Brilliant brace for Barwell sets British GT scene
OULTON PARK BRITISH GT 30 MARCH & 1 APRIL
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 (see News).
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 It was decreed Ricky Collard had dropped more than five car lengths behind the safety car, but this was rescinded as its lights had turned off exiting Cascades – making Collard the pacesetter – before switching back on.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 teammates, 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.”