BALON AND BARNICOAT TAKE GT4 WIN
Adam Balon and Ben Barnicoat fought from sixth to win the only GT4 outing of the day at Oulton Park.
Equipe Verschuur earned early bragging rights when silver-rated drivers Finlay Hutchison and Daniel Mckay grabbed the class pole position for both races, but an admin error meant they were excluded from qualifying having sent out the wrong drivers for each session.
First beneficiary of the mix-up was HHC Motorsport, with Callum Pointon’s Ginetta G55 heading the 22-strong field behind the safety car. He soon lost his narrow advantage over Michael O’brien in lieu of a slower stop for the HHC car, with Patrik Matthiesen dropping back to ninth by the flag.
O’brien handed the class-leading Mclaren over to Charlie Fagg, but he was soon also usurped by the similar 570S GT4 of Barnicoat – despite ECU problems almost curtailing the team’s entry before Friday.
Taking over from last year’s Oulton winner Balon, a rapid string of laps on cold tyres were Barnicoat’s ticket to securing the first victory of the season, overtaking Ben Green’s BMW and disposing of Fagg in quick succession.
“Not bad for my first ever laps in the wet around here,” said Barnicoat. “Conditions were difficult but I had some great early laps.”
Green also got the better of Fagg in the closing minutes, ensuring second place for Century Motorsport much to the ‘surprise’ of fellow silver-rated driver, Ben Tuck. The result would be premature for the BMW duo, however, a short pitstop earning them a 30s penalty after the race.
The team’s sister M4 of Ricky Collard and Jack Mitchell moved up to third behind Fagg and O’brien’s Tolman Mclaren, Collard surviving contact that sent Will Moore’s Aston Martin into the barriers at Lodge on lap one.
Balfe Motorsport’s Graham Johnson/mike Robinson inherited fourth ahead of a further brace of Tolman Mclarens, Joe Osborne and David Pattison climbing from 15th on the grid to fifth ahead of Lewis Proctor and Jordan Albert.
Back in a GT car after the trials and tribulations of a year in touring cars, Will Burns cut a much more enthusiastic figure but retired late in the race in the second HHC Ginetta.
“Bad luck follows me around” were the words of Nick Jones as locked front brakes left him stranded on the grid and a lap down in the Team Parker Racing Mercedes, the team only picking the car up two weeks prior to the event.
The theme of poor fortune continued into the second race with pro driver Scott Malvern denied the chance to convert pole position into a class victory in the new AMG as torrential rain ended the race early.
Malvern was left disappointed with pole and race one’s fastest lap being the only accolades, saying: “It’s a little bit unnecessary. It’s just rain at the end of the day and we know to be a bit more careful. It’s a shame because we had good pace and a reasonable chance of a podium. I wasn’t even pushing really in the first race.”