Silverstone plays host to memorable BARC race day

It wasn’t just the Distrigo Parts Distribution C1 Racing Series that competed at Silverstone this past weekend (April 27/28) as several other British Automobile Racing Club categories took centre stage to continue their 2019 campaigns.

Setting the scene for the history-making main event later in the day on Saturday, a variety of different championships tackled the infamous Grand Prix circuit to serve up a feast of thrills and spills.

Making their second appearance at the venue already this year, the Dunlop Endurance Championship staged a further two one-hour encounters. Race one proved to be a frenetic affair as the VR Motorsport duo of Tim Gray and Alastair Boulton piloted their Praga R1T to the chequered flag in commanding style, finishing ahead of their nearest challengers by more than 40 seconds.

Any hopes of repeating that success were extinguished in race two later in the day however as the pair were forced to retire after 15 laps. With the race one victors watching on from the sidelines, FF Corse’s Wayne Marrs and Charlie Hollings took full advantage to lead a Ferrari 488 Challenge 1-2-3.

Silverstone provided the starting point for the KW Automotive Classic VW Cup, BARC Saloon Series and TDi North Honda VTEC Challenge too, with the trio amalgamating together for two blockbuster races.

Bringing together a diverse range of saloon cars to go wheel-to-wheel with each other, all three categories were well represented. At the wheel of his Ford Escort RS2000 MkII, Craig Rainer proved to be the driver to beat as he stormed to victory in both races,

Rainer dominated proceedings in the opener but didn’t have things all his own way however as the Ford man was kept honest in the second encounter by the Honda Civic of Chris Sparks.

Rounding out the action around the 3.67 mile circuit was the Sports Prototype Cup, which made its own piece of history by running for the first-ever time.

Aimed at providing a multi-marque racing environment for lightweight sports prototype cars to race in a premium race weekend package, the new series was home to both the Radical SR3 and brand-new Revolution machine.

Despite a small grid competing the action proved to be fast-paced with outright hours shared between Rob Wheldon and Bruce Crawley.

For the full classification of results, click here.