Ross Wylie (pictured above right) claimed the GT Cup GTO Championship title at Snetterton last weekend (2-3 Oct). The 30-year-old from Thornhill near Dumfries placed first and second in class in the two races which earns the Flying Scotsman a sixth career championship title over the past seven years. In this year’s 11 races, Ross scored nine GTO podiums including six victories.
Wylie, who was selected as a Full Member of the prestigious British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) earlier this year, had previously won the Britcar Endurance C2 Championship (2020), Britcar Endurance Championship Sprint S1 (2018), Britcar Endurance Championship outright plus Class 1 title (2017) and British GT4 Championship (2014). These prestigious titles were accomplished driving a variety of notable sportscars including Aston Martin, Brabham, Ferrari and McLaren.
During the course of this season, Wylie twice made history for the legendary Brabham marque. Having achieved the first-ever class victory for a “customer” Brabham BT62 Competition in June, Ross went on to achieve a first outright race victory in the world for a “customer” BT62 at Silverstone in August.
With the Brabham still side-lined awaiting parts from Australia, Wylie and co-driver Paul Bailey raced the latter’s rare nine-year-old McLaren MP4-12C Can Am at Snetterton last weekend as at the previous event.
Torrential rain blighted proceedings at Snetterton on Saturday but great pit-stop strategy by the SB Race Engineering team, enabled the Wylie/Bailey McLaren to go from 26th, third in class, to second overall and leading the GTO category when Bailey pitted under Safety Car conditions due to the horrendously wet weather. In Sunday’s race, held in the dry, Wylie resumed in 12th overall, second in class, with 18mins remaining after Bailey’s opening stint – Ross making up two places in the overall classification by the chequered flag.
Wylie returns to Porsche Carrera Cup GB action at Donington Park this weekend (9-10 Oct) having posted sixth and seventh place finishes on his return to the one-make series last month in a Bell Group supported Valluga Racing Carrera.
Ross Wylie (GB):
Age 30. Born & Lives Thornhill nr Dumfries, Scotland:
“It’s fantastic to win the GTO title. This season has been a challenge due to the fact we’ve raced a Ferrari, Brabham and McLaren but that also made it exciting. I’ve been delighted to share these different cars with Paul.
“The SB team pulled off a masterstroke in the opening race by getting Paul to pit, a full lap before our main competition under Safety Car conditions. The ‘pit window’ for mandatory stops had not opened for the majority of our rivals as the field headed towards the pits – unlike for our McLaren which was in 26th place.
“Paul came into the pits just two seconds after the ‘window’ had opened. When I took to the track, it was still behind the Safety Car, but we’d leapfrogged all but one car into second place. I did just two laps before the race was Red Flagged, officials stopping the race for safety reasons as the rain had made it very dangerous.
“Now it’s a shift in focus back to racing the Porsche this weekend at Donington Park. It’s a challenge jumping from a McLaren into a Porsche Carrera Cup car but I was up to speed relatively quickly at Silverstone.”
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