British GT Oulton Park round up

Rick Kiewiet
May 24
4 min read

Text & Images: Ian Cutting

Hugo Cook and Rob Collard take victory in Race 1 while Kevin Tse and Maximilian Gotz take Race 2 spoils. In GT4 Marc Warren and Jack Brown victorious in both races.

Race 1

GT3

Pole sitter Collard kept Giacomo Petrobelli at bay going into Old Hall to lead after the opening lap. A fast starting Simon Orange made up 3 places passing Charles Dawson and Richard Neary.

A huge accident for Ravi Ramyead 20 minutes into the race meant that a Full Course Yellow was needed to retrieve the BMW. The pitstop window fell within this period and triggered a raft of stops. Cook took over from Collard and Gotz emerged in P2 courtesy of the success penalty for the Blackthorn Aston Martin and Jonny Adam rejoined in P3.

The sister 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG was running P4 but this was after Dawson had made contact with the Orange/JMH McLaren at Old Hall. However Race Control added 10s to the race time for the incident.

As the race restarted Cook managed to stay clear of Gotz, however the Mercedes was also in the mirrors of the Lamborghini. Adam completed the podium and despite initially dropping back soon was in the hunt for victory as the top 3 were only perseverated by 2.5s

GT4

Josh Milner's Lotus lead from pole but by the end of the opening lap, Ramyead was soon in the lead from P3. He was helped by the gearbox problems from the lead Lotus. Ramyead had Luca Hopkinson pressing him hard and this allowed Warren to close the gap.

With the GT3 pack making their way through and the leading pair fighting each other Warren made his move on Hopkinson through Old Hall. This soon became the lead as Ramyead had a huge shunt at Island Bend. The Full Course Yellow that followed also meant the pit-stops fell within this caution.

Optimum decided to stagger their stops with Brown taking over from Warren and a lap later Harry George took over driving the McLaren from Hopkinson.

Once racing resumed Brown got his head down and started to pull away. George though had his mirrors full of Jack Mitchell's Lotus. George in his defence of P2 exceeded track limits too many times and was given a drive-through allowing Mitchell into P2. Completing the podium was Chris Salkeld and Brandon Templeton in their BMW.

Race 2

GT3

Unpredictable weather greeted the teams as they lined up for the second race of the day. Greasy conditions meant every car started on wets.

Gotz managed to keep Sandy Mitchell at bay at the start and aided when Barwell pitted Mitchell for tyres after the sister car pitted for slicks and was lapping so much quicker than the leaders.

The sister 2 Seas', Abba Racing and Optimum all too pitted early for slicks, but then drizzle came in meant that they had to pit again or struggle on until the pit stop window opened.

Gotz had managed to pull 7s clear of Sven Muller's Porsche before stopping and handing the Mercedes-AMG over to Tse. The team also used this opportunity to change to slicks. With the success penalty for Tse, Nick Jones emerged just behind the Mercedes. Once Tse had got the Pirelli slicks warm he was able fend off the challenge. Indeed a huge 47s clear of the rest of the field at the flag.

Jones soon had his mirrors full of the Orange/JMH McLaren of Orange charging hard. Orange made his move into P2 with 15 minutes left on the clock.

The Honda NSX of Bridger though was making ground. Starting in P14 they stayed on the wets when others around pitted early for slicks. Rejoining in P8 after their mandatory stop and changing to slicks in the process they made good use of the tyres against those around who stayed on wets after the stops.

With 6 minutes left on the clock Jonny Ip was up to P3 and 11s behind Orange. With 2 laps left to run Ip was on the boot lid of the McLaren trying all he could to prise the position away. Orange drove a great defensive last couple of laps on tyres that were past their best to claim P2 just a tenth ahead of the Honda. Ip claimed that final podium position in equally impressive drive.

GT4

Mitchell lined up on pole but soon dived into the pits at the end of the first green flag lap for slicks. The Lotus though was held at the end of the pit lane and dropped a lap as the pack filed past.

This meant that Joe Wheeler led the filed in his Lotus, but he too soon stopped early for slicks. This meant that Brown now enjoyed the lead. Rain soon fell and both the Lotuses struggled with grip in the wet conditions.

Brown led from George and soon built up a lead of 6s as the pit stop window opened. With the rain easing and and the track drying both McLarens bolted slicks on, George pitted first handing over to Hopkinson while Brown pitted a lap latter.

Warren emerged out in front as Compensation Time and Silver Class handicap balanced each other out. Hopkinson was charging on warmer tyres due to pitting first. Hopkinson tried to make several challenges for the lead but Warren held on.

Completing the podium was Mitchell and Lake in the Lotus who fought back after being held at the start of the race.