The three-hour, 500km race around the home of the British Grand Prix is always an annual highlight, drawing in a healthy 31-car entry, 18 of which will compete in the headline GT3 class.
Jones and Malvern head into the race sitting sixth in the championship points, having fought back from a tough qualifying to secure a strong sixth place in the season-opening two-hour race at Brands Hatch last month. Following some extra test sessions since then, both Jones and Malvern hold high hopes for the second round of the campaign at Silverstone.
The pair have worked closely with the Team Parker Racing engineers to refine the setup of their Porsche 911 GT3 R, and both drivers have already clocked up solid testing mileage around the 3.2-mile grand prix circuit.
Jones and Malvern are also no strangers to success in the biggest British GT race of the year, having won the GT4 division outright back in 2019 when racing a Mercedes-AMG GT4. No pairing has ever managed to win the Silverstone 500 in both GT4 and GT3, meaning Jones and Malvern could make a piece of history should things go their way in Northamptonshire.
Nick Jones said: “We’re going into Silverstone aiming to have some fun, and I know that we will as it’s a great circuit, we have a great team around us and a great car to race with. Looking back at Brands Hatch I think we proved a fair bit. We had a difficult start with setup and qualifying didn’t go our way, but we showed we can fight back on a Sunday when it really matters. We’ve had a few test days already at Silverstone and it’s a track I like. We’ve still got some work to do with the car, just to make it more stable at riding kerbs and find those extra few tenths that make all the difference. But the key is to go and enjoy the weekend and not put too much pressure on ourselves.”
Scott Malvern added: “I think we’re in a really good place ahead of Silverstone, and I’m really looking forward to the weekend. The longer races always bring in that extra bit of strategy, and from the testing we’ve done we know our pace on heavy fuel loads and old tyres is strong, which bodes well for us. Nick gets faster and more confident each time he goes out in the car at the moment and we’ve already made a lot of setup improvements to make the car faster, more predictable and more consistent. The Porsche should suit Silverstone well as it enjoys the traction in the low-speed turns, has good straight-line speed and fares pretty well in the fast corners too where aerodynamic performance comes into play a bit more. I’m feeling confident about this one.”
The British GT Silverstone 500 begins with two free practice sessions and qualifying on Saturday June 26, before the three-hour race gets underway at midday on Sunday. The entire race will be streamed live via the British GT Championship website and live timing is available all weekend via tsl-timing.com.
