BROWN SAUCE

19-year old Dan Brown mixes it with the best in European sports car races at Silverstone

Essex student Dan Brown (19) put all thoughts of his Economics degree course behind him at the weekend of June 4/5 as he and fellow hotshot, 20-year old Glynn Geddie clashed with, and beat, some of the best sports car racing drivers in Europe, in their AF Corse STP Ferrari F458.

A month after the scoring points in the first two rounds of the FIA GT3 Europe Championship in Portugal - their first taste of the prestigious and ultra-competitive series – the duo lined up at the weekend on the newly-configured Silverstone Grand Prix circuit for the two gruelling one-hour follow-up races in the series.

Dan and Glynn, both BRDC ‘Rising Stars’, and the Championship's youngest driver pairing, are contracted to the crack Italian AF Corse Ferrari racing team, and are sponsored by legendary fuel additives brand, STP, Apex Tubulars plus car styling company, Brown & Geeson, to drive the competition derivative of the Ferrari 458 supercar, prepared by AF Corse in Piacenza, Italy.

Dan’s father - Sean Brown, former British saloon car champion and Brown & Geeson MD - had every reason to be proud of his son as the 19-year old consistently proved at the weekend to be one of the fastest of the 27-car grid, comprising many hardened European sports car professionals, in the cream of sports car marques  - Ferrari, Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Lamborghini, Mercedes and Porsche.

Regrettably, there was bitter disappointment for the team following a retirement in the first race on Saturday - due to a mechanical problem at the mandatory driver change-over - despite Dan having seared to fourth overall and the team setting their sights realistically on a podium finish, if not victory itself.

But in race two, Dan put the disappointment behind him, again lapping amongst the fastest, to charge to a great fourth place overall with team-mate Geddie.

Reflecting after the races, Dan said: "It was good to leave Silverstone with more points under our belt. It’s a super-tough championship, and I’m proud to be one of only seven British drivers in the series, and hugely honoured to be driving for the prestige AF Corse Ferrari racing team…and there couldn’t be a more exciting way to learn a bit of Italian!”

Glynn added: “ I think we can be satisfied with P4 and our consistently strong pace all weekend was very encouraging, so we will keep pushing and hopefully bring home a podium at the next rounds of the series, at Navarra, Spain on July 2/3.”