FIA GT: Silverstone 20th April 2008

It's cold and foggy. So, it must be April and Silverstone.

An early, early start as my Dad was convinced that the traffic jams would be horrendous. But most of Northamptonshire was still asleep as we swanned our way to the circuit. On the dual carriageway approach we were overtaken by two safety cars - I thought for a minute they were going to get the flashing ambers going and escort us in.

Parking up close to the national circuit straight, we made our way through the gloom to the Classic Dreams hospitality suite. Unsurprisingly, we were the first of the guests to turn up, but at least the owner, Matt Twynham, had a pot of coffee ready. His new suite was looking good, plenty of seats inside with plasma screens showing a live action feed as well as the official timings.

Outside on the terrace, it was fairly foggy looking out over the pits straight. More people soon turned up and pretty soon it was bustling in anticipation of the FIA GT warmup session (OK, the clip below is from the GT3 race but you get the idea).


Of course, the term warmup is all relative on a day like today. The drivers may not have been giving it all cylinders yet but it was still great to watch - the hairs on the back of my neck stood up when I heard the first cars roaring out of Woodcote.

Now then, Matt had warned us that these cars would be loud. But they weren't. They were LOUD. As in, I-left-my-eardrums-at-Silverstone LOUD. No wonder there were complimentary ear plugs in a basket by the terrace door.


With thirty minutes of aural assault over, a hot sausage cob was dispatched before a stroll around the paddock. Matt had given us tickets for the pit lane walk, which gave me the chance to get up close and personal with the Go-To-One Moslers.


Now, they're almost in a class of their own. G2 - for non-homologated cars - was represented here by the two MT900 Moslers, a Gillet Vertigo and a Saleen S7-R (still not sure why that's in G2 when others of the marque are GT1). So, it's high hopes for a Mosler class win, yet knowing they won't be troubling the top of the field overall.

Eventually shepherded down the pitlane by the marshalls, it was back to the suite ready for the race start. After a few tentative laps under the safety car, the field took the rolling start.

From then on in, it was a case of hanging over the balcony (particularly during the pit stop window) and following the action on the wide screen TV as the pack lapped around. The Moslers sounded tame in comparison to the GT1 field, but it was still a wonderful grunt!


The race up front was nip and tuck towards the end of the two hours. Of course, the Moslers were toward the back and there to be lapped. Still, they did take first and second in the G2 class, the Vertigo retiring part way through.

So, it's congratulations to Kenneth Heyer and Stepan Vojtech for their top spot and to Ales Jirasek and Adam Lacko as runners-up.

An excellent day, many thanks to Matt and his staff for taking care of us so well - we'll be back! See more of what they have to offer at
www.classicdreams.co.uk

Because I'm reluctant to let them go, I tracked the Moslers down in parc ferme for for a few more photos.

Photos - (c) me except for the action shot and podium portrait, (c) www.fiagt.com