LAMBORGHINI AND McLAREN SHARE GT SPOILS
Old faces and new battle at Oulton Park,
O f the many questions asked in advance of this latest, belated, British GT season, two perhaps were most common. What impact will the now- numerous Silver Cup challengers have? And is the McLaren as quick as anticipated?
They were answered quickly as Oulton Park. GT3’s Silver Cup runners – two silver-graded drivers rather than the more usual Pro-Am pairings – dominated the Am drivers competing for places on race’s one grid.
For the season-opening starting order the first six were Silver; the first four were McLarens.
Optimum Motorsport’s Lewis Proctor, in his first outing up from GT4, took pole and led the opening race stint confidently. But his pursuing fellow Silver McLaren, Jordan Witt for all- new 2 Seas, crept up on him and, after running longer before pitting, Witt’s partner Jack Mitchell rejoined just in the lead from Ollie Wilkinson who’d taken over from Proctor. But a 2 Seas team member had crossed the pitlane line without fireproof equipment, getting Mitchell a stop-go penalty.
And while this was going on yet another new Silver Cup McLaren, that of Jenson Team Rocket RJN’s GT4 graduate Michael O’Brien, slipped by Wilkinson. O’Brien stayed ahead for a sensational win.
O’Brien’s co-driver, World’s Fastest Gamer James Baldwin, noted that the victorious pair between them had only 25 laps’ experience in a GT3 car prior to the weekend, something with good claim to being a record. “It’s got to be close!,” Baldwin said. O’Brien, who had never sat in a GT3 car before Friday’s testing, added: “We thought the first round was going to be building blocks, learning. This is far better than what we expected.”
TF Sport’s Connor O’Brien and Patrick Kibble meanwhile dominated the GT4 race.
The Pro drivers struck back for race two as Phil Keen bagged pole in his Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini. Silver competitors remained conspicuous though, particularly Keen’s impressive team-mate
Sandy Mitchell lining up alongside him on the front row.
The pair cleared off in the race and Mitchell just about kept Keen within range, giving the tantalising question of whether ex-BTCC debutant Rob Collard, taking over from Mitchell, could pass Keen’s Am partner Adam Balon to win. The question was never resolved though, as the race effectively ended just after half distance, which virtually eliminated stint two.
O’Brien and Nick Jones’s Bentley collided before Cascades, and Angus Fender’s following 2 Seas McLaren was hit by a flying wheel, leaving three stranded cars. The runners circulated behind the safety car for the remainder, as Fender’s McLaren at Shell Oils proved particularly stubborn to move. Kean and Balon therefore beat Mitchell and Collard in a Barwell 1-2.
Balon and Collard took differing views on what would have happened. Balon said: “Round here it’s tough to overtake. If I can get into my groove I would have been able to hold him off. I would have given it a damn good shot.” Collard, by contrast, said: “I think a win was taken away from us by the safety car.”
Euan Hankey and Mia Flewitt won the GT4 contest in a Balfe Motorsport McLaren, the car’s lead after the pitstops being maintained under the safety car.
The topsy-turvy opening round has given suitably tight points tables. Baldwin and O’Brien lead GT3’s, just two points clear of Balon and Keen, three ahead of Mitchell and Collard and five clear of Wilkinson and Proctor.
And the GT4 standings are even tighter as HHC Motorsport’s Jordan Collard and Patrik Matthiesen and TF’s Jamie Caroline and Daniel Vaughan cannot be split – both pairings got a second and third place at Oulton – with Flewitt and Hankey two points back. Some of British GT’s questions were answered quickly, but not nearly all.