Team Redline Racing added another Silver-Am class victory to their tally in the fourth round of the 2022 British GT Championship, battling to fifth overall from 10th on the grid at Donington Park last weekend (28/29 May).
The Teesside-based team had continued to show great progress in their maiden foray into the top class of British GT after scoring a Silver-Am victory in the Silverstone 500 earlier in the month, heading to the Leicester circuit last weekend hoping to continue that run of strong form.
Piloted by experienced racer James Dorlin and series rookie Alex Malykhin, the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 was once more on the pace of its rivals in testing as it was in the opening two meetings of the season, climbing up into the top five by the end of Thursday's running around the 1.9-mile Donington Park GP circuit.
Attentions turned to the weekend action, starting with a brace of free practice sessions where the team and drivers worked hard to fine tune a winning set-up for the Huracan ahead of two short and sharp qualifying sessions - one apiece for each driver, with the final two times creating a combined result for the car.
Malykhin - who led the race early on at Silverstone - again displayed impressive pace as he extracted a time good enough for sixth place among his fellow Am competitors. Dorlin subsequently backed him up with an equally mouth-watering top-eight lap time against his experienced Pro compatriots moments later.
A five-place grid penalty following Silverstone would mean the Team Redline Racing duo started the three-hour endurance race 10th on Sunday afternoon. Malykhin took the wheel of the Huracan at the start of the race, and got firmly stuck in to make up ground with a 15-second success penalty also to take into account when pitstops arrived.
He quickly dispatched John Ferguson and Mark Sansom in the opening laps, giving chase to the top seven cars. After a safety car interruption and a spin ahead for the similar Huracan of Adam Balon, Dorlin took control of the car in seventh place as the race resumed, and swiftly dived inside the experienced Adam Carroll at the final hairpin to move further forward.
After the final stops played their way out, the team sat in a highly encouraging fourth place, with the Silver-Am lead in their hands and the podium finish just four seconds from their grasp. A small moment at McLeans as Dorlin lapped a GT4 BMW meant the Lamborghini fell to fifth place however, maintaining that place until the chequered flag.
As was the case at Silverstone, it would warrant a fantastic second Silver-Am class victory of the season for the Redline squad, who extended their championship lead in that particular table and moved up to fourth in the overall Teams' Championship ahead of the next two races to be held at Snetterton over the weekend of 25/26 June.
Simon Leonard – Managing Director: “After a grid penalty and 15 seconds worth of success penalty time trying to hold us back, I'm very happy with how the weekend ended for us. The team and both Alex and James never gave up all the way through, and I'm very proud of their efforts to get us back up the order and be right in the fight for the overall podium.
"Another Silver-Am victory was a great result for us and we're really showing what we can do, but of course it's still early days. There's a lot for us still to learn and a lot for the drivers to take away from this, so we can only keep looking higher ahead of Snetterton.
“A huge amount of the credit for our successful transition to British GT goes to Alex Toyne, who has worked with me at Redline for more than 20 years. He’s in charge of putting our team personnel together and I believe he has absolutely nailed it this season.
“Alex’s attention to detail is second to none and he is leading a talented and hard-working team of people on the Lamborghini. It’s been a dream start to our first British GT season and I’m glad to see everyone’s hard work is starting to get some recognition in the paddock.”