British GT: Brilliant Barwell Win at Oulton

At the end of a sensational British GT opening Oulton Park weekend, it was Sam De Haan and Jonny Cocker who took victory in the second race on Easter Monday.

It makes back-to-back victories for the Barwell Motorsport team at Oulton Park, winning the race with what was the #33 last year. After a quiet first stint, the #69 sailed through their early pitstop, emerging in the battle for the lead when their teammate, the early leader #72, struggled during their driver switch.

From there, De Haan chased down the #8 Team ABBA Racing Mercedes-AMG, picking him off at Hislops and maintaining a two second gap as the clocked counted down. The pair leave the weekend as the points leaders.

In GT4, the Ford Mustang finally took the success that it had promised in qualifying, with Seb Priaulx and Scott Maxwell guiding the Multimatic Motorsports #15 to the pairs first GT class victory.

All eyes were on Phil Keen at the start as the #72 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini rocketed away from the pack after the first corner. While ominous for the race, it proved to be short lived as Tom Canning and Michael Broadhurst collided at Cascades, causing Broadhurst’s Mercedes-AMG to beach in the gravel, bringing out the safety car.

After a slightly extended stoppage, Phil was clearly Keen to get back racing. Pulling away from Adam Christodoulou’s Team ABBA Mercedes after they got back to full speed.

GT4’s had been relatively quiet in the early stages, with Seb Priaulx hoping to make amends for his disasterous first race, leading after the opening lap. After the success of the McLaren’s in the opening race, it was the Team Parker Racing Mercedes of Scott Malvern who was the Brit’s closest competitor during the opening half.

Sadly for the #62 Academy Motorsports Mercedes, his race was over during the pit stop phase after a spun on the run into cascades. While this didn’t bring out the safety car, GT3 did, as Mark Farmer emerged from the pits in the battle for the lead, being run onto the marbles by Ian Loggie, spinning when he hit the grass at Island bend. Farmer attempted to return to the track, only to beach his #2 TF Sport Aston Martin on the inside of the corner.

The shuffle meant that Richard Neary in the #8 Team ABBA Racing led the way after the pitstops, with the #72 Lamborghini dropping to fourth.

Neary though would not keep his position for long, as Sam De Haan spotted his opportunity on the run down into Hislops when the Mercedes made a mistake. The move ultiately shuffled the Lamborghini’s Barwell teammate back to fifth, though Adam Balon did get this position back when second place Ian Loggie lost control on the run into Cascades.

GT4 was far from organised either. Matthew George in the Jaguar F-Type had been second in class, but an off-track excursion behind Loggie lost him a chance of a second place, as Nick Jones threw away the win for the #66 Team Parker Racing Mercedes after an unforced spin at Knickerbrook.

Even going into the final few laps, a win was far from confirmed for Scott Maxwell and Seb Priaulx in the Mustang as Ben Hurst seemed unaware he was a lap down, defending his space on the road and bunching up the GT4 pack.

Despite the traffic jam, the #15 Multimatic Motorsports car remained ahead, taking the win from the #20 Balfe Motorsport McLaren 570S and the #44 Invictus Games Racing Jaguar, recovering after the earlier issue.

Full Race Results

Championship Standings after Rnd 2: GT3 – Drivers / Teams ; GT4 – Drivers / Teams