The ELMS and FIA WEC may be done and dusted (or perhaps ‘done and wrung-out’ may be more appropriate), but there’s still plenty of racing to come today with the first two one-hour races at Oulton Park for the British GT Championship, plus the main race from the Blancpain Sprint meeting at Nogaro, which will be covered separately on DSC.
Saturday at Oulton saw some excellent individual and team performances during practice and qualifying, but also a freak accident that took out the #8 888 BMW Z4 GT3 of Lee Mowle/Joe Osborne and the #12 Trackspeed Porsche of Jody Firth/Warren Hughes. Both cars were damaged beyond immediate repair, but while we have lost the BMW, Trackspeed have received the approval of the other teams to field their spare and this has been prepared over the course of Easter Sunday.
Its drivers will have just 10 minutes to shake the car down this morning during Warm-Up, before Firth starts from the back of the field in Race 1 at 11.15.
Alas, we have also lost a car from the GT4 ranks, with the withdrawal of the #47 Silverstone Auctions Vantage of Harry Whale and Richie Stanaway. This car was notable for its unexpected absence from qualifying on Saturday afternoon, but the reason turned out to be that it had also been racing in the preceding Aston Martin GT4 Challenge race in the hands of Craft Racing boss Frank Yu. The Hong Kong- based racer was hit from behind during that event and the resulting damage to the car was enough to rule it out for the rest of the meeting. Happily, Yu was unhurt.
So 32 cars should start the first race (barring further mishap in Warm-Up), but the weather forecast will no doubt be causing the various team managers some concern; current indications being that the morning will be dry, but with rain moving in from around lunchtime.
If you are in the vicinity and still haven’t decided how you’re spending Easter Monday, come along to Oulton Park – it’s going to be good!
09.00-09.10 – Warm-Up
11:15-12:15 – Race 1
15:45-16:45 – Race 2
MH
