Preview – Round 6, Silverstone
Hitech return to their home track this weekend as we visit Silverstone for the second time in this year’s GB3 Championship. After three events overseas, GB3 is back in the UK and, after securing his fourth win of the season last time out in Zandvoort, Tymek Kucharczyk will be looking to extend his points lead at the top of the standings. The Polish ace will also want to repeat the strong form he showed on our previous visit to Silverstone.
It was back in April when Tymek took two poles and dominated the first 10-lap race at the British Grand Prix venue. He finished nearly eight seconds ahead of the field. Joining him on the podium in third was Will Macintyre. But in Round 5, the placings were reversed with Will taking the victory (by just 0.180s) and Tymek in third. Sadly the third race of the weekend was cancelled due to bad weather.
After scoring wins at each of the last three events, Tymek heads to Silverstone once again at the top of the drivers’ championship with 285 points – 20 clear of second place. But as GB3 nears the climax of the season, Will also remains in contention sitting in third overall on 263 points. A little further back, Gerrard Xie is eighth with 151 points scored so far this season.
“It was a great weekend in the Netherlands where I was able to return to the top of the championship standings after my fourth win of the year,” said Tymek. “We worked really hard to make the Hitech car quick around the tricky Zandvoort layout – and it was an honour to see so many fans come and support me.”
After getting caught out in a start line incident, Will was still able to score a decent amount of points at the Dutch venue and is looking forward to getting back on home turf as he’s aiming to close the gap to his team-mate.
“As Silverstone is Hitech’s home circuit, the team have a lot of experience at this venue, so I’m expecting us to be on the pace straightaway – especially as we have two days of testing before the weekend,” said Will. “I’m really looking forward to racing here again as Silverstone has such a great sequence of high-speed corners and plenty of overtaking opportunities too which helps if qualifying doesn’t go our way.”
“Silverstone is one the world’s most historic and classic circuits,” added Gerrard. “It’s one of my favourites and as we’ve had a lot of races affected by the weather so far this year – including on our last visit in April – I’m hoping it will be dry this weekend.”
After scoring 105 points last time out at Zandvoort, Hitech remain top of the teams’ championship with a 40-point advantage. After two days of testing on Thursday and Friday, the competitive action at Silverstone begins on Saturday morning with qualifying, followed by race one at noon. Two further races take place on Sunday at 10.55 and 15.15 respectively.
