Darren Turner fired his 2026 racing season into life with a return to the British GT Championship at Silverstone on Sunday.
And although Turner and his team Grange Racing by FSR ultimately came away from the three-hour blue riband opener on the British Grand Prix venue empty-handed, the super-experienced racer, armed with more than 30 seasons behind the wheel, believes he’s seen enough of the brand new Rockingham-based operation to know it will achieve great things as the season progresses.
“We’re definitely going to get there,” said Turner. “We’re still learning how to understand each other as a team and as a group of individuals, and that takes time. But everyone is fantastic and they are a very talented bunch; it is only a matter of time before it all clicks together. And it’s improving all the time”
After a winter’s testing, and a reasonably trouble-free build-up to qualifying for the Silverstone 500, Turner - driving the Evo version of Aston Martin’s Vantage GT4 competitively for the first time - and teammate Daniel Lavery put themselves right in the fight during the aggregated grid-deciding session.
“We were still not quite where we wanted to be with the car’s balance, and how it was using the tyres, by the time we got to qualifying,” he explained. “Daniel did an exceptional job among the Bronze drivers to put himself second fastest, and fifth overall. That really gave us something to work with.
“But because of the limitations we had with the tyres, we knew my first lap in my session was going to be the best, even with me slowing down to cool them off and trying for a second lap. We ended up fourth fastest of the GT4 cars.”
Grange Racing by FSR’s qualifying performance was indeed outstanding, ending up second of the four Vantage GT4s and less than a second away from the GT4 Pro-Am class pole position.
Lavery started the race and put in an outstanding performance to hang on to the three GT4 leaders, while maintaining his second place in the Pro-Am division as he tracked the class leader. Unfortunately, he was caught out during the race’s second full course yellow period in the first hour. When he went to select the FCY mode he was in too high a gear for it to engage, and he over-sped the 80km/h speed limit.
“He just didn’t know that you needed to be in second or third gear to latch on to the FCY mode; and to be fair I didn’t know that either,” said Turner. “It’s all in the learning.”
While the race was neutralised most of the teams took the opportunity to swap drivers and Turner hopped into the Vantage. Before for the FCY period was over, he was made aware of the penalty the team had accrued for the over speeding.
“We decided to take the drive-through as soon as the race went back to green,” explained Turner, who pitted from the class lead. “Obviously this put us dead last and I spent several laps closing back down on the pack.”
Turner, as you would expect from a double British GT GT4 Pro-Am champion, put in a storming drive over the next 45 minutes. Steadily working his way up to second in the Pro-Am class and becoming embroiled in a fierce battle for fifth overall in GT4.
“There was a kerfuffle among the GT3s lapping us and it closed our pack up,” said Turner. “I managed to pass one McLaren into Village, then coming onto the Wellington Straight I had the momentum on a BMW, on the outside and following another McLaren. I cleared the BMW, which was still underneath my left rear as we came into Brooklands. The McLaren ahead wasn’t really trying to brake late, or turn in, so I went for the move… and then he turned in! I had nowhere to go on the left with the BMW where it was, so it ended up being a three into one situation which never works...”
It didn’t work, and both Turner and the McLaren were out of the race on the spot after colliding. “Afterwards, the McLaren driver came over to me and apologised, because he didn’t have a left mirror, so he didn’t even know we were there and had decided to turn in anyway,” said Turner.
It was a frustrating way to end a highly positive start for the young team, but as Turner points out, motorsport is all about looking ahead.
“The team put in an exceptional amount of work to provide a beautifully turned-out car, and with so much to learn, and prepare on their first weekend, it was a brilliant effort,” he said. “They did a fantastic job all around. The team presentation, the car presentation, the team morale... everything was fantastic.
“We’ll regroup and come back stronger at Oulton Park.”
Darren’s 2026 schedule is as busy as ever, as he switches between Aston Martin road car development duties, historic racing and his British GT Championship campaign. He will be out next at Oulton Park for Round 2 of the British GT Championship on 23-25 May.