Blancpain Endurance Cup front-runner Seb Morris wants nothing less than podium silverware when the season resumes at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit in Northamptonshire next weekend, 11th/12th May, for the category’s annual visit to British shores.
Following an outstanding debut in the globe’s biggest and best GT3 endurance championship last year with Team Parker Racing, Morris has returned for another crack at the Pro-Am title in 2019 with the Leicestershire squad at the wheel of a brand new, second generation Bentley Continental GT3.
Delivering expectedly strong pace during the opening event of the season at Monza in Italy last month, the Chester 23-year-old out-performing the ‘works’ Bentley entries in pre-event practice as well as lapping third in Pro-Am and fifth overall, things then unraveled through no fault of his own.
Two unfortunate incidents, one for team-mate Rob Smith in qualifying and the second for Derek Pierce in the opening hour of the Monza race, meant BRDC Superstar and Motorsport UK ‘Team UK’ driver Morris didn’t get to qualify for, or participate in, the three-hour encounter.
Silverstone, therefore, will effectively be a fresh start to the Welshman’s Blancpain challenge and as a track where Morris has enjoyed lots of success in the past – including victory in British GT’s blue riband ‘Silverstone 500’ race in 2017 – he is excited to be back and absolutely determined to get some serious championship points on the board.
“I’m ultra-confident for Silverstone”, said Morris, “Team Parker have got a great handle on this new Bentley Continental, which is extremely good in high-speed corners and, of course, Silverstone has plenty of those. We’re very determined to push on, Derek and Rob are really up for taking revenge after the frustration and disappointment of Monza.
“The weather there stopped us in our tracks with the incidents, before those we were the fastest Pro-Am by a country mile and that’s the sort of performance we’re confident we can work to deliver again at Silverstone.”
Last season, Morris announced his arrival among the elite of global GT3 endurance racing in style with the runner-up spot in the opening round of the Blancpain season at Monza – alongside both Pierce and Smith – but it was round two at Silverstone which brought misfortune.
Having lit up the timing screens with the second fastest time in Pro-Am during qualifying at his ‘home’ track, the Liberty Properties and Legat Owen supported racer eyed a maiden victory in the championship but a fractured sump, less than half an hour into the race, wrecked those hopes.
Thoughts of that, though, are firmly in the past and the focus from Morris is to try and mount a challenge for the trio’s first Pro-Am victory in Blancpain Endurance. Since round one, of course, Morris chalked-up victory in the first race of the 2019 British GT Championship at Oulton Park over Easter weekend and so the Welshman is certainly glowing with confidence.
“I’d love to go out and win next weekend, there’s a lot of momentum off the back of the win in British GT”, he added, “We obviously need plenty of points after missing out at Monza to get the championship back on track, so we need to make sure we can try and win at Silverstone and then fight for the win in the following round at Paul Ricard too. We’re definitely capable of that.”
Thursday, 9th May – Testing
Friday, 10th May, – 10:40am official free practice
Saturday, 11th May, 15:40 90-minute Pre-Qualifying
Sunday, 12th May, 09:40 Qualifying
Sunday, 12th May, 15:00 three-hour race
Television coverage of the race in the UK is expected to be screened on digital satellite and cable channel British Eurosport.
Live online streaming of both of Sunday’s sessions will be carried at SRO’s ‘GT World’ You Tube channel, on Motorsport.TV and also at the official Blancpain GT Series website HERE
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