GT3: Beechdean Shocks the Field
Beechdean’s pace during Free Practice and Pre-Qualifying offered little indication of the dominance to come, making its double-pole result one of the surprises of the session.
Mark Warren initially established the benchmark in Q1 before Howard surged to the top of the timesheets midway through the session. Pre-session expectations had pointed towards Barwell Motorsport and two-time Oulton winner Rob Collard as the favourites, but even Collard was unable to match the Aston Martin’s pace, ultimately finishing just over half a tenth behind with a best lap of 1m34.156s. Optimum Motorsport’s McLaren still emerged with Silver-Am pole honours. The day unquestionably belonged to Beechdean AMR, which now heads into Bank Holiday Monday with two major opportunities to end its 11-year wait for a GT3 race victory. History is also on its side: the last eight GT3 races at Oulton Park have all been won from pole position.
Kevin Tse secured fourth for 2 Seas Motorsport in the Mercedes-AMG, while Alex Martin and Simon Orange completed the top six for Barwell and Orange/JMH respectively. Championship leader Jonathon Beeson and Mark Smith rounded out the leading runners.
Q2 quickly developed into a thrilling duel between Ross Gunn and Ben Barnicoat. Beechdean’s Aston Martin laid down the early marker before Barnicoat briefly moved Optimum’s McLaren ahead. Gunn responded immediately, improving again on his third flying lap to cement provisional pole.
Barnicoat looked capable of overturning the deficit on his final attempt, setting competitive sector times throughout the lap, but ultimately missed out by just 0.019s — the second consecutive qualifying session in which he has narrowly fallen short of top spot.
Hugo Cook placed third in the Barwell Lamborghini shared with Collard, while Ben Green ensured four different manufacturers occupied the top four positions by matching team-mate Kevin Tse’s earlier result. Marcus Clutton and Jarrod Waberski completed the next row, with Waberski once again claiming Silver-Am pole and leading the SRO GT Academy contenders.
Rodin Motorsport’s Ferrari and Century Motorsport’s BMW completed the top eight.
GT4: Ginetta Dominance Continues
Ginetta machinery proved unbeatable across both GT4 sessions, with Innovation Racing and Toro Verde each claiming a pole position.
Hadley Simpson carried forward the momentum from the Silverstone season opener by emerging victorious in a fiercely contested Q3 session. Early pace belonged to Jack Collins in the Century Motorsport BMW, who initially enjoyed a commanding advantage before Jessica Hawkins reduced the gap in the MK Racing Aston Martin and briefly moved to the top of the order.
Collins responded with another improvement, but Simpson produced a superb final lap to secure pole by just 0.043s — despite not setting the fastest time in any individual sector.
Collins will line up second alongside Hawkins, ensuring three different manufacturers occupy the top three positions. Luke Shaw secured fourth overall and Pro-Am pole for Toro Verde, ahead of Daniel Lavery and Josh Stanton.
Race 2 qualifying belonged to Jack Mitchell, who swapped endurance running for outright speed after recently completing a 116-mile ultramarathon in support of the BRDC Motor Sport Charity.
Taking over from Shaw, Mitchell required only a single flying lap to secure pole position for Toro Verde, setting a time more than a second faster than Simpson’s earlier benchmark and nearly half a second clear of Will Orton’s best effort for MK Racing.
Thomas Holland climbed to third late in the session for Innovation Racing, narrowly ahead of Darren Turner in the Grange Racing with FSR Aston Martin. Tom Bradshaw and Ronan Pearson completed the top six.
The RacerViews info
By Matt Hancock
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