With momentum building following a superb second-place finish in the FIA World Endurance Championship earlier this month at Spa-Francorchamps, Turkish racer Salih Yoluc took to the top step of the podium as he claimed the Blancpain GT Series Pro-Am victory on Sunday at Silverstone.
In what was his second endurance event of the year, Salih arrived at Silverstone confident of a strong result. Last year at the same venue he took the European Le Mans Victory with TF Sport, so he knew he had a good chance with RAM Racing this year in the #49 Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Teaming up with Euan Hankey and Darren Burke, Salih took part in the Friday Bronze test with Darren, the duo topping the timesheets and offering further encouragement for the rest of the weekend.
Qualifying on Sunday morning saw the trio of drivers all put in good runs to take a combined position of third to the grid for the three-hour endurance event. Darren took the first stint and with the leading #333 hitting trouble on the opening lap, Darren was able to take advantage and move to the head of the class.
Salih took over at one-third distance in the lead, something he maintained throughout his stint to hand the car of to Euan for the run to the flag. The victory came with a 50-second margin over the similarly equipped Strakka entry.
“It’s been a very good weekend with a fantastic result,” Salih said. “The car ran faultlessly so the guys at RAM Racing did good job. My stint was very busy, lots of traffic, but I was able to maintain the class lead and hand over to Euan in a strong position. Monza was disappointing for us, but Spa and here have been very good, so we want to carry these results on when we go to Paul Ricard in two weeks’ time.”
The result moves Salih third in the Pro-Am standings with 25 points, just five shy of the series lead as he gets set for round three 1-2 June at Circuit Paul Ricard. |
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