Dumfries & Galloway youngster places fourth in latest Silverstone race
Ross Wylie lost his Avon Tyres British GT Championship lead despite another top placing in the latest race at Silverstone yesterday (1 June).
Wylie and co-driver Jake Giddings drove their Beechdean Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage home into fourth place in the three-hour race – the longest event in the 10-race series.
Wylie and Giddings, who started the race with a 1.5-point series lead, now lie joint second, three points behind the new series leaders.
“I’m bitterly disappointed with only a fourth place finish,” reflected Ross. “I’d really hoped to post a top result at Silverstone especially it being a three hour race – and at the British ‘home’ of motor racing and the base for the BRDC.
“The tyre degradation was pretty high while Jake was unfortunate to get a drive-through penalty.
“I’d planned in my head a last lap lunge to snatch third but a car unexpectedly re-joined the track in front of me having gone off the circuit so there were waved yellow flags stopping me from making an overtaking manoeuvre.”
Giddings started from second place on the grid in the GT4 category but dropped to 11th place after being forced to take avoiding action with cars spinning in front of him on the opening lap but was quickly back up to second place.
Shortly after a Safety Car period 30mins into the race, Giddings went into the GT4 class lead before handing the Aston over to Wylie on 50mins – Ross placed third at one-third distance.
Wylie had slipped to third approaching mid-distance prior to pitting to Giddings who resumed eighth while Ross was back behind the wheel of the now sixth-placed Aston with an hour remaining.
In the closing stages, Wylie diced for third place but just missed out on a third rostrum finish from four races by a mere 0.498secs at the chequered flag.
Wylie competes in the fifth and sixth rounds, both one hour races, at Snetterton on 22 June.
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