Phiroze Bilimoria overcame the loss of his race car before the weekend had even started to score points on his return to the Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Rockingham.

Bilimoria was due to partner Nigel Redwood in a GT3 class Porsche 997 but gearbox failure during the Friday practice sessions looked to set to bring the weekend to a close without seeing the car turn a wheel in competitive competition.

However, overnight the Team RPM mechanics worked until the early hours of the morning, preparing the team's spare GTC class 996, which Bilimoria had never driven, ready for Saturday's dry qualifying session.

With just 15 minutes on the clock, Redwood spent the majority of the first session running the car in, before completing an awesome lap which took the duo to fourth in class and ninth overall. The team's delight was short-lived though: the car returned to the pits with a slipping clutch. With just ten minutes until the qualifying session for Sunday's race, there wasn't the opportunity for the team to carry out any repairs and so Bilimoria had to nurse the car through three laps of the circuit, in order to qualify the car at the back of the grid for Sunday's race.

More hard work from the RPM crew in replacing the clutch allowed Redwood to take to the grid for the opening stint of the race and he made a great start to move up to third in class. The driver change at the mid-point of the race gave Bilimoria his first opportunity to turn the wheel in anger, and as the chequered flag fell, he brought the car home fifth in class and seventh overall, narrowly missing out on fourth place to a hard-charging Mark Cole in the final laps.

Two challenges faced the team for Sunday's race: the start from the back of the grid and the weather, as heavy rain blasted the track all day. With just ten minutes until the race, the weather turned with the sun finally breaking through and the decision was quickly made to switch to slicks.

Bilimoria was to take the opening stint in the 60-minute race and with a demon start, he charged into the first corner past the Lotus, to immediately take on the GT2 class Monaro. With each lap that passed, the Indian driver continued to pick off the cars in front of him, making up an impressive eleven places.

Once past the Morgan Aero, Bilimoria was able to open a comprehensive seven second gap, but had to then ease off the pace to conserve a leaking gearbox. The Morgan pitted early and put in some quick out-laps, catching and passing the #17 RPM Porsche during its pit stop.

Redwood began the charge as soon as he took to the track, closing the gap to 2.2 seconds, and when the safety car was deployed for a bizarre half lap, he brought the gap down still further. However, when the safety car pulled off with little warning, the Morgan was at full pace and immediately pulled out a gap. With the RPM Porsche's gearbox still leaking oil, Redwood made the decision to hold station and bring the car home sixth in class and tenth overall.

“That was a great result,” Bilimoria said. “I'm absolutely thrilled seeing as we started from the back of the grid.

“The team have been exceptional all weekend and I'm delighted that we've helped them move into second in the GTC Championship. Rock on Brands.”