Academy Motorsport embrace strong team effort at Silverstone despite being hampered by BOP

It was a bittersweet weekend for Academy Motorsport at Silverstone last weekend, for the second round of the British GT Championship. Despite suffering throughout the weekend with the Balance of Performance (BOP), the team secured a seventh-place finish amongst an extremely competitive field.

After sustaining damage during Friday’s test session, the team were quick to prepare the Ford Mustang GT4 for Saturday’s qualifying session, however shortly before being due to head out on circuit, a gearbox issue reared its head, giving the team very little time to complete a gearbox change. Demonstrating their skills once again, the Ford Mustang was on circuit before the end of the session.

Although both Will Moore and Matt Cowley each secured a qualifying time, Moore was unable to complete his set number of laps due to limited time to complete a gearbox change. As a result, the team was forced to start from the very back of the grid.

As the three-hour race came around, Cowley climbed aboard for the opening stint. Although severely hampered by the BOP in comparison to his fellow GT4 competitors, Cowley raced his way through the field towards the head of the GT4 pack.

With one hour behind him, Cowley pitted to hand control over to team-mate Moore, who continued the strong race performance. Two more faultless pit stops followed, with both drivers each having another turn behind the wheel, before Moore steered the Ford Mustang across the finish line.

Commenting on the team’s Silverstone 500 performance, Academy Motorsport’s Managing Director, Matt Nicoll-Jones, said: “It’s been a tough weekend. Our race was perfect. Both Matt and Will drove superbly, the team executed three faultless pit stops, but we were severely penalised by the BOP. We are quite significantly off the pace, but Matt and Will were smart and used their race craft the best way they could.

“The whole team have been fantastic all weekend. We’re pleased with the result, as we didn’t expect it given the issues we faced, but it’s extremely frustrating for us at the moment with the BOP the way it is.”

The next round of the British GT Championship takes place at Donington Park during 10th-11th July.