/Dan Brown respectively, while Athanasios Ladas returned with his KTM X-Bow. The Greek double-Rockingham-winner was, however, joined for this race by another GT4 European Cup rival, Dutch BMW racer Kevin Veltman, with Michael Mallock team-managing the shark-liveried car.

The third GT3 was not the Argentine Ferrari 430, but a car that has proven to be very competitive this year – the ‘European’ Scuderia, which in its guise as #87 has claimed a podium finish, taken pole and led races in this year’s FIA GT3 Championship; and which also finished (as #17) sixth in the 150 minute Belcar race at Spa. For its BGT debut, the Ferrari would wear #15 and would be shared by its regular Belcar crew of Iain Dockerill and Steven Kane, fresh from taking third at the last Belgian round.

Facing the Chad runners was a very high calibre field, with drivers such as Richard Westbrook and Darren Turner; but, with the regulations the way they were, those cars with larger fuel tanks – the Porsches and the Ford GT – stood to have a distinct advantage, as they could go much further on a tank of fuel and thus could get the Pro driver in a lot sooner, as was the case in Belgium. The Ferraris, Astons and other cars, however, had a fuel range of little more than an hour, meaning the professional and amateur drive in each car would have similar stints. In the interests of fairness, Piers Masarati joined other team bosses to lobby the organisers to extend the minimum driver time, and – with an encouragingly positive reaction from all teams – it was agreed that each driver must spend at least 45 minutes in the car.

Dan Brown had managed to get some testing in prior to the race, but not in his own Ferrari; “Tom and Paul weren’t available due to other commitments,” he began, “so I stepped in to drive the #10. It was really interesting to see that two apparently identical cars in reality behaved and handled quite differently – the gearbox on the #10 is smoother and quicker than ours, but the #21 has better brakes.”

It later transpired that Tom Ferrier had tested the #21 at Rockingham – and he had commented that it had a better gearbox than his own car. “Typical racing drivers!” was the Team Manager’s comment.

The two-week testing ban meant that Dan couldn’t drive the Ferrari at Silverstone prior to the meeting, but that didn’t stop him doing his own research; “I was here a few days ago in my old T-Car with my brother and my dad for a track day. It turned out we were on the new Arena circuit, so we ended up just having a fun day out – it’s a shame we’re not racing on that this weekend; I really like it.”

With the race being on Sunday afternoon, Saturday would see two one-hour free practice sessions and a single 30-minute qualifying session. When things kicked off at nine o’clock that morning, however, recent rain had left the track damp and slippery, and the cool and overcast conditions would dictate that wet rubber was the only realistic option.

By the end of the hour, things were looking encouraging for Chad, with all three Ferraris in the top eight and the X-Bow third in G4. However, despite a second quickest 2:12.615 from Steven Kane – the very rapid Ulsterman already making an impression on his return to the series – Iain was experiencing the Avon wet tyre for the first time and didn’t enjoy the experience. He was not alone in this, with several other teams reporting issues with the new tyre. Nevertheless, the session had been productive and incident-free and all four cars were ready to go when the second session began shortly before lunch.

The track had by now dried considerably and despite a few drops of moisture being noticeable it was time to switch to slicks. This had the affect of reducing the laptimes considerably and also of enlivening proceedings somewhat, with the first 20 minutes of the session more resembling qualifying than practice.

Dan’s session became rather more lively than he wanted when he suffered a puncture at one of the faster parts of the 3.194 mile track, but he managed to get the STP car back to the pits without incurring any damage and the #21 returned to the track soon afterwards.

A red-flag round about this time brought the initial flurry of activity to a halt, but the Chad cars had not yet been looking for a time. Steven took over the #15 for the final part of the session, while Tom did the same with #10, and both drivers found the space to go for a quick lap; Steven stopping the clock on 1:53.257 – third behind Allan Simonsen and Richard Westbrook – and Tom managing a fifth-fastest 1:53.652. The #21 ended on 1:56.711 having decided not to push things after the puncture.

By the time qualifying came round late in the afternoon, dark grey clouds were gathering over Northamptonshire and rain during the session looked to be a cert. It was therefore imperative that a fast lap was ‘banked’ in the first few minutes.

The faster driver in three of the four Chad cars started the session, and so Steven, Tom, Chris and Kevin were all strapped in and ready to roll when the lights went green under leaden skies at 17:20; and, after an outlap and with no time to waste, it was down to business.

Tom’s first flier was a 1:54.715 and he followed this up with a 1:53.223. He then backed off for a lap before trying again, but could manage only a 1:53.515 before pitting to hand over to Paul. And things were going even better for Steven Kane over in #15, as he started things off with a mighty 1:53.035. His next lap lowered that bar to 1:52.114 – second quickest, just two-tenths behind Westbrook – and he was in good shape as he started his fourth lap. Alas, with the timing screen indicating that he was even quicker, he was baulked by a Ginetta and ended the lap on 1:52.313; “The telemetry showed that he had to back right off when the Ginetta got in his way, otherwise he would have had pole by four-tenths!” confirmed Dan Brown. “I was watching the in-car footage and you could hear him swearing over the noise of the engine!”

Kane’s efforts were nevertheless hugely impressive and the car would be starting from the second row, while the #10 would be on the fourth.

Having taken over from Chris after four laps, Dan’s own session had ended in disappointment, when a major gearbox failure hit the #21 at Chapel, just as the young driver was on a quick one. His fastest up to that point – 1:54.997 – would mean a 13th place start on Sunday.

Kevin Veltman made the most of his first qualifying session in the X-Bow by setting a 2:02.204 on his third lap – good enough for fourth – before handing the open-topped car over to his Greek teammate. Athanasios, however, then found himself one of several drivers waiting in an impatient queue at the end of the pitlane after Michael Bentwood had managed to block the exit after spinning his Aston. By the time the cars were released, rain was falling and no further improvement was possible.

Warm-up the next morning saw three of the four cars taking part, but the unfortunate Dan Brown and Chris Hyman would have to wait until the race before driving the #21; the gearbox had been rebuilt successfully, but a wheel bearing problem prevented any running in the morning.

As the race start approached, Athanasios explained where how KTM’s striking livery had come about; “I have two X-Bows and they were both orange and black,” he began, “so I wanted to make one more interesting. I had an idea to draw a black spider’s web on it, but then the idea of a shark came into my head. A friend in Greece came up with the final design, of a head and mouth coming out of the water – the headlights are its eyes.”

Both Athanasios and his new teammate raced at Silverstone – on the Arena circuit – when the GT4 European Cup visited in May. Kevin was in a BMW on that occasion, so how was he finding his new mount? “It’s very stiff and it has a very low centre of gravity,” said the Dutch driver, “but it has a very good power to weight ratio and is great to drive; the acceleration and braking are excellent.”

And how was Michael Mallock enjoying his new non-driving role? “I’m having a great time,” he insisted. “I’ve got none of the stresses of having to drive the thing.”

“If we don’t do well, it’s all his fault!” chipped in Athanasios.

While most teams opted to start the race in the traditional manner, with the non-professional driver behind the wheel, Piers and his team – which included Virgo Motorsport boss Chris Warne, here running the #15 – decided to start the #10 with Tom at the helm, giving him the perfect opportunity to build up a lead in the first part of the race.

The biggest problem for the team would be co-ordinating the stops, as all three Ferraris would need to stop within a few minutes of each other, and all would have to be stationary for the mandatory minimum time of 1 minute, 51 seconds.

The race began on time on a pleasantly dry afternoon with a minimal chance of rain, but this would prove to be a fascinating contest.

The opening lap often has a significant part to play in any race, and this would prove to be the case for Iain Dockerill; alas, not in a good way. His start in the #15 was confident and successful as he assertively dived down the inside of Hector Lester’s Ferrari to claim second place. However, further round the track on that opening lap, a coming together with the #7 Trackspeed Porsche knocked the Ferrari into a spin and Iain fell to 14th.

Things were going better for the other two GT3 cars, in that they survived the opening stages of the race unscathed. Tom started the second lap with a Porsche, a Ferrari and an Aston Martin ahead of him, but had only clear track ahead as he ended the lap in the lead. Chris, meanwhile, had lost a place in the first-lap jostling, but he would soon start to make progress. In G4, Athanasios hadn’t had a great start and the X-Bow had fallen several places.

Tom now found himself being chased by the two other professional drivers to start the race – Stuart Hall in the Vantage Racing DBRS9 and Martin Short in the Rollcentre Mosler – and this trio were soon pulling away from the rest of the field; and it wasn’t long before Hall’s grasp on the Chad car began to loosen. A gap that was just half a second at the end of lap four had become almost 15 seconds by the end of lap 14.

Over the same time period, Chris’s race had been much more eventful. He fought his way up to ninth place by the end of lap ten – having passed two Astons and a Viper en route – and was embroiled in a very entertaining five-way fight for eighth when a small error caused him to spin. This left the #21 down in 12th, but there was still plenty of fight left in her.

Athanasios soon found himself being lapped by the much-faster GT3 leaders, but this did not distract him from catching and passing the Century Motorsports Ginetta of Vibe Smed on lap 15.

Back at the front, Tom was driving with impressive speed and consistency and his lead was in excess of 20 seconds – now over the Mosler – as the team readied itself for the approaching stops.

The X-Bow was the first of the Chad cars to make its scheduled stop, before Chris (lap 27), Tom (lap 30) and Iain (lap 31) made theirs. All stops went according to plan and it was now a case of waiting to see what could be achieved in the remaining 55 minutes.

“It will be interesting to see how Steven copes with the car,” said Iain, before admitting “I’m disappointed with my performance and felt that I was tugging around a bit.

“On lap one I got hit in the side by a Porsche and had understeer from then on, getting into a couple of the corners was a real problem with a massive lack of grip in the slower stuff.”

“That was pretty tough but a good race,” said Chris after his stint. “Qualifying was a disappointment.  With the talent that was around we thought we would be 7th or 8th but ended up 13th so I started the race knowing we were faster than the five cars ahead of me.

“The cars around me though seemed to be playing dodgems from the start – it was a bit crazy.”

“I got settled in and then got by Wilkins, Andrew Howard, then Philip Walker and another of the Astons but then I overheated my tyres a bit. They came back though and I made at least some progress.”

Paul Warren took over the #10 with a lead of 27 seconds, thanks to Tom’s magnificent efforts, and the Mosler – now in the hands of Adrian Beer – was not able to do much about it.

“I knew we had pace but qually was a disaster,” said Tom. “I knew though that we would go well in the race and as it turned out, even without Stuart’s problems, I had the legs on both the Aston and the Mosler.

“It wasn’t easy but I could hold them and then pull away.”

Paul quickly adopted a conservative pace and stuck to it with commendable consistency.

Dan and Steven had taken over the #21 and #15 cars in 11th and 13th places, and looked to be a long way adrift of the lead fight. However, it wasn’t long before both cars state to bring the gaps down.

The BTCC race-winner was almost a lap down when he took over the #15, but a consistent pace of 1:56 quickly brought him on to the tail of Matt Griffin’s MTECH Ferrari. He passed the Irish driver on lap 42 for 11th and was now challenging Dan for tenth. The #21 resisted for three laps, but Kane was insistent and took the place on lap 45.

At the head of the field, Paul was still leading, but his advantage had started to rapidly dwindle as he found himself with handling difficulties; “For the first 20 minutes or so of my stint I could lap in the 1:58s but then I started to get a problem with the steering, initially through Maggots but it got worse.

“I thought at first that it might be a slow puncture but I was soon getting a problem where I’d apply some lock and the steering would jolt back so it might be a problem with the rack.

“That made it all but impossible to fend off the cars from behind so it was a frustrating last three or four laps.”

The lead changed hands on lap 50 when Glynn Geddie went passed in the #7 Trackspeed Porsche – but not before a spirited defence from the Chad driver – and Paul soon found himself engulfed by the pack as the race closed up. The #10 eventually finished 12th as the problem persisted; a result in no way a fair reflection of the efforts of both drivers and the crew.

As Dan concentrated on fending off Griffin, Steven was making rapid progress in the #15. On lap 52, he passed the Mosler for ninth and then passed two Ferraris – the luckless #10 and the #12 Scuderia of Adam Wilcox. Finally, on the final lap, he took sixth from the Ascari and finished the race just 25 seconds off the lead; having made up 30 seconds on the winner over the course of his stint.

“I’m a bit annoyed with the final result but really encouraged at how competitive the partnership proved to be.

“I’m working with Chad in the KIAs in Belgium, but this GT programme is a relatively new one for me.

“The car wasn’t perfect and there were a few things that we as drivers, and the team, could have done better.  If we’d done them the win was there for us today – that’s frustrating, but it’s a big encouragement to push for what is within our grasp.

“This was Iain’s first race here in 5 years and in truth we made a mistake with the set-up and we pitted too late. All of those things cost us time and if we’d got them right we could have taken a comfortable win.”

Dan prevailed in his fight with Griffin to take eighth; “It was annoying that we qualified badly but we raced hard today and I was trying to nail it on every lap,” he said. “I had a fun race and was pleased when I got by Bentwood on the outside through Vale.

“I enjoyed the 2 hour format – it was the best race of the year for me.”

But how had the X-Bow fared?

When Kevin took over the X-Bow he was sixth in class and a long way adrift of the class lead – a situation not helped by having to make a second stop very early in his stint to have an issue checked out. The Dutch driver got his head down, however, and just drove as quick as he could.

Up ahead, however, strange things were happening. The Century Ginetta retired soon after Nathan Freke took over, while the ABG X-Bow of Rory Butcher retired on lap 44 while holding a big lead. This left the second Century Ginetta in the lead and headed to a seemingly certain victory; but a series of penalties led ultimately to the car’s disqualification. The United Autosport Ginetta thus took the win, with the Stark G50 in second. This left in third place…….the Chad X-Bow! Athanasios thus took his third podium finish from three starts and Kevin took away some silverware in his first X-Bow race.

So on a day when all four cars proved to be competitive, a few minor issues proved to be the difference between good results and indifferent ones. The series now moves on to Snetterton on Bank Holiday Monday, where the format reverts to two one-hour races; and it will be a very different looking Chad Racing that goes to Norfolk.