Ross posts second best result of the season in the series’ longest race
Dumfries and Galloway Race Ace Ross Wylie placed an encouraging sixth in a weather-affected Silverstone 500 today (12 June) – the longest race on the nine-event British GT Championship calendar. The 24-year-old from Thornhill near Dumfries and fellow Scot Phil Dryburgh brought their Motorbase Performance Aston Martin Vantage GT3 home one-lap down on the winning car in the 500km race that featured three Safety Car phases at the Northamptonshire circuit.
Starting 14th on the massive 51-car grid, their Aston was placed third after the opening hour of racing on a wet track during the opening pit-stop phase and then eighth after two hours, the track now drying, Ross driving the second and fourth and final “stints” and for a total of 100mins of racing.
Ross, who has a personal best fifth place finish of the season to better in the four remaining races, heads to the next BGT event at the only overseas race of the year at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on 9 July placed ninth in the standings.
Ross Wylie (GB): Age 24. Born & Lives Thornhill nr Dumfries, Scotland:
“We achieved a solid result – it was a great team effort. The weekend didn’t get off to the best of starts. The Aston suffered a small engine issue causing us to miss Friday’s official test but the combined efforts of Phil and I saw us qualify 14th overall. Phil had an incredible first stint in the rain and pitted to me placed a superb third, a performance that quite rightly earned him the ‘Blancpain Gentleman Driver of the Weekend Award’. My first stint in the Aston was in terrible weather conditions and was incredibly difficult but thankfully the rain abated and the track began to dry towards the end of the stint. Phil took over again and had another good second stint behind the wheel in intermediate conditions. The Motorbase team then made a great call to pit Phil and switch the Aston to ‘slicks’ for my stint.
“It was then very challenging trying to find the grip level as there was really only room for one car on the drying racing line. Our pit-to-car radio had stopped working during Phil’s earlier stint and with no radio communication, I had no idea where I was placed in the race and no idea if I needed to push harder while the rain showers made it doubly difficult. Unfortunately a final Safety Car period destroyed any chance we had of a podium finish as it put us a lap behind the leader. Overall we must be happy with our sixth place finish and solid points. It was a great effort by the team all weekend and they worked late into the night on Friday to change the engine.”
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