Reports > INTERNATIONAL TROPHY MEETING SILVERSTONE MAY 15/16

Jim Morris takes 2nd in Class (and fastest lap) in the Guards Trophy

The WPR team were at Silverstone for the 2010 version of this famous meeting to run Jim Morris in his Lotus 23B in the equally renowned Guards Trophy race for GT cars. Prior to a test on the Friday before the meeting Jim had only driven the car once before so with 53 other cars on the Historic GP track and 25 minutes of practice there was a mountain to climb. Despite being 5th reserve fortune smiled and Jim got a clear lap (2m 13.4s) early on in the session which was good enough to take a provisional class pole as he was now up to 3rd reserve.

Jim just made the race but had to take his place at the rear of the 48 car field as they came round for the rolling start. The race was run over 50 minutes and included a 1 minute mandatory pit stop/driver change. By the end of Lap 1 Jim had overtaken 11 cars with another 6 on Lap 2! The Class leading Elva which had started 24th on the grid was being reeled in at the rate of 2 to 3 secs a lap and the class win was looking a distinct possibility. However, precious time was lost during the pit stop cycle - but undeterred, Jim pressed on and was only 4 secs adrift by the time the chequered flag was shown. Still, second in class, fastest lap in class (2m 11.0s) and 17th overall was an excellent result for the first race in the Lotus.