British GT Oulton Park Recap
- therookiereporters
- May 27
- 6 min read
During the end of May bank holiday weekend, British GT came to Oulton Park, this article gives you a rundown of what happened.
Qualifying 1 - GT3
In the first qualifying session for the GT3 cars, we saw the #7 Beechdean Motorsport (Andrew Howard/ Ross Gunn) take pole. It was the #63 Barwell Motorsport (Rob Collard/Hugo Cook) and #90 Optimum Motorsport (Marc Warren/ Jack Brown) that made up the rest of the top three.
Bryn Lucas spoke with Andrew Howard after the first qualifying session after Howard made pole position by 0.058s.
BL - “That was the funniest thing I've ever seen, Andrew Howard got out of the car, went into the garage all sort of nonchalant and then somebody said ‘your on pole’ and you went ‘what?’ You didn’t know?”
AH - “No, I mean the team was saying roughly where you are but I had Rob Collard behind me, super quick Rob. I’m just trying to stay out of his way if I’m being really honest. And I thought you know, this could be the last time I race at Oulton. Might as well give it a go.”
Qualifying 2 - GT4
In the first qualifying session for the GT4 cars, we saw the #74 Innovation Racing (Thomas Holland/ Hadley Simpson) take pole. It was the #24 Century Motorsport (Jack Collins/ Brandon Templeton) and #21 MK Racing (Jessica Hawkins/ Will Orton) that made up the rest of the top three.
Bryn Lucas spoke to the pole sitter for Race 1 - Hadley Simpson following this qualifying session.
BL - “The last time out in Silverstone your teammate was so excited Thomas about the victory and it has carried into Oulton Park that form.”
HH - “Yeah, it certainly has, it wasn’t easy. Obviously we didn’t do testing last week and the majority of the grid did so we were on the backfoot yesterday and I didn’t know where we would be and it’s really nice to be on the top step.”
Qualifying 3 - GT3
In the second qualifying session for the GT3 cars, we saw the #7 Beechdean Motorsport (Andrew Howard/ Ross Gunn) take pole. It was the #77 Optimum Motorsport (Morgan Tillbrook/ Ben Barnicoat) and #63 Barwell Motorsport (Rob Collard/ Hugo Cook) that made up the rest of the top three.
Bryn Lucas spoke to Beechdean’s Ross Gunn following the second qualifying session for the GT3 cars.
BL - "Well Ross 19 one thousandths of a second there. When we say about a car being dialed in, that's the epitome of it isn’t it.”
RG - “Yeah completely, that’s definitely the most unexpected bowl that we’ve ever had. Testament to the job that everybody’s done in the team. They worked so hard since the test that we had a few weeks ago where we were miles off the pace. We worked really hard to bring a car here that was definitely more competitive. Still going into quali we were kind of thinking top 5 would be great, but pole is very unexpected so just trying to take it all in at the moment because it doesn’t feel real but it’s a great place to be starting the races on Monday.”
Qualifying 4 - GT4
In the second qualifying session for the GT4 cars, we saw the #42 Toro Verde GT (Luke Shaw/ Jack Mitchell) take pole. It was the #21 MK Racing (Jessica Hawkins/ Will Orton) and #74 Innovation Racing (Thomas Holland/ Hadley Simpson) that made up the rest of the top three.
Bryn Lucas spoke with Luke Shaw following the second GT4 qualifying session
BL - “We were watching on here, half a second up, that is a mighty mighty lap.”
JS - “Yeah, considering we didn’t get out in pre-quali it was really good and Jack has just done a really good job, excellent”
Race 1
Rob Collard had a good start off the line, managing to go round the outside of the #7 car. A few seconds into the race the Optimum Motorsport car of Morgan Tillbrook spun on track and came to a halt. Tillbrook was left having to play catch-up with the GT4 cars after falling down the order.
Dan Lavery in the GT4 tried to get ahead of Ian Duggan but Duggan came back at him however it was Lavery who ended up getting that place. Tillbrook made the move to 12th place after getting ahead of Loggie. There was contact with Campbell and Tillbrook, with the Ferrari going around the nose of Tillbrook’s McLaren. Following this, yellow flags were waved shortly followed by a green flag, and no further action was found for that incident. The #40 car of Townsend went into the pits, not for the routine stop as it was too early the race for that.
Collard, Howard and Warren all drove into the pits for the driver switch the fight for the top 3 continued with Cook, Gunn and Brown. The majority of the GT3 cars came into the pits following this except that of Morgan Tillbrook.
Jess Hawkins made a slight mistake on track, Collins was able to catch up, he tried to make the overtake but was unsuccessful. With the GT4 pit window open, the majority of the cars made their way into the pits other than the cars of Simpson, Hawkins and Collins.
Tillbrook pitted his GT3 car with 28 minutes to go. The Mahiki Racing car went off at Druids as well as the #59 of Josh Stanton. Following this incident a Full Course Yellow got called, a lap too late for Tilbrook and Barnicoat. The Full Course Yellow was put in place until all of the GT4 cars pitted. With 20 minutes to go the GT4 car pit window closed. With 18 minutes to go the race was put in safety car conditions and came back in with 13 minutes to go. Cook had a strong start after the safety car came in.
For the GT4 cars, Brandon Templeton has the chance of a race win for his category. The end of the race came and the #63 car of Hugo Cook won for GT3 and an incredible race from Brandon Templeton and Jack Collins from Century Motorsport for GT4.
After Race 1 the results were as followed
GT3
GT4
Race 2
Race 2 at Oulton Park had a delayed start following broadcasting issues around the circuit. The drivers will find it difficult to manage their tyres with the track temperature being over 40°C. The race began under a safety car and the Mahiki Racing car started from the pitlane following the incident in Race 1. It was time for racing once the green flag was waved and seeing Gunn, Barnicoat and Cook leading for GT3 and Mitchell leading the GT4 cars. Turkington and Bradshaw had some contact which broke the hatch on Bradshaw’s car door. The #8 of Bradshaw was made to come into the pits 11 minutes before the mandatory pit stop window opened so that his team could tape the car.
The GT4 pit window opened with 34 minutes left and a few of the cars came in before the rest of the GT4 grid got their mandatory pitstop out of the way. Following the GT3 pitstops, Morgan Tillbrook was in the lead. It was the GT4 of Shaw that ended up in the middle of the pack and got overtaken by Tillbrook, Howard and Tse.
Luke Shaw’s car went off at Lodge Corner after a failure within the car that ended with it going into the gravel. With yellow flags being waved at Lodge Corner a safety car was likely to come out. It was then decided a safety car wouldn’t be needed but yellow flags stayed out at Lodge Corner for the remainder of the race - 14 minutes, meaning that cars will be unable to overtake at that part of the track.
The end of the race came and the #77 car of Morgan Tillbrook won for GT3 and an amazing race from Daniel Lavery and Darren Turner from Grange Racing for GT4.
GT3
GT4
Article written by Ria Wiktor ©️ Ria Wiktor 2026
