A Wet and Wild Silverstone 500 Fails to Produce for Gough and Wrigley
Round three of the 2024 British GT championship took place at Silverstone over the weekend, the three hour race considered the blue ribband event of the season and famous for its unpredictability.
Gough and Wrigley, competing in the Century Motorsport prepared and Pace Motorsport Finance supported BMW M4, lined up for the race towards the second-half of the grid after mixed fortunes in qualifying. Past form would predict that that last-years vice champions would move forward in the race.
Ian Gough commented:
“We’ve had a mixed run up to the race today. The guys at Century are doing an outstanding job but we can’t seem to find the root cause of some electrical issues that are triggering inconsistent stability control behaviours in the car. Sometimes we go out and we’re towards the fastest on track and other times, when the symptoms are at their worst – we struggle more. BMW are working hard behind the scenes to find a fix. We didn’t qualify as well as we could but tomorrow looks to be wet which should favour us.”
As the teams woke for race day the weather had indeed turned, with a wet and cold race day ahead. Ian would start the three-hour race and, after a long stint in the car, the #29 Pace Motorsport Finance BMW M4 would hit the front of the field, with teams electing for a variety of strategies in response to safety car conditions. As Ian handed the car over to co-driver, Wrigley, the duo were optimistic for an overall podium.
But the unpredictability of the Silverstone 500 would strike and with it, their chances of a podium.
Wrigley commented:
“I’ve just got out of the car after a difficult stint. Unfortunately, we picked up a drive through penalty. As Ian left the pits he briefly accelerated past the permitted 80kmh under full-course yellow procedures. And to compound that, the electronic issues we’ve been suffering with manifested and we had to stop the car on-track and do a full power-cycle, turning the car off an on again. Both issues have cost us close to a minute and with it, our race ambitions.”
The Pace Motorsport Finance team were able to salvage a 5th in class and all-important points on the board as preparations being for round four at Donington Park, May 26th.
Ian summarised:
The British-GT championship is a battle of consistency so, although we’ve not stood on the podium today, it’s a good points tally in the Pro-Am race. Much like at Oulton Park it’s what you can salvage from this difficulty weekends as it is from the weekends when it goes your way. We’ve had a lot to contend with both in terms of the lingering electronic issued but also we’re not satisfied with the BOP (Balance of Performance) applied to the car. Conventional wisdom would have the BMW quick down the straights and slower through the corners than our smaller, lighter competitors such as the McLaren and Lotus. But right now that’s not the case. We are racing with a hand tied behind our back. I’m sure it will swing in our favour at some point, I just hope it’s very soon.”
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