The opening British GT weekend at Silverstone showed promising pace for Revie Lake. Unfortunately, an unlucky incident ended his hopes of a strong result.
Revie Lake moved from Ginetta Junior to British GT, making his debut in the championship this weekend at the legendary Silverstone Circuit. He got behind the wheel of the McLaren Artura GT4 in Mahiki Racing colours, sharing driving duties with his teammate Blake Angliss.
Already in pre-qualifying, they showed very impressive speed and headed into qualifying for Sunday’s race with high hopes. Unfortunately, their strong pace could not be fully demonstrated, as the Artura suffered a technical issue in the early stages of qualifying. Despite that, they knew the speed was there — it just needed to be shown in the race. "What it did do, however, was give us a challenge going into Sunday’s race.
"We knew we had good pace, and we showed that to a certain extent during the race. So overall, I don’t think it was too bad. My mindset doesn’t really change much, considering I know the team worked hard to produce an amazing package for the car — we were just unlucky, so there’s nothing we could have done," Revie reflected.
Although they started from the back of the grid, they didn’t give up. The race for the #84 crew was started by Revie’s teammate Blake Angliss, who was behind the wheel for the opening stint. He gained several positions, and by the end of his stint, they had moved up to fourth place.
It was then time for Revie to get into the car. After the pit stop, he continued where Blake had left off, showing strong pace and engaging in great battles with other drivers, where his impressive racecraft was on full display.
However, with one and a half hours remaining, their hopes of a strong result came to an end at Brooklands Corner, where Revie’s McLaren was damaged following contact with a rival. The incident forced both the #84 crew (Revie Lake and Blake Angliss) and the #27 crew (Daniel Lavery and Darren Turner) to retire from the race.
"I won‘t go into too much detail, but I would argue it wasn‘t my fault. But we both had our races ended so nothing we can change now," Revie said on the accident.
Solid pace didn’t translate into results, but the experience he gained over the weekend is something no one can take away from him and will be crucial for his further development. "I think I learned a lot about traffic management, the car itself, and pit stops, etc. I was very happy that we made a big step forward with the car setup as well, and all the other little improvements on top were a bonus.
"I was also very happy with the pace I showed—it's just a shame we didn’t get to fully demonstrate it in the race or qualifying."
A debut weekend is always a bit different compared to testing, also due to the level of competitiveness involved. "It’s different in the sense that everyone is there to win, so everyone is a bit more aggressive. But overall, I really enjoyed it, so I can’t complain—apart from not finishing," he said.
Despite not finishing, Revie showed very impressive pace throughout the weekend and gained valuable experience that he can use at the next race weekend, which will be held at Oulton Park on May 23–25.