Team Redline Racing grabbed a front row starting spot and a maiden British GT class victory in the Silver Am class on their way to fourth overall on a superb Silverstone 500 showing this past weekend (7/8 May).
The Teesside team brought its new-for-2022 Lamborghini Huracan to the full-length 3.66-mile Silverstone Grand Prix circuit looking for a memorable result in just their third race in the championship, having impressed across the season opener at Oulton Park last month.
Ahead of a three-hour race on Sunday, the team started the meeting strongly in Friday testing and then Saturday morning’s free practice sessions. Driving duo Alex Malykhin and James Dorlin put the car just 0.2 seconds away from the fastest time and well within the top five on the timesheets.
Qualifying was split into a brace of short 10-minute runs - one each for the Pro and Am drivers - to decide the grid based on combined lap times from the two drivers. Malykhin was first to run against fellow Am competitors, and again showed his potential with a fabulous time that was enough to go fastest of all by 0.137s, ensuring early bragging rights for the Redline team.
Former Porsche Sprint Challenge GB champion Dorlin was next up, and he too put in a scorching effort that was enough to go seventh in his individual session. The combined results were enough for a brilliant second place overall on the grid for the three-hour main event on Sunday, part of an all-Lamborghini front row.
In front of the Sky Sports cameras and a packed crowd for the Silverstone 500, Malykhin took control of the Redline Huracan for the first stint and through a brave piece of defensive driving, managed to hang on to second place around the outside through the high speed Maggots-Becketts section.
He then set his sets firmly on the lead car of Adam Balon, and caught the Lamborghini quickly in the early minutes. Heading into Club corner, he seized his chance and lunged inside to grab the race lead, which he would hold for much of the opening stint prior to driver changes starting to cycle through.
Unfortunately, the team's race would be greatly affected by a stop/go penalty, applied for contact in the move to grab the lead. Dorlin and Malykhin's pace throughout the race remained consistent and competitive which allowed the Huracan to move back into podium contention by the final hour of the race.
Dorlin chased Joe Osborne's McLaren to the flag, just missing out on the podium as the Redline team grabbed a best British GT result of fourth place, just 51 seconds from the win despite their extra trip through the pitlane.
The team could however celebrate a brilliant success in the Silver-Am class of the GT3 cars, their first podium of the season as reward for a fine showing.
Simon Leonard – Managing Director: “To qualify in second for the Silverstone 500; we were very happy with that for our second race weekend in such a competitive championship.
"In the race, both drivers and the team as a whole did a superb job, and we were very unlucky not to come away with a podium. If it hadn't have been for the penalty, we had the pace throughout to be in that top three, so that's very promising for us in terms of the rest of the season. To take the Silver-Am class win was the icing on the cake of an awesome showing."
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.