Shanel Drewe achieves double podium finish at Silverstone

In just her second weekend competing in the championship, Shanel Drewe asserted herself as a consistent frontrunner and continued her terrific progress in the Vinyl Detail ST150 Challenge with a pair of third place finishes at Silverstone.

Shanel Drewe, Vinyl Detail ST150 Challenge — Photo credits: @shaneldreweracing

Shanel Drewe continued her terrific progress in the Vinyl Detail ST150 Challenge with a pair of third place finishes at Silverstone. In just her second weekend competing in the championship, Drewe asserted herself as a consistent frontrunner and after qualifying second, finished third in the opening race while claiming fastest lap.

The 20Ten Racing driver then made a last lap overtake in race two to secure her second podium finish in as many races, competing with series veterans and multiple race-winners to round off an superb weekend.

Shanel enjoyed an excellent return to racing in the previous round of the Vinyl Detail ST150 Challenge at Croft where she earned the Driver of the Meeting award. Returning to compete for 20Ten Racing at Silverstone, Drewe was targeting a podium finish following her three top-10s on debut. The weekend started off positively in qualifying, where Shanel was quickly on pace and challenging for the top positions. A fantastic lap at the end of the session saw Drewe set the second fastest time, less than two hundredths of a second away from pole position.

Lining up on the front row of the grid for race one, Shanel managed the start well and ended the first lap in third position as the top-four drivers were separated by less than a second. After falling behind Michael Blackburn and Sam Beckett, Drewe was down to fifth by the end of lap three but was determined to regain lost ground.

Lap four saw the 20Ten Racing driver move back into fourth with a pass on Beckett, before settling into a rhythm as she built a comfortable gap behind. As the leaders battled it out for the race victory, this allowed Drewe to close in and the young racer moved into a podium position at the conclusion of lap eight.

In pursuit of victory, Shanel set consecutive fastest laps of the race and had cut the gap to sixth tenths of a second at the beginning of the final lap. Crossing the line in third, Drewe scored her first podium finish in the Vinyl Detail ST150 Challenge with a great drive displaying both her speed and overtaking skill.

Starting race two from third courtesy of her race one result, Shanel dropped to fourth after the opening lap. Building a sizeable gap behind her on lap two, Drewe gave herself a margin to launch an attack for the podium places.

This paid off when, on lap four, she overtook Michael Blackburn to hold a provisional podium position. The former race-winner was determined to fight back and overtook Shanel on lap six. In the closing stages, Drewe remained just two tenths of a second behind her rival and executed an excellent last lap pass to move into third and scored a second podium finish of the day.

Shanel showed brilliant speed during the course of the meeting, qualifying second before claiming fastest lap in race one and the second fastest lap in race two. Combined with her smart racecraft, Drewe affirmed herself as a consistent frontrunner on the challenging Silverstone International circuit.

Despite competing in just the final two rounds of the Vinyl Detail ST150 Challenge after a significant time away from competition, Shanel’s speed was impressive and she will be aiming for a full-season racing campaign in 2024.