The feeling of entering a racetrack on race day is indescribable, British GT is finally back. This is a promising year in the championship’s history with a high calibre of drivers on the track, and guaranteed wheel-to-wheel action.
Oulton Park marked my first race with the newly formed 2Seas Motorsport team and their two new McLaren 720S GT3 race cars. The cars looked great and I knew we’d be able to push for the top positions as the weekend progressed. Throughout Friday practice we worked hard on the setup, allowing me and my teammate, Dean Macdonald, to push without struggling with understeer and front tyre wear. Although we had lots of one-lap pace, finishing P2 in the first practice session, our long-run pace was still a bit of a question mark as we were completely burning through our front tyres in just under an hour of track time. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to resolve these issues as we had only four hours of track time over the Friday and Saturday, before qualifying on Saturday evening.
As the lights turned to green for the start of qualifying, I was confident in my single-lap pace and immediately my first and second flying lap put me straight up in provisional pole position. However, in my third and final flying lap I was two tenths of a second up in the first sector, but I ran slightly wide in turn 5 and couldn’t improve my lap time. Eventually I’d end up starting Race 1 from 3rd on the grid, just 0.138 seconds off of pole, so close!
As race day finally arrived, I was ready for the challenges that the day would bring. Starting from 3rd, I was determined to hold my position into turn 1. Fortunately, I completed the first lap in 3rd place, keeping close to the leaders and dealing with some pressure from another McLaren behind me. This would last up until the pit stops where unfortunately, Dean and I would get jumped in the pit stops by the McLaren behind us and we fell to 4th. However,
Dean was able to get back into P3 and stay there until the end of the race. A podium in the first race of the season, awesome! It wasn’t all smiles though on our side though as the car that jumped us in the pit stops ended up winning the race. Dean and I knew this could have been us, but a podium was still a good way to start the year, so we were confident going in to race 2!
As Dean was starting Race 2, I was able to watch and prepare myself to take over the car half way through the race. Dean kept the car clean, whilst cars around us fell, he was able to hand the car over to me in a good position for me to push on with a new set of tyres.
I started putting in fast laps immediately and was the fastest car on track for a couple of laps. I was pushing hard through the slower GT4 class cars to catch the pack ahead and was making up ground really quickly. Unfortunately, that’s when a GT3 Bentley and a GT4 Aston-
Martin collided heavily ahead of me showering the track with debris and spearing themselves across the grass. I could see that their trajectory was heading to cross the track again, so I slowed right down to avoid being caught up in their crash. The two cars slid past ahead of me, missing my car, and I thought I’d performed some amazing evasive driving to avoid them both… That’s when I was suddenly hit by a loose wheel from the Aston-Martin that I hadn’t seen. The wheel broke my car’s left rear rim and unluckily ended my race on the spot.
It was a shame to end the weekend that way, when it looked like we were on track for a strong finish to the day, but sometimes these oddities happen in racing, and hopefully this is the only time we have luck as bad as this for the rest of the year. Besides, it’s less than two weeks until the next round where I enjoyed a lot of success last year, Donington Park. I can’t wait!
Finally, I’d love to give a massive thank you to all my sponsors, especially my main title sponsors Cambridge & Counties Bank and the Classic Car Finance team there. Their support is the reason I am able to race at this level and I am immensely grateful for their trust in me. Let’s get that win!
