Matthew George will attempt to drive two different GT4 cars in British GT’s blue riband Silverstone 500 race next weekend (June 9/10) after being entered in both an Invictus Games Racing Jaguar and Generation AMR Super Racing Aston Martin.
The latter, a one-off entry at Silverstone, also sees James Holder return to the championship as a driver for the first time since 2016. He has since raced in Europe but is also the driving force behind Invictus Games Racing’s Jaguar project, which David Appleby Engineering – who run Holder’s V8 Vantage – also oversee.
Holder was keen to team up with long-time co-driver George at Silverstone but remained adamant that it shouldn’t detract from his Pro role in the #44 F-TYPE SVR, which from next weekend features debutant Paul Vice for the remainder of the season.
British GT’s only three-hour race requires crews to make three mandatory driver changes. But synchronising pitstops to ensure one car doesn’t lose time waiting for its new occupant isn’t the only challenge facing the team…
“We had to go and get signed permission from all of the other teams to allow Matt to race both cars – he’ll essentially be doing the whole three hours so he’ll be knackered by the end!” team boss James Appleby told Motorsport News.
“James wanted to bring his Aston out, but also wanted to share with Matt, but also didn’t want to disrupt Matt’s programme with the Invictus guys, so this is the solution.
“It’ll be a big challenge for Matt because the Aston and the Jag couldn’t be more different. We also have the challenge of having to coordinate pitstops so Matt can hop out of one car and straight into the other, otherwise we could have a car sat there for three minutes without a second driver ready!”
The Invictus Games Racing project, which aims to rehabilitate wounded, injured and sick armed forces veterans through motorsport, has steadily gathered momentum since debuting at Oulton Park. Its Jaguars both demonstrated top-10 pace at Snetterton where George also enjoyed a spell in the lead before a pitstop infringement resulted in a stop/go penalty.
As well as Vice, Silverstone sees Basil Rawlinson make his British GT debut in the team’s #22 F-TYPE alongside full-season Pro, Jason Wolfe.
Reserve tickets for this year’s #Silverstone500, featuring Supercar Sunday, here. Adult prices start at just £12 while children aged 15-and-under attend for free.