Three different winners as GB4 season begins
OULTON PARK MSVR 30 MARCH & 1 APRIL
Alisha Palmowski, Brandon Mccaughan and Linus Granfors scored a win apiece as the new GB4 Championship season got under way at Oulton Park.
Mccaughan edged Palmowski to pole for races one and two, but it was the latter who made the better start to lead the opening contest while Mccaughan slipped to fourth. Palmowski built a 3.5-second lead while her Elite Motorsport team-mate Finn Harrison tussled with Harry Burgoyne behind, with Harrison eventually retiring with car damage after being squeezed wide at Cascades.
After reeling off a series of consistent laps, Palmowski cruised to maiden car racing victory on her single-seater debut ahead of KMR Sport duo Burgoyne and Mccaughan.
“I’ve not had a win for a long time so it’s a great confidence boost,” said the Ginetta Junior graduate. “I was quite nervous about the start, so to get off the line well was perfect. [From there] I tried to remain focused and deliver those lap times.”
Mccaughan made pole count in the sequel to take a lights-to-flag win in wet conditions ahead of Burgoyne and Branden Templeton, while Palmowski stalled at the start and was classified fifth. Harrison capitalised on a mistake from Burgoyne to snatch second, but then touched a painted line approaching Druids and crashed into the barriers, bringing the race to an early end.
KMR’S Chloe Grant pounced on an error from Dan Hickey to lead the reversed-grid finale and built a two-second gap over Mayer Deonarine, who had damaged his front wing while battling Hickey. Burgoyne soon passed Deonarine for second, but Palmowski was collected by the Graham Brunton Racing driver while alongside at Cascades, putting both cars out.
Having been tapped around on the first lap, Granfors recovered to pass Burgoyne before hunting down Grant and snatching victory on the final lap. Mccaughan, meanwhile, spun out early on.
Ethan Jeff-hall withstood race-long pressure from Charlie Hart to win the opening Ginetta Junior encounter. The R Racing driver ran wide several times at Shell Oils hairpin and faced a final-corner challenge but was able to remain ahead throughout. Hart, in turn, had to resist several attacks from Chase Fernandez, who eventually lost out to Isaac Phelps and then slipped to fifth after going off the road.
Henry Joslyn outbraked Jeff-hall and Fernandez into Druids to lead race two, but then slid off in greasy conditions. Jeff-hall spun after colliding with Phelps, who moved into the lead and held off
Hart and Fernandez to take a maiden victory from eighth on the grid.
“I had an amazing start and was up to fourth, and then picked them off one by one,” said Phelps, who went on to win again ahead of Hart and Fernandez in a heavily disrupted final contest.
Scott Mckenna passed Mckenzie Douglass in the opening Ginetta GT bout before a track-limits penalty cost him victory to his rival, but Mckenna made amends by taking two lights-to-flag triumphs thereafter. Elsewhere, James Nicholas, Mike Taylor and Harry Gamble shared the spoils across the Ginetta GT Academy races.