AFTER a double podium at Oulton Park, Northwich racer Ian Loggie and his co-driver Phil Keen headed to Silverstone for Round Two of the British GT Championship.
The 2 Seas Motorsport team were competing in the three-hour Silverstone 500 and were full of confidence after a great result in Round One.
Friday’s test day gave the team two one-hour sessions to try and get the car dialled in, but those sunny conditions would not last into the Saturday when the team got down to serious work.
On Saturday, there were two one-hour practice sessions followed by qualifying and after the second pre-qualifying session, Loggie and Keen were third overall behind their sister 2 Seas Mercedes of Tse and Goetz.
Qualifying would see the usual split session with Loggie and Keen having 15 minutes each to set their fastest time.
The silver Mercedes showed great speed in testing conditions, but could only secure sixth place, which was a disappointing considering their sister car had taken a brilliant pole position.
Sunday would see a huge swing in the weather – with the circuit having been saturated during the night, support classes were cancelled.
With a drop in temperature, all the teams lined up on wets although by the time the lights went out, the rain had stopped.
The first two laps were completed behind the safety car but after the first lap, Keen, who was taking the first stint for the three-hour race, dove into the pits to get one of their mandatory stops out of the way.
This initially seemed a great idea as the Mercedes could rejoin the back of the field having done one stop over the rest of the cars.
As the green flag was waved, the No6 Mercedes started to easily pick off the GT4 cars and was showing great pace.
As time went on, the next round of pit stops were soon upon the teams. In jumped Loggie and he was again showing good pace as the track was still slippery.
By the half way mark, Loggie was second about a minute behind the leader, but the race had been messy with multiple full-course yellows and safety car periods.
As the race got close to the end, some drivers were in danger of exceeding their driving time and after a big accident that put one of the McLarens into a concrete wall, out came a long, full-course yellow period and unfortunately, Loggie had to pit, dropping him down to 10th which was his final position.
The team certainly had the speed to be on the podium but the unfortunately, circumstances just didn't go their way this time.
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