British GT: De Haan/Cocker & Pointon/Macdonald Win at Oulton Park

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Luke Etheridge
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Sam De Haan and Jonny Cocker claimed the GT3 victory in race two at Oulton Park for the #69 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan.

In GT4, a win in race one means HHC Motorsport’s Callum Pointon and Dean Macdonald lead the championship for McLaren.

This is despite their failure to score any points in the second race.

In race one, all cars made it safely through the first lap as the #6 RAM Mercedes of Ian Loggie held off Ryan Ratcliffe’s #7 Team Parker Bentley at the front.

These two broke away slightly on the first lap, but an optimistic overtaking attempt by Ratcliffe into Hislop’s ended both his and Loggie’s races, promoting Rick Parfitt Jnr’s #31 JRM Bentley into first.

After the safety car, there was contact between the Century Motorsport BMW’s, as Adrian Wilmott forced his way past Dominic Paul at the final corner.

Seb Morris and Phil Keen took over the Bentley and Lamborghini respectively after the pitstops.

Keen took advantage of the fresh rubber on the #72 Huracan and closed up to Morris.

The gap for the lead stabilised as the leaders made their way through the GT4 traffic, with Morris having a nervous moment as he touched with Scott Maxwell’s Mustang.

No serious damage was done to either car, leaving Morris clear to take victory in the GT3 class, with Keen and Ellis completing the podium.

McLaren dominated the GT4 category in race one, with the 570S holding the top four positions after the pitstop phase.

It looked as though they were certain to finish this way. 

However, contact caused damage to the exhaust on the #5 Tolman Motorsport car, meaning Lewis Proctor had to retire on the final lap.

Another late retirement was Seb Priaulx’s Multimatic Motorsport’s Mustang. 

He recieved contact from Michael Broadhurst, which sent the Ford spinning towards the barriers on the exit of Cascades.

Pointon took the win in GT4, ahead of Tolman’s Josh Smith, with HHC’s second car of Luke Williams completing the rostrum.

There was early drama in race two as well, with Broadhurst again getting into trouble at Cascades.

His Fox Motorsport Mercedes spun off the track and was beached in the gravel trap.

This left Keen frustrated, as the Lamborghini driver had built a gap over the Mercedes of Adam Christodoulou.

The Huracan soon rebuilt the gap, as Christodoulou was put under huge pressure by Seb Morris.

The effect of the successive penalties for Morris, Keen and Wilkinson were clear after the pitstops. 

The Team ABBA Mercedes was in the lead, with Richard Neary replacing Christodoulou behind the wheel.

A second safety car period bunched the pack up once more, after Mark Farmer spun his Aston Martin shortly after pitting, completing a frustrating weekend for the TF Sport car.

Only a lap after the restart, Rick Parfitt’s attempts to complete a perfect weekend for the #31 Bentley ended as he crashed out of the race.

The decisive move for the win was made into Hislops.

As Neary ran wide and allowed the Huracan of De Haan through.

Andrew Howard’s #99 Aston was another beneficary and took fourth at the same corner.

This became third as Loggie lost seven places after running wide at Cascades, while trying to overtake Neary.

De Haan was able to hold on to take his first win of the season. 

Neary ended up second, with Howard in third place.

The second safety car caused confusion amongst the GT4 field, with several runners losing a lap.

Consequently, this led to major traffic issues at the end of the race.

Nick Jones seemed handle this well, but his #66 Mercedes soon spun off at Hislops.

As a result, Scott Maxwell’s Mustang inherited the lead.

Maxwell was under huge pressure in the final stages from the #20 McLaren, as he was stuck behind the #97 and #61 Aston Martins in traffic.

Despite this, the GT4 polesitter was able to hold on to take victory.

The Balfe Motorsport McLaren took second, with the Invictus Games Jaguar completing the GT4 podium.

The next round of the British GT championship takes place at Snetterton on May 18 and 19.

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