British GT: Shahin and Patterson claim Silverstone 500 victory in strategic brilliance

The 2026 Silverstone 500 saw Yasser Shahin and Garnet Patterson claim victory with excellent strategy from Optimum Motorsport.

Qualifying on Saturday saw last year’s winners and favourites to take their third Silverstone 500 victory Darren Leung and Dan Harper take pole position ahead of Optimum Motorsports Morgan Tillbrook and Ben Barnicoat. Barwell Motorsport’s Rob Collard and Hugo Cook took third place ahead of the 2 Seas Motorsports entries of Charles Dawson and Kiern Jewiss as well as Kevin Tse and Ben Green. The eventual winners of the race would end up only starting in ninth place.

The opening lap for the GT3 field would be disaster for the 2 Seas Motorsport squad as teammates collided at Copse leaving Tse with suspension damage causing him to retire early while reigning champions Dawson and Jewiss would end up 18 laps down. A Safety Car would be deployed for the incident, but it wouldn’t be long until they get back underway with Leung taking a commanding lead as the Paradine Motorsport entry pulls away from the rest of the field.

While Leung and Harper pulled away, Collard and Cook’s race went up in smoke with there car catching fire forcing them out of the race from second. Tillbrook and Barnicoat would come under fire as well but from the stewards after they were given a stop-go penalty from second at the time. That penalty plus unfortunate Safety Car timing which cost the team strategically put them out of contention.

However, Optimum’s strategy would work in favour for one of there other cars of Shahin and Patterson. The pair was the earliest in the pits in their first two stints and would have a perfectly timed Safety Car fall directly into their third pit stop window which allowed them to complete a mandatory driver change meaning they effectively got a free pitstop while others still had to wait to serve their mandatory driver time.

Race leaders Leung and Harper would have to make their final pitstop under green flag conditions which ultimately left them without an opportunity of catching the number 3 McLaren. A fifth Safety Car would also end their chances of claiming even second place as Century Motorsport took advantage of it after Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin’s race ended up in the gravel.

This would leave Shahin and Patterson to take victory ahead of Jonathon Beeson and Charles Clark. Leung and Harper would have to settle for third while Simon Orange and Marcus Clutton finished fourth. Alex Marton and Jarrod Waberski completed the top five ahead of Beechdean’s Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn while Tillbrook and Barnicoat would finish seventh. The highest finishing 2 Seas entry would only manage eighth with Andrew Gilbert and Aaron Walker while Paddock Motorsport’s Mark Smith and Martin Plowman would finish ninth. Completing the top ten would be Mahiki Racing with Steven Lake and Josh Rowledge.