British GT: Innovation Racing win on debut at Silverstone 500 in GT4

The debuting Innovation Racing take victory on debut in the GT4 Class with Hadley Simpson and Thomas Holland.

An intense qualifying session saw Holland and Simpson take pole by just three hundredths of a second to Luke Shaw and Jack Mitchell. MK Racing’s Jessica Hawkins and Will Orton would pip Daniel Lavery and Darren Turner making it an all Aston Martin second row while Optimum Motorsport would complete the top five with Josh Stanton and Luca Hopkinson.

The race would see an early lead change with Orton taking the lead on the opening lap from Holland. After a Safety Car caused by the GT3 field, Orton and Holland would be locked in a battle for several laps before Holland retook the lead from the MK Racing Aston. He would proceed to pull a gap before a second caution would be thrown meaning the whole GT4 class would pit at the same time.

After taking over from Shaw, Mitchell would make a move passed Hawkins to reclaim second place before going after Simpson to claim the lead of the race at Aintree. However, driver changes proved costly for the Toro Verde GT team as Shaw and Mitchell would lose out in subsequent pitstops putting them out of contention. Innovation would go from there to take the lead and maintain it to the finish with a five second gap to the MK Aston Martin.

A late race Safety Car would bunch the GT4 field back up leaving Simpson to fight off Hawkins and the Optimum McLaren of Stanton. The race would end with the three only being covered by three seconds and Century Motorsports Branden Templeton and Jack Collins only a further six tenths back. Simpson and Holland would manage to maintain their lead and claim victory on debut for Innovation racing from Orton and Hawkins. Hopkinson and Stanton would round off the podium ahead of the Century BMW. Shaw and Mitchell, despite having shown excellent pace all race, would have to settle for fifth.