A strong grid of 27 cars will line up at Silverstone this weekend for the opening round of the popular GT Cup Championship on the Northamptonshire track’s Arena layout.
Since its creation in 2007, the GT Cup, which received MSA ‘championship’ status last year, has been renowned for its large grids and Marc Haynes, managing director of series organisers Bute Motorsport, is again pleased with the uptake for 2011.
“I’m delighted with how things are shaping up,” he said. “Between 25 and 30 cars is an ideal grid size. We have stunning quality cars and a good balance of numbers between Groups.”
Three groups based on each car’s power-to-weight ratio will do battle at Silverstone, with 12 cars in the premier ‘Group 1’ class, nine in ‘Group 2’ and six in ‘Group 3’. Last year saw 11 different class winners from 14 races and seven drivers fighting for the title at the final round.
Leading squads JMH and FF Corse both return to the championship in 2011 with strong, multi-car entries.
JMH will run a Porsche 997 for race winner Andy Ruhan, while the Cheshire squad also fields a pair of Ferraris, a 430 GTC in G1 for Arwyn Williams and a 360 in G2 for Sean Winder.
FF Corse, meanwhile, fields a fleet of Ferrari 430s in Group 1 for Gary Eastwood, Rupert Martin, Toby Tarrant-Willis and Leon Price.
2011 also sees the return of the iconic Morgan Aero 8 to the series, with Tom Andrews racing the former FIA GT3 racer, while Danny Winstanley returns in his V6 TVR Segaris and is expected to be among the title contenders.
Former Porsche Cup Champion Colin Broster is also back in his Porsche 996, while British GT racer Benjamin Harvey will race a KTM Xbow for ABG Motorsport.
David Tomlin returns after a year away having upgraded his Ferrari 355 to a 430 GTC, while Barclay Dougal is another returnee in his Ocius Motorsport BMW E46 GTR, one of several of the German cars on the grid.
GT Cup Championship entry list – Round 1, Silverstone
6 Andy Ruhan, JMH, Porsche 997 GT3 (1)
7 Tom Andrew, Andrew Racing, Morgan Aero 8GT (2)
8 Gary Eastwood, Driver, Ferrari 430 GTC (1)
9 Adam Hayes, Driver, BMW E46 M3 (3)
11 Paul Cope, ProTran Competition, Venturi 400 GTR (2)
14 Don Grice, Driver, BMW M3 GTR V8, (1)
15 Colin Broster, ABG Motorsport, Porsche 996 GT3 (2)
16 Colin Simpson, Driver, Marcos Mantis (2)
17 Sean Winder, JMH, Ferrari 360 GTC (2)
18 Arwyn Williams, JMH, Ferrari 430 GTC, (1)
19 Mark Radcliffe, Driver, BMW M3 (3)
20 Philip Jones, Ask Racing, Porsche 996 (2)
23 Peter Seldon / Matt Seldon, Serverware, BMW GTR V8 (1)
28 Toby Tarrant-Willis, FF Corse, Ferrari 430 GTC (1)
31 Michael Symons, Geoff Steel Racing, BMW GTR E46 (1)
35 Chris Bentley, CTR Alfatune, Porsche 996 GT3 (2)
37 Barclay Dougal, Ocius Motorsport, BMW E46 (3)
45 Benjamin Harvey, ABG Motorsport, KTM Xbow (3)
49 Rupert Martin, FF Corse, Ferrari 430 GTC (1)
53 Andy Yool, Martin O’Connell Racing, Chevron GR8 (3)
57 Francis Galashan, GT Marques, Porsche 996 GT3 (2)
66 David Tomlin, Driver, Ferrari 430 (1)
71 Stephen Ritchie, Paragon, Porshe 997 GT3 (2)
78 Danny Winstanley, Driver, TVR Sagaris (1)
83 John Thorne, Tesco Momentum 99 Racing, BMW E92 M3 (3)
88 Leon Price, FF Corse, Ferrari 430 GTC (1)
99 Michael Saunders, Driver, TVR Cerbera (1)
Watch GT Cup Championship highlights from Silverstone on Friday 29 April at 7:25pm (BST) on Motors TV.
Andy Wilkinson
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