Seb Morris and Rick Parfitt Jnr guided the Team Parker Racing Bentley Continental GT to a maiden victory together, successfully fending off the Ecurie Ecosse McLaren, delivering Bentley a first British GT win in the process.
The Bentley pair overcame the 5s penalty for finishing third in race one to deliver a sizeable 10s victory over Alasdair McCaig and Rob Bell’s Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse McLaren 650s GT3. Taking the final spot on the podium was Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen in the Demon Tweeks liveried Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3.
From the off, pole-sitter Morris made it known that he intended to build a gap and disappear, something that was reiterated to Bell with dogged defending on the opening lap of the 2.6-mile Oulton circuit.
Try as he might, Bell, a hugely experienced GT racer, couldn’t overcome the pace of Morris, and after eight laps the former GP3 series racer had built up a 6.2s lead, more than enough to put team-mate Parfitt Jnr in the lead later on.
To afford readers insight into the pace delivered by the Bentley driver, his 1:34.804 tour on lap five smashed the previous GT3 lap record set in 2015 by Adam Carroll in a Ferrari 458, by a maassive seven tenths of a second.
Behind the leading pair, Ross Gunn was doing a fine job of soaking up the pressure from Barwell’s pair of menacing Lamborghini Huracan GT3s, with Adam Carroll having got the jump on Phil Keen from sixth place on the grid.
Behind the Lamborghinis was Jonny Adam, the championship leader, quietly getting on with the job and engineering a footing for partner Derek Johnston to manipulate in the second half of the race.
Heading into the pitstops positions didn’t change and the spaced out field rejoined with Parfitt over 9s clear of McCaig (in for Bell), with Howard 6s further back in third (in for Gunn), and Minshaw (in for Keen) 7s back in fourth.
Griffin and Adam Carroll’s victory in the first race saw them carry a 10s time adjustment and drop to sixth, just behind Derek Johnston in the TF Sport Aston Martin. AMDtuning.com did a good job to get Lee Mowle out in seventh after having to take an additional 7s in the pits for their earlier second place finish.
That’s how it stayed until lap 26 when both the Beechdean-AMR GT3 and GT4 entries were given drive through penalties for incorrect pit stop times, which opened up the top six and promoted Minshaw / Keen into the final podium spot.
Out front, Parfitt Jnr dropped a second in traffic, but came back more dominant, holding a comfortable 11s lead over McCaig, until lap 32 when the race was brought to an early end due to an off for the GT4 race leader at Lodge corner.
Behind Parfitt Jnr, McCaig and Minshaw, Johnston took fourth and more valuable championship points, crucially heading into the Silverstone 500 round that pays points and half with no pit time penalty. Half a second back from the TF Sport Aston was Griffin, with an out of sorts Howard 12s adrift in sixth.
Mark Farmer and Jon Barnes collected more points without raising too much of an eyebrow, 21s back from Howard’s Aston. Taking eighth was the Team ABBA with Rollcentre Racing BMW Z4 of Richard Neary and Martin Short, which for the first time this season finished ahead of Mowle and Osborne’s AMDruning.com variant. The #7 BMW had been running seventh until the lap of Walewska’s off when it appeared Mowle had an issue of his own that caused him to lose both pace and places.
Rounding out the top ten was Phil Dryburgh and Ross Wylie’s Motorbase Aston Martin. While the pairing weren’t expected to challenge for victory this weekend, the lack of pace did seem unusual.
Optimum rounded out an unrewarding weekend with eleventh place. The lone Audi R8 LMS GT3 was expected to run better at Oulton after having a Balance of Performance break in weight, but if anything, this was its least competitive showing so far. That said, both Ratcliffe and Moore had error free races, but didn’t do enough to bring home the desired points.
Seb Morris (1st – Team Parker Racing Bentley): “It was a great stint for me. We made a few changes between race one and race two and they paid off. I wasn’t expecting them to make such a difference, but we got it really right. I could see my family at Cascades and I just kept on pushing, trying to get faster laps. I was surprised at the gap I managed to get before the stops, but it really helped to have the clear air.”
Rick Parfitt Jnr (1st, Team Parker Racing Bentley): “ A few years ago I never thought I’d be in a GT3 car, let alone stand on the top step having won a GT3 race. I want everyone to know that I have an absolutely world-class team-mate. He’s very quick and we get on really well, it’s just a great year. I want to thank Team Parker who have done a stunning job with the Bentley. It’s a dream moment and something I won’t forget for a long time.”
Alasdair McCaig (2nd, Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse McLaren): “I’m really happy that we managed to peg the Bentley in the second stint, which is a feat in itself because it’s so damn quick! We’ve had some bad luck since the start of the season but hopefully this is a sign of the tables turning. I guess we’ll see at Silverstone.”
Today’s results mean Johnston and Adam have retained their lead in the drivers’ championship, although Griffin’s race one victory has seen him close the gap to 21.5 points. Parfitt Jnr and Morris are only seven further back in third.
