Gambrell is first winner of BRSCC’s new Pro Sports Sprint series at Silverstone

There were plenty of highlights as the British Racing & Sports Car Club’s new season got under way last weekend at a sunny but chilly Silverstone, including the inaugural races of its Pro Sports Sprint series.

In just the second weekend at the wheel of his new Porsche 911.2 Cup car, racing rookie Steve Gambrell delivered an impressive victory hat-trick in the new multi-class series, the standout performance being the second of those following a frenetic lead squabble with former British GT racer John Seale.

Having been beaten to pole by Seale’s Lamborghini Super Trofeo, Gambrell snatched the lead into Village for the first time in the opening contest before romping over half a minute clear.

The roles were reversed on lap one of the sequel as Seale grabbed the ascendancy into Club. Gambrell gave pursuit for most of the race until capitalising with five minutes remaining when the pair came up to lap the leading Class E Ford Fiesta runners. Seale ran wide into Brooklands and slipped to second, but reclaimed the lead when Gambrell had a sideways moment of his own one corner later.

The pair then went either side of Fiesta Junior graduate Maggie Webster through Becketts before Gambrell eventually prevailed at Club. Seale lunged up the inside twice more only for Gambrell to sweep back past both times, with Gambrell then holding on by 0.5s at the chequered flag. 

With Seale skipping the final contest, Gambrell took an easy third win on his now fading set of tyres by over a minute from Aaron Cooke, who ended the weekend with two Class C triumphs in his Ginetta G55. Just 0.2s separated Fiesta drivers Webster and Connor Blackburn in both races two and three, the pair taking a Class E win each, with Blackburn having won the opener after Webster was given a five-second track-limits penalty.

There was plenty of close racing at the front of the Mazda MX-5 Championship, which shared the track with the Clubman series for the first two encounters to create a huge 57-car grid of the Mk1 MX-5s. Having swapped the pitwall for the driving seat full-time this year, AB Motorsport founder Ali Bray withstood pressure from returning 2023 champion Steve Foden and Adam Sparrow to take a victory clean sweep despite a race against time to build his new Mk1 over the winter.

Bray led from lights to flag in the opener despite the close attentions of the squabbling Foden and Sparrow, and a lengthy safety car period in fading light prevented Bray from being challenged in Saturday’s sequel. While race two was an anti-climax, Sunday’s final bout provided arguably the most thrilling action of the event. Bray led once more while Foden and Sparrow diced behind him, and he remained ahead despite a three-wide battle at Stowe with his pursuers approaching the halfway stage.

The trio went side-by-side again on the exit of Copse following a bold lead challenge from Sparrow, with Foden emerging at the front into Maggotts. Bray wasted no time in reclaiming the advantage by sweeping around the outside of Foden at Stowe, and the squabble allowed Will Chadwick and Richard Wootten to make it a five-car lead train. Foden lost ground to Bray as he fended off the cars behind and, despite closing back in late on, had to settle for second again while Chadwick ended up on the grass on the final lap when trying to pass Sparrow for third.

“That was the most fun I’ve had in a racing scenario in a long time, so I really hope it continues for the rest of the year like that,” said Bray on his treble win. “It’s the first time I’ve built a car for myself and it’s a testament to the team because the car was a bare shell six months ago.”

Will Blackwell-Chambers was another triple victor as he took a commanding three wins among a sparsely populated MX-5 Supercup grid, though he was kept honest by reigning Mk1 champion Tom Langford, who showed promise on his debut in Mk3 machinery. Langford’s best chance of beating Blackwell-Chambers came in the opening contest where, having missed out by 0.1s, he admitted afterwards he “would have tried harder” had he realised it was the final lap. Langford’s lack of experience of the semi-slick tyres resulted in him being a more distant runner-up in the other two encounters.

The Audi TT Cup’s season kicked off with a dramatic opening contest. Reigning champion Bradley Burns suffered driveshaft failure when leading, while his chief 2024 rival Matt Luff took victory after on-the-road winner Sam Heading served a 10s penalty for being out of position at the starting grid. Former British GT4 competitor Jordan Stilp inherited second on his racing return after a battle with Will Stacey.

Luff won again in race two by edging Carl Swift by 0.7s, while Burns recovered from the back of the grid to sixth in his repaired machine. With the top-eight positions from that race reversed in forming the grid for the finale, Burns climbed from third to end the weekend with a win ahead of Heading and Luff.

Julian McBride began the defence of his Pro B class title in style with a dominant outright victory in the opening race of the Supersport Endurance Cup season. McBride led for most of the two-hour contest ahead of fellow BMW M3 driver Chris Murphy. The closest moment between the pair came after the second of two safety car periods during the first hour, with McBride resisting pressure from his pursuer before diving into the pitlane for his mandatory stop. From there, he was never troubled, eventually taking the chequered flag almost 1m30s clear of Pro A class winner Murphy.

Pro C class honours went the way of Jason McInulty, who was the last finisher on the lead lap in third overall in his Lotus Elise. Four-time British Touring Car champion Colin Turkington made a late pass to win the Clubman A class with fifth overall in a Mazda MX-5 Mk3 that he shared with Bruce Robinson.

Elsewhere, Chris Freeman and Jonathan Munday took the spoils for Alpha-Trojon in the three-hour C1 Endurance Series race, finishing 16s ahead of Silverlake duo Aaron Chalk and Daniel Duell.

Alpha Trojon crew prevailed in the C1 enduro

Photo by: Jonathan Mills