Nathan Freke GT3Nathan Freke made his return to the drivers seat last weekend in Silverstone having been invited to partner Ian Stinton in the Stark Racing Ginetta G55 GT3. Stinton and his Stark Racing team had not appeared on the British GT Championship so far this season but were hopeful of a strong showing despite their car lacking some of the newer updates that their Ginetta G55 GT3 counterparts enjoyed.

Saturday morning’s free practice sessions got off to a good start with both drivers achieving a good number of laps and becoming familiar with both the car and the conditions that lay in store for the weekend ahead.

A dry Saturday afternoon greeted drivers for qualifying for Sunday’s three hour endurance race. Ian did the opening stint in the car setting a good time of 2.07.620 before Nathan went out for his first series of qualifying laps. As he acclimatised himself further with the car before new tyres were fitted for his flying laps, Freke brought the car into the pits to diagnose an issue the team had identified. After a quick check over by the Stark Racing crew, they found an oil leak, which sadly prevented any further running. Despite not getting a new tyre run, Freke was instantly on the pace setting a time of 2.05.871 to put them 29th on the grid for Sunday’s race.

The fine sunny weather continued into Sunday and the glorious grid of fine GT machinery set off on their green flag lap. At 1pm Ian Stinton started the race for Stark Racing and was quickly making his way into the top 20 before the safety car came out for a lengthy stint on lap five. Racing got back under way on lap 11 and benefitting from pitstops ahead Stinton now found himself in seventh and racing hard to keep the position. Once again the race was brought under Safety Car conditions on lap 18 and Ian pitted from 11th to hand over to Nathan Freke for his first stint of the race. As the race got back underway Nathan was now running in 23rd and set about making his way back up the order. After just three laps Nathan was now up to ninth lapping faster than the race leaders. By lap 36 Nathan had now closed in on G55 GT3 rival Colin White and a superb move at Vale corner promoted Freke to fourth overall. However at the next corner White would take the place back and all now appeared unwell in the Stark Racing Ginetta as Nathan dived for the pits. Much to everyone’s disappointment the fault was diagnosed as a rear brake issue putting them out of the race.

Speaking after the weekend, Nathan highlighted the positives from the weekend, “I have to say a massive thank you Ian and his Stark Racing team for a superb job this weekend and giving me a great opportunity. Our pace was mega all weekend in a car that doesn’t have the same upgrades compared to our rival Ginetta’s added to our lack of track time. However to lap faster than the race leaders during my stint and to run as high as fourth is fantastic and a credit to everyone involved. I really think we could have achieved a big result if our luck hadn’t run out. Overall it’s been a great weekend and thank you so much to everyone who wished me well in the week leading up to and during the event itself. Now its back to working hard to try and get back on track again this season to build on this weekends run!”