British GT: Optimum’s Proctor On Pole For Race One At Oulton Park

Lewis Proctor, at the wheel of the #96 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3, took pole position for Race One of the Intelligent Money British GT Championship double-header at Oulton Park on August 2.

Proctor lapped the 4.307 km Cheshire circuit in 1:34.547 to snatch pole position from Jordan Witt in the #10 2 Seas Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 who was one-thousandth of a second behind the Optimum pilot. At one stage, it looked as if new-for -2020 2 Seas Motorsport had locked out the front row for Race One with Witt’s teammate, Angus fender lapping just .133 seconds slower than the #10 car.

In the dying seconds of the ten-minute session World’s Fastest Gamer James Baldwin, driving the #2 Jenson Team Rocket RJN McLaren, was briefly on provisional pole before his time was disallowed due to a track limits infringement.

Barwell Motorsport made it a one-two for the second race as Phil Keen continued where he left off in FP1 by taking pole position with a 1:33.440 in the #72 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Teammate Sandy Mitchell went second quickest in the sister #68 Lamborghini with a 1:33.506.

Completing the top three for Race Two was Yelmer Buurman in the #6 RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 who lapped in 1:33.670. There was disappointment for Dennis Lind in the #18 WPI Motorsport Lamborghini who was nearly 1.4 seconds off the pole position time and will start from the back of the GT3 grid for Race Two.

With no GT3 cars entered by Redhill-based TF Sport, Connor O’Brien demonstrated that the team will still be front-runners in the battle for GT4 titles by taking class pole position for Race One. O’Brien set a 1:43.003 in the #95 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4, .374 seconds quicker than Sam Smelt in the #23 Speedworks Motorsport Toyota GR Supra GT4.

Euan Hankey was quickest in the GT4 Pro qualifying session, meaning that the sole Pro-Am pairing in the 2020 GT4 field, the #21 Balfe Motorsport McLaren 570S GT4 duo of Hankey and Mia Flewitt will start from pole for Race Two. TF Sport’s Jamie Caroline, driving the #97 Aston Martin he shares with Daniel Vaughan, will line alongside Hankey after lapping in 1:42.819.

The lights go out for Race One of the 2020 Intelligent Money British GT Championship at 13:15 local time on Sunday August 2.