If you embark on a pan-European back-to-back racing adventure over a Bank Holiday weekend, there are few more prestigious venues to race at than Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, and then Silverstone – home of the British Grand Prix.
But that was endurance racing champion Darren Turner’s quest last Saturday and Sunday. Firstly, he answered the call to Aston Martin Racing partner team Blackthorn in the Michelin Le Mans Cup, and then dashed back home to England overnight to drive the beautiful old Aston Martin LM4 for his stint in the Silverstone Festival, on Sunday.
Blackthorn called on Turner’s help after its regular driver, David McDonald, sustained a back injury – leading to another career first for the Briton, a debut in the Michelin Le Mans Cup. It also meant a return to the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 for the works Aston Martin driver, similar to that he’d raced with Beechdean AMR earlier in August.
“It was a really good experience,” said Turner. “The racing is feisty to say the least. When the LMP3 prototype cars come through to lap you, they don’t give any quarter – as it should be. And in the LMGT3 class the racing was hard but fair. I really enjoyed it.”
Turner’s Le Mans Cup experience began with a test on the Wednesday prior to the event which was a chance to get to know Blackthorn and reacquaint himself with the Vantage.
“It was lovely to work with Blackthorn,” he said. “They are an impressive outfit, and I enjoyed working with them. It was also, of course, nice to be back at Spa driving a GT3 car, especially since the weather was kind to us all the time I was there.”
Paired alongside team owner Claude Bovet, Turner assisted in dialling the car into the circuit through practice in preparation for qualifying on Saturday morning, which was completed by Bovet.
“We were very happy with the balance, and I have to say, despite Claude being relatively inexperienced at this level, his performance was very good,” explained Turner, after Bovet qualified them seventh in class to start the race.
Unfortunately, the promise they’d worked to create never materialised in the race after Bovet, who started the event on Saturday afternoon, was caught up in a collision caused by others in front of him.
“There was a big melee at the first corner which was triggered by the LMP3 cars at the front of the field,” said Turner. “In all of that carnage, Claude sustained damage to the front left so we lost both dive planes and suffered some splitter damage. This resulted in in us not having a ‘racey’ car.”
Despite the imbalance the car suffered, Bovet held on gamely in the midfield tussle before handing over to Turner for the final stint.
“Claude did a great job to keep us in the mix,” said Turner. “He maintained seventh, and so when I jumped in we were aiming for the top five at least. But then there were a couple of Full Course Yellows [FCY] and a Safety Car period which reduced the amount of time we had to work forward, and of course the balance after the damage was not at its best.”
Eventually Turner clawed the Aston Martin back up to sixth.
“It was a very eventful race, but a very enjoyable one,” concluded Turner. “I really think that without the damage, and all the FCYs, we had a real shot at being on the podium.”
Race over and almost immediately Turner was in transit to Northampton so that he could be ready to partner Jonathan Lupton in the Irish Grand Prix-winning pre-war Aston Martin LM4, in the BRDC 500, part of the Silverstone Festival race weekend.
“I’d always been scheduled to race at the Festival, but with Blackthorn calling me up to race at Spa, I had to miss practice and qualifying,” explained Turner, “so Jonathan did that by himself, and as usual, put in an accomplished performance.
“He took the start as well and he was making really good progress and definitely getting more and more dialled into the grand prix track. Which was really positive.
“Then I jumped in and did two laps before a misfire that has been plaguing us over the last two or three races returned. But, also, there was an incident which resulted in the Safety Car coming out and that ultimately led to the race being red-flagged.”
That meant the duo, who together won their class at the Le Mans Classic a little over a year ago with the little LM4, were just outside the podium positions in the PW1 class in fourth place by the time the race was declared over.
“It’s always lovely driving LM4 around Silverstone on the grand prix track, but for me what was more rewarding was seeing Jonathan’s progress from when he first drove on the circuit a couple of years back. It’s super encouraging to watch how he is developing as a driver and he’s getting quicker all the time.”
After two racetracks in two different countries, and in wildly differing machinery that represented each end of the performance spectrum, one might call that a working weekend complete and head for the sofa… but not Turner.
As the Bank Holiday Monday drew to a close, he was jumping back on a plane to continue testing the Vantage GT3 with Blackthorn in Italy later in the week.
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