After a long, long, motorsport-less winter and a lot of pre race testing, the time has finally come to get out on track and cheer on the first race of the British GT Championship season.
Invictus Racing Team
A 35-strong entry list comprising 13 GT3s, 21 GT4s and one GTC is scheduled to tackle a pair of hour-long races on at Oulton Park on Easter Monday. The grid is strong as amongst them are 10 former overall title winners, two reigning champions and a whole grid of drivers eager to make an impression. Our boys, in the Jaguar F Type of course, fall into the GT4 class.
Taking the wheel for the Jaguar Enthusiasts’ Club supported Invictus Games Racing F Type SVR is Steve McCulley alongside Matthew George. The pair are no stranger to the series, having been part of the two car line up from last year. Speaking at the London Classic Motor Show recently during an interview on the Jaguar Enthusiasts’ Club stand, Steve said,
”Undoubtedly running one car this season will help us focus resources on developing that one car for greater performance throughout the season. I will be starting the season and alternating races with Paul Vice.”
It was clear from the teams actions on Media Preview Day back in February, that the ethos behind a one car entry may already be paying off. The team were clearly able to spend more time tweaking set ups than fixing problems, meaning that they come into this first round at Oulton Park in a much stronger position performance wise.
Rest of the field?
The supercharged Jaguar F Type is very obviously a favourite of the fans, but what about the other teams? What are we up against?
McLaren’s 570S has won at Oulton in each of the last two years and should be amongst the front-runners again this season thanks to a mix of stability and new drivers from the McLaren Driver Development Programme.
Century Motorsport’s BMWs are on parade again this weekend when British GT debutants Mark Kimber, Angus Fender (who comes to British GT from Ginetta G50s last year) and Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke, plus the returning Jacob Mathiassen. The teaming will be attempting to follow in the footsteps of their predecessor Jack Mitchell. Mitchell steps up to GT3 this year, after winning the GT4 championship in 2018.
As in GT3, it’s Aston Martin that holds the advantage in terms of sheer numbers of cars on track with a whopping seven new V8 Vantage GT4s on the 21-car GT4 entry list. That list includes Beechdean AMR’s Kelvin Fletcher who will be best known to many as Andy Sugden, the name of his Emmerdale TV character. He sits alongside Martin Plowman and between them they are the favourites for this year’s Overall and Pro/Am crowns. Optimum and TF Sport sit down the pitlane from Academy Motorsport, which has also upgraded from the previous iteration Aston, completing the British manufacturer’s assault.
The weirdest looking car you will see out on track is likely to be Track Focused’s KTM, which makes its championship debut at Oulton Park. Just watch how drivers Mike McCollum and Sean Cooper have to get in and out of the vehicle. The whole top canopy must be removed from the Austrian manufacturer’s entry – one of the more off the wall looking entries this season!
How can I watch?
How can I watch the live coverage?
Both British GT races will be shown live on the championship’s Facebook page and website, plus SRO’s GT World Youtube channel, on Monday 22 April.
A selection of support races will also be shown live on the britishgt.com/live throughout the day.
Race day time table
Saturday 20 April
09:30 – 10:30: Free Practice 1
11:40 – 12:40: Free Practice 2
15:15 – 15:25: Qualifying – GT3 Am
15:29 – 15:39: Qualifying – GT3 Pro
15:43 – 15:53: Qualifying – GT4 Am
15:58 – 16:08: Qualifying – GT4 Pro
Monday 22 April
09:00 – 09:10: Warm-up
11:15 – 12:15: Race 1
15:35 – 16:35: Race 2
