Kevin Tse and Maximilian Götz claimed a dominant win in the second British GT Championship race of the day at Oulton Park, storming ahead in mixed conditions to take the flag.
Götz surged into an early lead on a damp circuit at the wheel of the 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG, keeping Sven Muller at bay in the Team Parker Racing Porsche he shares with Nick Jones. Sandy Mitchell was alongside the second place man by the time they reached Cascades though, taking the position at the wheel of the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini he co-drives with Alex Martin.
The early order was about to be disrupted by a series of early tyre changes however, with Hugo Cook in the second Barwell Lamborghini diving for the pit lane almost immediately for slick tyres. As this was prior to the pit window, this would have to be an extra stop and Cook had to remain in the cockpit, rather than handing over to Rob Collard.
Cook’s times on the slicks were initially encouraging, with several others heading for the pits to follow suit. This included the Mercedes-AMG of Sam and Richard Neary with the former at the controls, Kiern Jewiss in the second 2 Seas Car he shares with Charles Dawson, and crucially at the front, Mitchell in the other Barwell entry.
The rain re-intensified shortly after this, however. And with the track becoming wetter again, Götz, Muller and the other cars which remained on treaded tyres were handed a significant advantage. Some cars which pitted returned to the pits, including Mitchell, whilst Cook remained on track in an attempt to make it to the pit window without any further stops.
By the time the pit window opened, Götz was at the front from Muller with Jonny Adam third and Marcus Clutton fourth. Tom Wood occupied fifth just ahead of the stops, with Martin Plowman and Matt Griffin next, just ahead of Luke Garlick in the grid’s sole Honda NSX which had risen from the back of the GT3 grid to eighth.
Once again, a mixture of tyres were chosen with Tse inheriting a slick-shod Mercedes-AMG from Götz whilst Muller handed over to Jones with wets equipped. Jones then initially challenged Tse before the slick tyres really began to come into their own and Tse cleared on into the distance from there to win by an extraordinary margin.
It was all action behind that however, with Jones being reeled in by Simon Orange in the McLaren he’d taken over from Clutton. This was now ahead of Giacomo Petrobelli who was now in the Blackthorn Aston Martin previously piloted by Adam. Orange hunted down Jones and successfully moved into second to take a place which it would be far from simple to hold on to.
By now, Chun Cheong Ip was in the driving seat of the Bridger Motorsport Honda, having subbed in for Garlick and was making the most of his slick tyres to shred through the pack. After reaching the top-five he rapidly passed Petrobelli before passing Jones almost immediately to take third. Jones ran off the track soon after this at Island Bend but managed to keep the car running, albeit dropping down to sixth.
Ip’s pursuit of Orange developed into a fierce battle for second in the final laps, but the McLaren ahead was perfectly placed, leaving the Honda with little opportunity to get by. The duo ultimately crossed the line right together with Orange holding onto second. Behind that Petrobelli was fourth by the end.
The top-five was completed by Morgan Tillbrook, who’d taken over from Marvin Kirchhöfer in their shared Optimum Motorsport McLaren. Tillbrook was frequently the quickest driver on the circuit during the final stint, making up ground to secure that strong finishing position. Jones and Muller were classified sixth as the final car on the lead lap. Mark Smith and Martin Plowman were seventh whilst Andrew Howard secured eighth for himself and Tom Wood with a late pass on Duncan Cameron’s Ferrari.
After their early pit stop adventure, Collard and Cook completed the top-10. The lead Barwell car was often amongst the quickest cars on circuit when the conditions came to it, but by the time Collard was setting a strong pace late on, too much time had been lost. Dawson and Jewiss’s car crossed the line 11th, a further lap ahead of Alex Martin who along with Mitchell endure more visits to the pits than planned.
Marc Warren and Jack Brown won in the GT4 class once again, finishing just ahead of the sister Optimum Motorsport McLaren of Harry George and Luca Hopkinson.
British GT Championship, Race 2, Oulton Park
- Tse/Götz, 2 Seas Motorsport, Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo
- Orange/Clutton, Orange Racing by JMH, McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, +47.003s
- Cheong Ip/Garlick, Bridger Motorsport, Honda NSX GT3 Evo II, +47.193s
- Petrobelli/Adam, Blackthorn, Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, +1m05.375s
- Tillbrook/Kirchhöfer, Optimum Motorsport, McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, +1m29.792s
- Jones/Muller, Team Parker Racing, Porsche 911 GT3 R, +1m39.747s
- Smith/Plowman, Paddock Motorsport, McLaren 720s GT3 Evo, +1 lap
- Howard/Wood, Beechdean Motorsport Ltd, Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo, +1 lap
- Cameron/Griffin, Spirit of Race SA, Ferrari 293 GT3, +1 lap
- Collard/Cook, Barwell Motorsport, Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2
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