British GT Championship – Oulton Park

The FF Corse Ferrari 458 of Adam Carroll and Gary Eastwood took first blood in an action packed opening to the 2015 British GT season.

Pole man Liam Griffin led the field into Old Hall on lap one, with Eastwood taking second and Andrew Howard in the Beechdean Aston Martin in third position as the safety car was deployed almost immediately for an incident involving Salih Yoluc’s Von Ryan Racing McLaren.

Once the debris was cleared away and the field released, Griffin charged into an early lead, as Andrew Watson and Gary Eastwood squabbled over second position. The Von Ryan McLaren eventually passed the FF Corse Ferrari, before Watson lost the car at Island Bend and had a sizeable off.

Salih Yoluc had rejoined the race by this point, directly in front of the leading pack. Liam Griffin was held up for a number of laps before nipping past the #12 McLaren, and this gave him additional breathing space, with the rest of the pack trapped behind the lapped car. However, on Lap 13, Yoluc ran off the track and rejoined in front of Eastwood. The Ferrari driver was able to avoid the McLaren, but the Aston Martin’s of Ahmad Al Harthy and Andrew Howard were forced to spin off to avoid a collision. At the same time, the RAM Racing Mercedes SLS had a coming together with the GT4 TF Sport Aston Martin, and the Barwell BMW Z4 team mates ran into each other. All of this brought out the safety car for the second time, just as the pit window opened.

During the safety car and pit lane confusion, Gary Eastwood handed over the #18 Ferrari to former A1GP Champion Adam Carroll. The FF Corse team were able to exit the pits in the lead, and once the race resumed, Carroll was able to hold off a spirited charge from Rory Butcher in the Oman Racing Aston Martin to take the win, with the #888 BMW Z4 of Joe Osborne and Lee Mowle taking third at the flag.

In GT4, Mike Robinson and Graham Johnson took victory in their Ginetta G55, ahead of the Beechdean Aston Martin Vantage of Ross Gunn and Jamie Chadwick.

In race two, the Beechdean Aston Martin pairing of Jonny Adam and Andrew Howard made amends for their race one retirement by taking the chequered flag. However, it was not without drama, as they had to survive a late race stop and go penalty to seal the victory.

Adam had led the field from pole at the start of the race, charging hard to fight off a very determined Adam Carroll in the FF Corse Ferrari. The leading pair pulled out a small gap over Phil Keen in the Barwell Team Russia BMW Z4, and on lap 11 Carroll took the lead with a brave lunge down the inside at Old Hall. Following their victory in race one, FF Corse would be penalised with an extra 15 seconds added to their pit stop time, and Carroll was pushing hard to make up the extra time before handing over to Gary Eastwood.

Phil Keen, who would have been in a position to benefit from Carroll’s longer stop, was taken out of the race just before the pit window opened when the Jones’ twins Preci-Spark Mercedes pulled across the track in front of him, sending both cars into retirement with major damage.

Following the pit stops, Andrew Howard found himself in the lead in the Beechdean Aston Martin, with Lee Mowle charging up behind in the Triple Eight BMW. However, this charge was halted by traffic on the 26th lap, leaving the BMW driver with too much to do before the flag.

Nine minutes from the flag, the leading three cars were all given stop and go penalties for pit stop time infringements, but Howard’s lead was so large by this point that he was able to exit the pits still in the lead. The penalties promoted Steve Tandy and Mike Simpson’s Ginetta GT55 GT3 to second place, just ahead of the Ecurie Ecosse BMW of Marco Attard and Alex Sims at the flag.

Race 1 Amendment:

Following an appeal by Oman Racing Team, Liam Griffin and Rory Butcher have subsequently been promoted to winners of race one . Whilst the 458 Italia of Carroll and Eastwood were first over the line, the drivers were subsequently judged to have blocked the Oman Aston Martin of Butcher when exiting the pits following the mandatory stop. This means that Adam Carroll and co-driver Gary Eastwood drop to second overall. The rest of the results remain unchanged.