Reigning British Formula 4 conqueror Louis Sharp grabbed the early ascendancy in the GB3 Championship by taking a win on his debut at last weekend's opening round at Oulton Park.
The Rodin Motorsport driver stormed to a double pole in qualifying and converted the first of those into a maiden victory. His only challenge came after the start into Old Hall, with John Bennett trying a move around the outside before conceding at Cascades.
A collision at the rear of the field between Aditya Kulkarni and James Hedley necessitated an early safety car period, following which Sharp immediately pulled away and then edged further clear to finish 1.4 seconds ahead of Bennett.
“I really couldn’t have asked for a better start,” said Sharp. “Double pole was a big achievement, a big relief that all the hard work during the winter has paid off. I knew the pace was there, but wasn’t expecting to be on pole by three tenths. The first win of the season is always the hardest one to get, so to get that out of the way gives us that momentum for the rest of the year.”
Further back, Gerrard Xie moved ahead of Ugo Ugochukwu for third on lap one but ran wide at Cascades, allowing the McLaren junior to reclaim the place and eventually finish on the podium, while McKenzy Cresswell and Tymek Kucharczyk came home close behind Xie in fifth and sixth. Arthur Rogeon was seventh ahead of GB4 graduate Colin Queen, who made a double overtake at the first corner to finish eighth on debut.
Wet conditions resulted in race two starting behind the safety car, with Sharp leading from Bennett once it was withdrawn, and Kucharczyk charged past Cresswell, Ugochukwu and Xie in the space of a few corners into third.
The safety car reappeared after Rishab Jain went off at Old Hall and, following the restart, Bennett made the better exit from Cascades before sweeping around Sharp at Island bend. From there, the JHR Developments driver pulled clear for a maiden victory by almost 3s.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Bennett. “I’ve had one podium in each of the last two seasons, so to come away from the first two main races with a second and a win is amazing. I’ve always felt comfortable in the rain.”
Kucharczyk retired after losing his front wing in a collision with Sharp, who held on for second, while Cresswell (Elite) climbed to third ahead of Ugochukwu (Rodin) and Xie (Hitech).
The final, partially reversed-grid race, produced the most drama. Rodin’s Rogeon made a quick getaway from fourth to gain an early 2s lead over Patrick Heuzenroeder, and he further extended his advantage to 5s while Hitech’s Will Macintyre passed Jarrod Waberski for third. Macintyre then gained another place when Heuzenroeder stopped with an issue, bringing out the safety car.
Rogeon looked set for his first win after edging clear once more at the restart, but he dramatically slowed with a suspected gearbox problem a few corners from home, handing Macintyre his first win ahead of Waberski. Ugochukwu took his second podium of the weekend in third, with Kucharczyk fourth. Rogeon limped home sixth, one place behind Sharp, who gained the points lead by climbing from 12th to fifth while closest rival Bennett finished down in 14th.
Lambos leap to double British GT delight
Barwell Motorsport enjoyed a bank holiday Monday to remember as its Lamborghini Huracan EVO2s shared victories in the British GT championship curtain-raiser at Oulton Park. Both hour-long races were won from pole in anti-climactic affairs blighted by lengthy full-course yellow periods, as the procedure was adopted for the first time in British GT.
Father-and-son pair Rob and Ricky Collard were never headed in the wet opener, before it was the turn of Alex Martin and Sandy Mitchell to prevail on a greasy track in race two. Martin crucially repassed Mark Radcliffe on their out-laps by getting a better exit from Cascades, after the Optimum McLaren emerged from the pits ahead, before the race was neutralised on the following tour and never returned to green in the final 25 minutes. “You probably have to make 50 key decisions on weekends like this, and we got a lot more right than wrong,” remarked elated Barwell boss Mark Lemmer.
Rob Collard controlled race one’s first stint, tracked by Ian Loggie’s 2 Seas Mercedes and Martin, before separate incidents involving GT4 cars at Shell Oils led to a lengthy interruption across the pit window. When racing resumed, Collard Jr took advantage of three GT4 cars splitting him from the pursuing Phil Keen (in for Loggie) to bolt into a 5.7-second lead.
What looked set to be a straightforward win was soon in doubt when a 30s penalty was announced. It was decreed Ricky Collard had dropped more than five car lengths behind the safety car, but this was rescinded as its lights had turned off exiting Cascades – making Collard the pacesetter – before switching back on. This was blamed on a loose connection in the wiring system and duly fixed for race two.
An apology was issued by the organisers to both Barwell and 2 Seas, but it was little consolation for a disappointed Keen, who had closed to within two seconds before being informed he was set to inherit the win. “I pushed on to get away from Sandy, but I didn’t want to catch [Collard] because I didn’t want to tangle with him and then Sandy catch us,” he grimaced. “Whether I could have overtaken him, that’s a whole different story, but I definitely could have got onto the back of him.”
In a race that featured little overtaking, Radcliffe and Tom Gamble were boosted to fourth when Shaun Balfe/Adam Smalley’s Garage 59 McLaren (which pitted one lap later) was delayed behind a GT4 car not running at 80km/h (50mph). Defending champion Dan Harper also dropped from sixth to ninth when the Century Motorsport BMW he shared with Michael Johnston slid wide at Druids and glanced the barriers.
Mitchell had been “right on the edge everywhere” to get pole for race two, and repelled Gamble at the start before a GT4 pile-up at the first corner resulted in a five-lap safety car period. Thereafter, the Scot impressively opened up a 7s gap on the wet-but-drying surface, which should have been enough to negate a 5s success penalty in the pits.
But Martin revealed “we had a bit of a problem with the belts” on his lap 15 stop that allowed Radcliffe ahead, with both now on slicks. “I was pretty revved up,” Martin recalled. He pounced on Radcliffe when the McLaren momentarily hesitated at the apex of Cascades and moved decisively ahead into Island, catching a wiggle as he did so. “Somehow, he kept it together, so I was like, ‘Well, rather you than me’,” reflected Radcliffe. “I’ve got to be fair to Alex and say that that was earned.”
Radcliffe never had a chance to fight back at Martin as an accident at Turn 1 for Matt Topham’s Blackthorn Aston Martin froze the order. Hopes of resuming hostilities proved fruitless as Morgan Tillbrook’s overheating Garage 59 McLaren ground to a halt on the exit of Shell Oils.
Keen and Loggie ran third throughout, the latter coming under stern pressure from double Silver-Am class winner Balfe before the inflicted pause, while Rob Collard quickly passed Mike Price for fifth after losing two spots in the pits to his own 10s longer hold.
Greystone Mercedes driver Price then came under pressure from series returnee Chris Buncombe (RJN McLaren), who capped his first race outing at Oulton since 2001 in Formula Renault by diving to the inside at Old Hall and seizing sixth alongside his brother Alex. As Price ran wide and lost momentum, RAM pair Raffaele Marciello and John Ferguson were elevated to seventh in the best result of a quiet weekend for BMW’s contingent, with Harper and Johnston languishing in 13th.
Martin and Mitchell now have a narrow lead in the standings over their team-mates, setting the stage for a fascinating intra-Barwell tussle that Martin is confident will be fought on friendly terms. “The racing will stay on the track,” he said, “and we’ll all be pals off the track.”
Forsetti stars in GT4 as Morris dances to early points lead
Forsetti Motorsport made a dream British GT debut with victory in the first race at Oulton Park, but it was Team Parker Racing that came away from Cheshire with the points lead.
Series returnee Jamie Day and Mikey Porter produced a dominant performance to claim the opener in their Aston Martin Vantage, and a repeat appeared possible when Porter charged from eighth to lead race two.
Their 10-second success penalty on top of the mandatory 14s for Silver crews relative to Pro-Am entrants meant Day rejoined third, but he never got the chance to chase after the pair of amateur drivers he’d fallen behind due to the full-course yellow that ended the contest. That left Parker Mercedes duo Seb Morris and Charles Dawson to celebrate victory after taking second in race one.
“We were probably pretty lucky there with a long full-course yellow and there were some very quick Silvers behind us,” admitted Dawson. “We came to this championship with no expectations, we’ll just take it race by race, corner by corner.”
Day had set pole by 0.8s for the first race and romped away impressively from the squabbling Optimum McLaren of Jack Brown and his Forsetti team-mate Marc Warren. Dawson dropped from fourth to sixth, but remained in touch prior to the lengthy mid-race caution triggered when Will Moore’s Mustang became beached at Shell Oils, then elongated when Kavi Jundu crashed the Speedworks Toyota under yellows.
A longer stop for Optimum meant Zac Meakin rejoined fourth, behind Pro-Am runners Will Orton (in for Warren) and Morris, but he regained third when Orton was handed a one-second stop/go for a short pitstop.
Fortunately for Orton, the safety car that followed the full-course yellow split the top four from the rest of the pack, ultimately headed by Charlie Robertson’s Century BMW, limiting the damage. “I could see the people I was battling about a corner ahead, thinking, ‘I know we have a good car in the wet’,” lamented Robertson. “I had a clear track at the end to show the pace, but couldn’t do anything with it.”
His frustration was intensified at the start of race two. Contact on the exit of Old Hall from Tom Holland’s Ginetta sent Robertson spinning wildly in front of the pack and Jordan Albert (Audi) couldn’t avoid the BMW. Sai Sanjay (McLaren) and Matt Nicoll-Jones (Ford) were eliminated, too.
Porter took advantage of the melee to move into fifth, claimed fourth when Dan Vaughan’s Toyota was halted by a broken toe-link caused in the first-corner chaos, then pulled moves on Holland, Meakin and finally poleman Morris to take the lead. Orton followed in his wheeltracks up to third. “It was a really good fight,” grinned Porter. But Morris, the 2017 GT3 champion with Parker, kept him in sight before Dawson resumed ahead.
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