Luca Hopkinson & Harry George – British GT4 Championship
The second round of the British GT championship was held at the world-famous Silverstone Grand Prix circuit for the illustrious ‘Silverstone 500’ GT race.
EDGE drivers and teammates Luca Hopkinson & Harry George, driving their Optimum motorsport ran McLaren Artura GT4 were looking for a strong bounce back following a disappointing result at the first round at Donington Park a few weeks earlier.
Following a competitive qualifying session, where both drivers’ times are added together, the EDGE duo qualified fourth overall in the GT4 category and second in the GT4 silver class for which they compete.
Following qualifying attention turned to strategy and car set up for the three-hour race on Sunday.
Harry started the race on Sunday and soon settled into a nice rhythm. It was an eventful opening hour with a full course yellow called for near the end of the 1 hour mark. The Optimum team used this opportunity to pit and Luca jumped in the car for the next hour. When the time came to put Harry back in the car Harry was running P2 in class with the pace looking good.
Harry went out on new tyres and a full fuel load for a stint of just over one hour and the car was challenging to start with due to all that weight on board but as this came down and the fuel was burned the lap times became more and more competitive.
Luca was in the car for the final stint. The gap to P1 was 28 seconds and despite a safety car period, Luca focussed win and began to eat away at the gap to P1. By the time the last lap came the gap was down to just 1.4 seconds but unfortunately it their just wasn’t enough time left run the race and he to brought the car home in P2 in the GT4 silver category.
This was a fantastic result following the disappointment of the first round and underlined the competitiveness and potential of the EDGE Sporting Management driver pairing.
Shortly after the race Hopkinson commented:
“I’m very pleased with the podium and to bounce back after Donington. This has given me and Harry lots of confidence moving forward that we can be competitive for the rest of the season. Thanks very much to Optimum for a great car and Edge Management for all the hard work.”
Results- GT4 Silver Class: Q-P2 / Race – P2