Silverstone 500 Race: Barwell take victory despite Garage 59 pressure

British GT’s blue riband event, the Silverstone 500 has been won by the #72 Barwell Motorsport of Adam Balon and Sandy Mitchell.

They narrowly edged out the #88 Garage 59 McLaren of Alexander West and Marvin Kirchhoefer, with the #28 Optimum Motorsport entry of Nick Moss and Joe Osbourne in third.

In the GT4 class, the top honours were taken by the #27 Newbridge Motorsport Aston Martin of Matt Topham and Darren Turner.

They finished ahead of Jack Brown and Will Burns in the #90 Century Motorsport BMW, with the #42 Steller Motorsport Audi of Sennan Fielding Richard Williams in third.

The race started in dramatic fashion with several cars making contact on the opening lap.

The #8 Team Abba Racing Mercedes went down the inside of the #4 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes and collided, spinning the 2 Seas car across the track and into the path of the #6 Ram Racing Mercedes.

If that was a bad enough start for Mercedes, things would only get worse as the #93 Sky Tempesta Racing Mercedes spun but was able to continue.

It was Adam Balon and Alex Malykhin that were battling for the lead and the two almost took each other out as the made contract with Malykhin taking the lead of the race.

The #6 Ram Racing Mercedes was able to get back out on track but was 11 laps behind.

Race leader Alex Malykhin had to face a stop-go penalty, which meant Balon took back the lead of the race and faced pressure from Morgan Tillbrook.

Balfe Motorsport had to full into the pitlane as their #22 Audi of Adam Carroll and Shaun Balfe suffered an issue that began with a puncture.

As the race headed towards a conclusion, there was less than a second between the top two, with Barwell able to narrowly hold on as Garage 59 put late pressure on the car that started on pole position.