After finally getting his hands on the RPM Porsche 997, Phiroze Bilimoria was able to celebrate a top six finish in the final round of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship GT3 class at Silverstone.

Having been forced to switch to the teams GTC class Porsche 996 for his comeback at Rockingham – and then the Emotional Engineering Vauxhall Monaro for the next round at Brands Hatch – following gearbox woes for the new GT3-spec machine, Silverstone was the first chance the Indian racer has to taste his new car, with Phil Glew slotting in alongside him for the weekend.

Having been quickest in the morning session on Friday, Bilimoria was hoping for a top three qualifying position, but an incident with George Mackintosh saw his Lotus drive into the side of the 997 GT3 on the second lap. Once back on track, Bilimoria was caught up in traffic and ended the session sixth in class.

Sunday's race was started by Bilimoria who made good progress in the early stages, although he struggled for pace due to chronic high speed understeer and low speed oversteer.

A Safety Car period when the Monaro went off gave Bilimoria the chance to close the gap on the cars in front and to let the tyres cool down, but due to the length of the caution period, the decision was made by the team to bring the Porsche into the pits early for the driver change.

Glew was able to put in some consistent and quick laps when he returned to the race and was promoted to third place when the others pitted – a position he held for the majority of his stint. However, with about 40 minutes to go, the Aston Martin of Martin Stretton and the Lotus of Gavan Kershaw started to reel in the 997 and, with the tyres starting to give up the ghost, he was unable to keep the pair behind to drop to fifth at the flag.

“It was a really good but difficult race and a really steep learning curve,” Bilimoria said. “It would have been nice to finish on the podium but that's just motorsport! It's been great that MPG and my other sponsors have supported me and provided me with the opportunity to do these last three rounds as a toe in the water for next year and I'd like to thank them all for their support.

“I've now competed in every class in the championship and the GT3 class is the best.”