Blake Angliss Shows Promise In Luckless British GT Opener

Motorsport rising star Blake Angliss saw rapid pace go cruelly unrewarded as luck deserted him in the opening round of the 2026 British GT Championship season at Silverstone this past weekend (25/26 April).

Angliss kicked off his first full season in British GT with the championship’s most prestigious race, the Silverstone 500. A fitting way to start the year, his second attempt at the three-hour endurance classic came with Mahiki Racing in their McLaren Artura GT4.

Teaming up with British GT debutant Revie Lake in the hotly-contested Silver class, the 23-year-old got his first laps of the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit on the board in pre-event testing on Friday. They continued to make progress with their McLaren through free practice the next day.

Their hard work meant they headed into qualifying confident of challenging for a leading result, however as Angliss headed out to start the opening session, the Artura suffered a sudden loss of power. Diagnosed as an electrical issue, it sadly couldn’t be resolved on the spot.

That meant the #84 machine would be lining up from the back of the GT4 grid for the race. Knowing there was plenty of pace in the car, Angliss was confident he could make some immediate progress from the start and he did exactly that with a phenomenal opening lap.

Charging forward five places into the top six in class, the YorPower, Transend UK and TrigPoint Security based driver then continued his charge following a short safety car period. Two more positions gained put him up to fourth in the GT4 category, before he pitted and handed over control to Lake.

The young racer put in a strong stint and kept them in contention for the podium until disaster struck at the halfway point of the race. An opportunistic move from a car behind led to heavy contact, with the subsequent damage ending their promising race on the spot.

Blake Angliss: “It’s been an incredibly frustrating weekend. We’ve had a lot of speed and potential, but just haven’t been able to show it due to multiple factors outside of our control, which is really not how you want to start a season.

“Huge credit to the Mahiki Racing team, they pulled out all the stops, with late nights and lots of hard work to get us on track and capable of fighting at the front. We just wish we could have delivered them a big race result to reward their efforts, but that was taken out of our hands.

“While we knew we didn’t have the ultimate qualifying pace, we were confident we could get into the top three. Therefore, despite starting at the back, I was confident I could make some quick progress and to get up from the back of the grid to fourth inside half an hour was very satisfying.

“That shows the pace is clearly there in myself, Revie and the car, so we’ll focus on taking away the positives from the weekend and coming back as a stronger package for Oulton Park next.”

Angliss has some great commercial opportunities available for prospective partners to join him for his British GT programme this year. Interested parties are invited to get in touch with him via email for more information.

The second round of the 2026 British GT Championship season will take place at Oulton Park, with the Cheshire circuit hosting a pair of one-hour races over the Spring bank holiday weekend (23-25 May).

Images from British GT / Jakob Ebrey Photography.