The British GT championship had its first rounds at Oulton Park today on Easter Monday and the massive crowd at the Cheshire circuit saw two eventful races.
Race one saw several incidents involving several cars. Firstly Andrew Howards Beachdean Aston Martin GT3 spun in avoidance of Salih Yoluc who was a lap down and had gone off. Howard was then collected by Ahmad Al Harthy’s Oman Racing Aston putting both out.
A few laps later there was another incident when the RAM racing Mercedes caused an incident which took out both the Barwell run BMW Z4s, although the Attard and Sims car was able to rejoin and take fifth place. This was despite the entire rear end being pushed in!
The win was eventually take by Gary Eastwood and Adam Caroll after being lead for a long time by Liam Griffin’s Oman Racing Aston. Griffin and Butcher took second with The Triple Eight racing BMW Z4 of Lee Mowle and Joe Osbourne. BTCC star Mat Jackson took fourth on his british GT debut alongside team mate Phil Dryburgh in the third Oman Racing Aston Martin.
GT4 was initially led by Oz Yusuf in the Issy Racing Aston but he lost out in the pitstops and dropped to sixth. Aleksander Schjerpen then took over the lead in his Century Motorsport Ginetta but he got a penalty for making too quick a pitstop. (Stops have a minimum time.)
The lead battle was then between Mike Robinson in the Ginetta G55 he shares with Graham Johnson and Ross Gunn, Jamie Chadwick’s team mate in the Beachdean Aston. An excellent first stint by Jamie put them in the position to challenge for the lead and Ross Gunn tried hard but had to settle for second. The Terry Langley and Mike Hart Aston Gt4 took third.
The other female team in GT4, the Stratton Aston Martin driven by the Edwards sisters, Jade and Chloe ran into problems including a collision and they finished down in thirteenth in class.
Race two was won overall by the Beachdean Aston Martin of Andrew Howard and Johnny Adam. The works Ginetta of Steve Tandy and Mike Simpson took second with the Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 GT3 of Marco Attard and Alexander Sims was third. The sister Barwell car crashed out again and the team face a race against time to repair the car as it’s also used in the Blancpain championship and needs to be sent to Monza by Wednesday!
GT4 was won by Oz Yusuf and Gavan Kershaw who this time didn’t lose out on the pitstops! Jamie Chadwick and Ross Gunn were again second, finishing an excellent British GT debut for Jamie who has made the jump straight from Ginetta Juniors. Third was race one GT4 winners, Robinson and Johnson.
The Edwards sisters again ran into trouble including a collision with the AMD tuning Porsche GT4 of Shaun Hollamby. The incident but the BTCC team boss out of the race. The sisters continued but their car appeared to have suffered in the incident and ended up again in thirteenth in class.
For the next round Anna Walewska joins the championship in a Ginetta G55 GT4 making a total of three teams with female drivers, a record for British GT.
A more detailed report will follow later in the week.
STOP PRESS: In post-race enquires, the winners of race 1 Gary Eastwood and Adam Caroll were given a penalty for blocking the Oman Racing Aston of Griffin and Butcher in the pitstop. This reverses the positions giving Griffin and Butcher the race win with the penalised duo in second.
Sadly Jamie Chadwick and Ross Gunn were also penalised in race two for an on track incident between them and the number 61 Academy Motorsport Aston which had to retire. Chadwick was deemed to be at fault and they were removed from the results. This puts the Johnson and Robinson Ginetta in second with the Fox Motorsport Ginetta of Jamie Stanley and Paul Mcneilly in third. By Marc waller
