British GT - Oulton Park - 2024
Oulton Park has hosted the opening round of the the British GT Championship for as long as we can remember, not that long… It’s usually Easter weekend, practice and qualifying on the Saturday, a day off for Easter Sunday, before track action resumes on Monday with a full day of racing.
Free practice started slowly on Saturday morning, with many teams waiting a little while to come out on track, but before they could manage it the Mercedes of Ed McDermott came to a stop on track. Shortly after that was cleared, Matt Topham put his Aston Martin in the tyre wall down at the hairpin, halting proceedings for quite a while. After a delay to fix the barriers, the session was extended by ten minutes, leading to a busy last fifteen minutes with everyone trying to get some track time.
The following practice/pre-qualifying session was also interrupted by red flags which made it difficult for teams and drivers to make up for lost time in the first session; Adam Smalley bringing out the first red flag with a spin at Druids, and the Lotus of Mahiki Racing bringing the second with just a few minutes left on the clock.
With the two race format at Oulton Park, during qualifying, each of the two drivers takes an individual shot at pole, rather than having combined times. The Lamborghinis from Barwell usually go well at Oulton Park and there was no change in routine this weekend, Rob Collard put his Lambo on pole for race one, Sandy Mitchell did his part in quali two, putting the sister Lambo on pole for race two. Kevin Tse was looking good for an upfront position but his times were later cancelled after it was discovered he only completed one of the two mandatory flying laps during qualifying. In GT4 it was Jamie Day in the Forsetti Aston Martin starting up front in race one, with Seb Morris putting in a great lap to dethrone Zac Meakin, putting the Team Parker AMG on pole for race two.
Race day was quite different to practice/qualifying day; while Saturday was nice and sunny, Monday brought grey skies and rain… lots of rain.
Race one was a great opener for Barwell Motorsport, the father/son duo of Rob and Ricky Collard taking the win, with Sandy Mitchell and Alex Martin in the sister car taking the third step of the podium. The 2 Seas pairing of Ian Loggie and Phil Keen taking the second step. The win for the Collards was in doubt towards the end of the race when they were given a large penalty for a safety car procedure infringement but that was withdrawn with only a few minutes of the race left. In GT4, Forsetti Motorsport were looking good for a double podium finish but unfortunately the duo of Marc Warren and Will Orton received a penalty for a pit-stop infringement. The Forsetti sister car of Day and Porter took the win ahead of Morris and Dawson in the Parker AMG, with Meakin and Brown in the Optimum McLaren coming in third.
Race two saw another great result for Barwell, this time the sister car of Mitchell and Martin taking the win, ahead of the Optimum Motorsport paring of Radcliffe and Gamble, while Loggie and Keen from 2 Seas getting their second podium finish of the day in third. Forsetti had a great second race of the day, taking both the second and third places on the podium but it was race one second place finishers who went one better and took the race two win. Race two continued the weekend’s run of disruption; lap one saw a multi-car incident taking out a few GT4 cars and requiring the Safety Car. Later in the race, another issue for Matt Topham resulted in a long Full Course Yellow and another Safety Car which was only withdrawn on the final lap.
Race One Results -
GT3 -
1 - Barwell Motorsport - Collard/Collard - Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2
2 - 2 Seas Motorsport - Loggie/Keen - Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo
3 - Barwell Motorsport - Martin/Mitchell - Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2
GT4 -
1 - Forsetti Motorsport - Day/Porter - Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo
2 - Team Parker Racing - Dawson/Morris - Mercedes AMG GT4
3 - Optimum Motorsport - Brown/Meakin - McLaren Artura GT4
Race Two Results -
GT3 -
1 - Barwell Motorsport - Martin/Mitchell - Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2
2 - Optimum Motorsport - Radcliffe/Gamble - McLaren 720s GT3 Evo
3 - 2 Seas Motorsport - Loggie/Keen - Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo
GT4 -
1 - Team Parker Racing - Dawson/Morris - Mercedes AMG GT4
2 - Forsetti Motorsport - Orton/Warren - Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo
3 - Forsetti Motorsport - Day/Porter - Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo
Just like that, the 2024 British GT season is now underway. All the usual action that Oulton Park promises for the opening round and the start of what looks like a great season. Only a few weeks to wait for the next round and our first visit to Silverstone in two years. Before that though, we have the the next round of the Creventic 24H Series championship at Spa.
