Hugo Cook claimed his maiden British GT Championship victory and Barwell its ninth with Lamborghini at Oulton in the first of bank holiday Monday’s two sprint races this morning, while Optimum’s Marc Warren and Jack Brown clinched their second GT4 win in three starts.
Cook, who shared the winning Huracan with reigning champion Rob Collard, withstood stint-long pressure to take the chequered flag one second clear of Maximilian Götz and his 2 Seas co-driver Kevin Tse. Blackthorn’s Giacomo Petrobelli and Jonny Adam completed the overall podium.
Silver-Am spoils went the way of Bridger’s Johnny Ip and Luke Garlick for the first time this year after an early puncture compromised Beechdean’s chances.
Further back, Ravi Ramyead’s heavy accident curtailed an otherwise hugely impressive opening stint by the Century driver after Mahiki’s GT4 pole-winning Lotus retired with a gearbox issue soon after the start. That left the way clear for Warren and Brown to take a largely uncontested class win ahead of Steven Lake and Jack Mitchell (Mahiki), while Century’s other BMW shared by Branden Templeton and Chris Salkeld completed the podium and scored Silver victory.
The foundations for Barwell’s victory were built on Collard converting pole into the lead at Old Hall on the opening lap despite Petrobelli’s attempted pass around the outside. Tse held station in third but there were changes behind where Simon Orange passed Charles Dawson and Richard Neary moved up three places to sixth.
The top three remained unchanged and together until pitstops began under the Full Course Yellow conditions triggered by Ramyead’s accident just after 20 minutes. Collard gave way to Cook who emerged ahead of Tse’s team-mate Götz thanks to Blackthorn’s five seconds of Compensation Time that dropped Adam to third.
2 Seas’ other Mercedes-AMG was next in the queue, albeit after Dawson had nudged the Orange /JMH McLaren around at Old Hall. His team-mate Jewiss had barely got up to speed when Race Control confirmed the crew would have 10 seconds added to their race time.
A textbook restart initially helped Cook to stay out of Götz’s clutches, but the Mercedes-AMG was never far behind and a constant presence in the Lamborghini’s mirrors. Adam, meanwhile, dropped back to begin with but brought himself into play thanks to a series of fastest laps and the top two holding each other up. 2.5s covered the trio at the chequered flag.
2 Seas’ penalty ultimately dropped Dawson and Jewiss to ninth overall. Abba’s Richard and Sam Neary were the chief beneficiaries in fourth, while Barwell’s other Lamborghini shared by Alex Martin and Sandy Mitchell narrowly beat Nick Jones and Sven Müller to fifth. The latter’s late charge in Team Parker’s Porsche netted him a new British GT3 lap record.
The Sprit of Race’s Ferrari driven by Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin picked up seventh, and Optimum’s championship chasing duo of Morgan Tillbrook and Marvin Kirchhöfer salvaged eighth after an early spin.
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