Lyons wins GT 500 3 hour dusk race at Donington Park

After a two week break after Rockingham Essex-based professional racing driver Michael Lyons was back in action in his Ferrari 458 GT3 in the Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Donington Park with team Scuderia Vittoria.

The 20-year-old was taking part in round 6 of the British Championship for Scuderia Vittoria in the Ferrari GT3 458 and both Michael and his team were looking forward to this event, which was the longest of the year. Starting in the day and finishing as the sun sets – The GT500.

After testing recently at Snetterton to fine-tune the set up of the Ferrari, the practice and qualifying sessions bought further opportunities to bring out the best in the Ferrari. Uniquely this 3 hour race had a 45 minute qualifying session and at the end of it, despite being 4th early on Lyons finished up eighth, leaving the driver slightly disappointed.

As the endurance race started on the Sunday, Michael’s team mate started first on a damp and slippery surface and took the car from eighth to fourth before bringing it into the pits for Michael to take over. By this time, the circuit was bone dry and slicks were the only option. Michael immediately set about setting fastest laps before the safety car was out again, this time for a beached Aston Martin. As soon as the safety car came out Michael pitted from an astonishing second place – in effect buying the team a free pit stop – a strategy that would pay big dividends at the chequered flag.

As Charlie now put the laps in and maintained the place the track was now dry and there was now no question that it would stay this way until the end. As the safety car came out for the third time, Charlie pitted on lap 62 to hand back over to Michael for the last stint. This meant Lyons would be on track for 1 hour 10 minutes.

When Lyons rejoined the race he was in 5^th place and a lap down, but the strategy was working well with a whole pit stop in hand to claw back the deficit to those in front.

By lap 85 Lyons was leading having passed cars on track and in the pits and the gap was 37 seconds. The biggest question at this point was whether a splash and dash for fuel would be needed. Michael had to measure out his speed in the closing minutes with the other Ferrari and the Porsche beginning to close the gap as they had enough fuel to the end and could race hard.

In the closing minutes though the no.20 Ferrari spun off the circuit causing a safety car to come out one more time. This meant Michael’s lead was reduced to zero and when the safety car came back in, he had to fight extremely hard against the factory supported Ferrari driver in second place and Porsche in third. With two laps to go Michael had done the job and opened a sufficient gap to claim his second British GT win of the season – the first being at Oulton Park at the opener.

After the race Michael said;

“Wow! That was a mega race, those last twenty minutes just took forever, I never thought the race would finish. All the safety cars through the race both helped us and hindered us in equal amounts, so I suppose it just evened out really.”

“The times in my last stint were great and against some really strong competition, so I’m really pleased with how it has all gone, this really is the race to win in British GT, and to beat the factory drivers too was very satisfying.”

“The team have also done a great job all weekend, and the strategy and the way they spotted the opportunity to build a free pit stop was incredible, so I have to say thank you to the guys too.”

“The amazing thing is that this now leaves us firmly back in the championship chase with one round to go! After winning at Oulton Park earlier in the year which seems like such a long time ago, we now have a reasonable chance. I will do my best to win at Silverstone the last race and just see what happens!”

The British GT championship now moves onto the last round at Silverstone Circuit on 9^th October with Michael now 4^th in the championship, he will be fighting to win the race and hopefully the championship.