Douglas Motorsport's Enzo Hallman won a simply crazy third race of the weekend at Oulton Park, which was again affected by changeable weather conditions.
After one of the most bizarre starts seen in national motorsport across the past few years, the Swedish driver headed home teammate Dayton Coulthard, with Callum Baxter charging up to third on slick tyres.
As with races one and two, there was light rain in the assembly area ahead of the race, but the top-16 drivers on the grid all opted for slick tyres, with Hallman in 17th, Thomas Ingram Hill (18th) Coulthard (19th), Holly Miall (22nd) and Caitlyn McDaniel (24th) the only drivers taking to the track with wet weather tyres.
When Lily-May Watkins on slicks went off on the formation lap, a delayed start was inevitable. At the end of the formation lap, multiple cars pitted for treaded tyres, and after a while, every other car on slick tyres was pushed off the grid into the pits too, relegating pole sitter Luca Magnussen to a very lowly pit lane start.
All drivers who pitted were forced to start from the pit lane, leaving Hallman, Ingram Hill, Coulthard, Miall and McDaniel as the only grid starters, and with the added benefit of an additional green flag lap to warm up their tyres.
From an effective pole position but in the 17th grid slot, Hallman made a good start to head the field down to Old Hall, but Ingram Hill passed both Coulthard and then Hallman for the lead in the early seconds. As the five starters cleared the first turn, the remaining 19 cars were released from the pit lane, but without the benefit of the green flag lap.
Hallman repassed Ingram Hill for the lead around the outside of Druids on the first lap, while Coulthard and Miall kept their positions towards the head of the field, while the lead pit lane starters of Jack Taylor and Daniel Guinchard moved past McDaniel.
Swedish driver Hallman consistently built a big lead, while Coulthard dispatched Ingram Hill on lap two to make it a Douglas Motorsport 1-2 at the front of the field, with the duo subsequently pulling away from the rest of the pack, and building what would prove to be a key margin, with Coulthard eventually over 12 seconds clear of third place.
After pitting at the end of the original formation lap, Guinchard's decision was vindicated initially as he was one of the first to rejoin the pack, and after running sixth at the end of the first racing lap, was up to third by lap five. But by this point, with the rain all but stopping, Graham Brunton Racing's Baxter entered the mix.
Due to start fourth, Baxter also pitted at the end of the original formation lap, but ended up at the back of the queue in the pit lane. Cue an inspired decision, as the Scottish team switched the Canadian back onto slick tyres.
From outside the top-20 on the first lap, Baxter was only 18th on lap four, but began setting lap times several seconds quicker than the rest of the grid, as the track began to dry. Within a single lap, he was up eight further places to 10th, and then sixth on lap six.
That became fourth on lap seven, before dispatching Guinchard for the final podium spot on lap eight. With just a lap remaining, Baxter was still nine seconds away from Coulthard, and as Hallman crossed the line to win with just one second over the shortened allotted race time of 16 minutes, Coulthard just beat Baxter to second place by 0.099 seconds.
Baxter's final lap was 10 seconds quicker than Hallman's, and if the race winner had completed what turned out to be the final lap just 1.2 seconds quicker, another lap would have been completed, leading to a likely final corner showdown!
As it was, Hallman's winning margin was 6.371s from the near photo finish for second place. Behind, Guinchard secured fourth, extending a huge championship margin over his nearest rivals in the standings.
Fortec's Jack Taylor, another driver towards the front of the pit lane starters was fifth ahead of teammate Ingram Hill, while the third Douglas car of Luke Hilton was seventh.
Leandro Juncos (Hillspeed), Megan Bruce (KMR Sport) and Elite's title challenger Ary Bansal completed the top-10 after an extraordinary race.
Title contenders Alex Kattoulas and Isaac Phelps finished outside the points in 21st and 22nd respectively.
GB4 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Oulton Park race three provisional result:
1. Enzo Hallman, Douglas Motorsport, 9 laps
2. Dayton Coulthard, Douglas Motorsport, +6.371s
3. Callum Baxter, Graham Brunton Racing, +6.470s
4. Daniel Guinchard, Hillspeed, +28.387s
5. Jack Taylor, Fortec Motorsports, +30.835s
6. Thomas Ingram Hill, Fortec Motorsports, +33.332s
7. Luke Hilton, Douglas Motorsport, +38.135s
8. Leandro Juncos, Hillspeed, +41.836s
9. Megan Bruce, KMR Sport, +50.120s
10. Ary Bansal, Elite Motorsport, +54.562s
11. Holly Miall, Fox Motorsport, +56.746s
12. Josh McLean, Pace Performance, +59.584s
13. Stefan Bostandjiev, Pace Performance, +1m02.609s
14. Alex Berg, Graham Brunton Racing, +1m07.388s
15. Alex O'Grady, KMR Sport, +1m07.608s
16. Mayer Deonarine, Graham Brunton Racing, +1m07.943s
17. Jason Pribyl, ADM, +1m08.247s
18. Leon Wilson, Arden Motorsport, +1m08.869s
19. Ava Dobson, Arden Motorsport, +1m09.024s
20. Caitlyn McDaniel, Fox Motorsport, +1m27.807s
21. Alex Kattoulas, Elite Motorsport, +1m28.958s
22. Isaac Phelps, Elite Motorsport, +1m37.530s
23. Luca Magnussen, Fortec Motorsports, +1m38.613s
DNF. Lily-May Watkins, KMR Sport, 0 laps