The #78 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 of Sandy Mitchell and Alex Martin took the win in a wet-dry Race 2 for the British GT Championship runners at Oulton Park this afternoon. The victory completed a bank holiday weekend sweep for the team after Rob and Ricky Collard won the opening race with its sister car.
In GT3, it was the professional drivers starting the race, with Sandy Mitchell leading the wet tyre-shod field away from pole position ahead of Tom Gamble in the #27 McLaren GT3 EVO.
The Safety Car was deployed during the opening lap, after Sai Sanjay (#95 RACELAB), Jordan Albert (#79 Steller Motorsport) and Matt Nicoll-Jones (#62 Academy Motorsport) went off on the exit of Turn 1 avoiding a spinning Century Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 of Charlie Roberston.
All four GT4 entries were out on the spot, with Toyota Gazoo Racing UK soon joining them in retirement after picking up steering damage and Gordie Mutch (#20 Mahiki Racing) also having to make an unscheduled pitstop for repairs.
After the restart, Mitchell extended his lead to over seven seconds before pitting to hand over to Alex Martin at the halfway mark.
The #78 Huracan had to serve five seconds of compensation time due to its Race 1 podium, enabling Mark Radcliffe (#27 Optimum Motorsport) to take the lead in the pits as the entire field changed to slick tyres. But Martin was able to return to the front with a pass up the inside of Island Bend on their out laps.
With 26 minutes to go, Matt Topham went off at Turn 1 aboard the #10 Aston Martin Vantage GT3, bringing out a long Full Course Yellow which was extended when the #77 McLaren GT3 Evo of Morgan Tillbrook stopped on the circuit.
Unfortunately, the race was unable to resume, leaving the field to crawl around under Full Course Yellow and then Safety Car pace before Martin crossed the finish line ahead of Radcliffe to take a race win on his maiden British GT weekend. The result also means that Martin and Mitchell hold the provisional GT3 championship lead.
“It’s not often you get a weekend like this in this sport,” said Barwell team principal Mark Lemmer.
“British GT is such a competitive championship, so to win both races here this weekend is something pretty special. Rob and Ricky were outstanding in the first race, managing tricky conditions and the team made some key calls.
“And congratulations to Alex and Sandy for victory in race two. It’s a shame the race ended the way it did, but their pace all weekend has been undeniable and to come away with a win, a podium and a championship lead is a superb start. We now can’t wait for Silverstone.”
Phil Keen and Ian Loggie finished third for 2 Seas Motorsport, with Adam Smalley and Sean Balfe taking the GT3 Silver-Am win for Garage 59 with a fourth-place finish overall. Race 1 winners Ricky and Rob Collard finished fifth in the second Barwell Lamborghini, with Alex and Chris Buncombe (Team RJN) benefiting from being the first to switch to slicks to come home in sixth, despite making contact with Mike Price at Old Hall.
RAM Racing (John Ferguson/Raffaele Marciello), Team Abba Racing (Sam Neary/Richard Neary), and Greystone GT (Callum MacLeod/Mike Price) finished seventh through ninth, with Team Abba Racing’s father-and-son pairing managing to move forward ten places from their starting position at a circuit where overtaking is notoriously difficult to claim second in GT3-Silver.
Paddock Motorsport lost ground when Martin Plowman ran wide on the opening lap, ending up tenth, ahead of J&S Racing (Sacha Kakad/Hugo Cook), Orange Racing by JMH (Tom Roche/Simon Orange) and Century Motorsport (Dan Harper/Michael Johnston).
Andrew Howard picked up the fastest lap on his way to 14th alongside Jessica Hawkins at Beechdean AMR, whilst the #87 Blackthorn Aston Martin lost time after contact between Jonny Adam and Goetz out of Lodge and wound up fifteenth. Century Motorsport’s second GT3 entry (Lewis Plato/Carl Cavers) fell to the back of the GT3 field after a slow stop caused by Cavers stalling the engine, which also delayed the team’s GT4 entry, and finished sixteenth.
Maximilian Goetz and Kevin Tse initially finished tenth on the road for 2 Seas Motorsport, but a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision demoted them to the back of the GT3 finishers.
GT4 pole sitters Seb Morris and Charles Dawson took the class win for Team Parker Racing.
Morris briefly lost the lead to Forsetti Motorsport’s Mikey Porter – who had started eighth – before the pit window, but Dawson re-emerged from the pits in front with his #31 AMG GT4 having a 17-second shorter minimum pit time than the Race 1-winning Vantage.
Forsetti’s pair of brand new Aston Martin’s completed the podium, with second for the #47 of William Orton and Marc Warren and third for Porter and Jamie Day’s #7. Porter and Day also took the GT4 Silver win ahead of Jack Brown and Zak Meakin (Optimum Motorsport), with the top two both competing in GT4 Pro-Am.
#17 RAM Racing (Harry George/Luca Hopkinson), #61 Academy Motorsport (Erik Evans/Marco Signoretti), #29 Century Motorsport (Ian Gough/Tom Wrigley), the pair of Mahiki Racing Lotus’ and #11 Paddock Motorsport (Blake Angliss/Alex Walker) completed the finishers.
The #58 CWS Racing Ginetta G56 (Thomas Holland/Colin White) ran in the Top 5 throughout the opening stint, but failed to re-emerge after their pitstop.
The British GT Championship season will be in action again before the end of the month, with the blue-riband Silverstone 500 on 28th April.
Images courtesy of SRO/JEP
