Zac Meakin powered his McLaren Artura GT4 to victory in the Silverstone 500 this weekend (27/28 April) – the headline event in the British GT Championship calendar.
Lining up with teammate Jack Brown, the pair came into the weekend on the back of two podium finishes at Oulton Park last time out and were among the pacesetters during pre-race testing.
Come qualifying, Jack laid down a strong marker, going fastest in his session by just over two tenths of a second. Zac continued the good work, going even faster, to claim a provisional qualifying record, before ultimately being bested in the final minutes. The combined times however were enough to ensure the #90 Optimum Motorsport-run machine would start from pole position in the GT4 class.
The race started behind the Safety Car after rain fell overnight and continued to fall until late morning, leaving the track very wet. After only three laps of running, and with 42 GT cars helping to shift the water, the Safety Car returned to the pits and the race truly got underway.
Ten minutes later a Full Course Yellow was called as the marshals extracted the number 17 BMW from the gravel trap, allowing Optimum to pit the car and for Jack to take over. With few disruptions to his run, Jack was back in the pits to hand over to Zac as the halfway mark of the race arrived.
In the final hour, an incident once again brought out the Full Course Yellow and Safety Car. Quick decision making and slick pit work ensured the team put Jack in for his final stint and got him out ahead of the Safety Car, generating a healthy advantage over their nearest rivals. From then on Zac nervously watched the timing screens as the timer counted down in the three-hour contest.
The win made boosted Zac and Jack’s their championship aspirations, putting them just 3.5 points behind in the Silver Cup, and 2.5 behind in the Overall GT4 Drivers Championship standings.
Zac has just over three weeks to wait until the next round of the season, at Donington Park on the 25/26 May, where he’ll be hoping to continue the strong run of form and make further inroads in the championship battle.
Zac Meakin commented, “We were strong coming into the weekend. We’ve been quick and in qualifying we were good – going fastest overall. I started the race and then there was an incident which caused the Full Course Yellow. With that, we pitted to let Jack out. He did a mega job, doing everything he possibly needed to during a long stint.
“We swapped, and it was a little bit lairy as the track started drying up, then it rained again and the car came back to me, and from then on, I kept going, managed to pull away, and created a safe distance.
“Unfortunately, there was a crash involving our teammate in GT3 which caused a Full Course Yellow. With it we pitted and managed to get out in front of the Safety Car, gaining us a lap, which was very good, and from there it was smooth sailing. Pulling off the win is a massive boost for morale, it’s just a shame we have the success penalty next time, but that’s a nice problem to have!”
