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Palmer eyeing buy-out bid for Silverstone

Jonathan Palmer has said that he would be interested in making a bid to buy the Silverstone Circuit from current owners the British Racing Drivers Club.

The BRDC says that it needs to sell the circuit because of mounting losses and a lack of capital reserves, despite the British Grand Prix proving to be one of the year's best-attended race with 139,000 fans turning out for July's race.

A deal valuing Silverstone at £33 million was reached with Jaguar Land Rover in April, but rival manufacturer Porsche has reportedly used an existing contract with Silverstone to block the planned sale.

With the situation apparently stalled, the BRDC is understood to have reopened negotiations with another possible purchaser, businessman Lawrence Tomlinson whose LNT Group owns sports car manufacturer Ginetta.

Now Palmer has also indicated an interest in buying the facility. A former Formula One driver and father of current Renault star Jolyon, Palmer is also majority shareholder and chief executive of MotorSport Vision which owns Brands Hatch, Oulton Park, Cadwell Park and Snetterton.

"We are definitely interested in making an offer and have a lot of confidence in our ability to bring a great deal of stability to it and a vision for the future," Palmer told the Daily Telegraph this weekend.

"On a number of occasions I have said that MSV would be interested in running Silverstone," he said. "The BRDC hasn’t approached me, but I’ve told them that I certainly want the opportunity to be invited to put a deal forward.

"Apparently a teaser document has been sent out but nothing has been received by MSV," he added. "My view has always been that an open tender process is needed to ensure the BRDC is achieving the best result for members."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.