British GT: Rounds 1 & 2 from Oulton Park

“The rain, it came, but it would not drain, and so the meeting was abandoned…”

Some woeful prose to accompany the Easter Bank Holiday downpours at Oulton Park, where Flick Haigh became the first woman to win a British GT race in the series’ 26-year history. And then the weather made just a little bit more…

In Race 1, Haigh, partnered by Optimum Motorsport co-driver Jonny Adam, crossed the line more than 28 seconds ahead of the Beechdean Aston Martin driven by Darren Turner with ERC Sport’s Yelmer Buurman less than two-tenths behind in third. The Barwell Motorsport Lamborghinis finished just a few seconds shy of the podium, led by Phil Keen and followed home by the other two Huracan GT3s driven by Machitski/Kujala and de Haan/Cocker.

In GT4, the Track-Club McLaren 570S driven by Ben Barnicoat finished with a healthy lead over the Tolman Motorsport car to make it a McLaren 1-2, after a post-race penalty dropped Century Motorsport’s Ben Tuck and Ben Green from second to sixth in their BMW M4 GT4. The second BMW driven by Ricky Collard and Jack Mitchell took third, ahead of Balfe Motorsport’s McLaren driven by reigning Pro/Am champions Graham Johnson and Mike Robinson.

Heavy rain, forced organisers to cancel the second race and deny fans another gripping spectacle, but then again perhaps we’d all had enough of the treacherous conditions by then.

Here are twenty of our favourite images from the day; there’ll be plenty more as the season continues.

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After becoming the first woman to claim an outright British GT pole on Saturday, Flick Haigh sealed the deal with victory in Race 1 on Monday – the first woman to win a British GT race in the championship’s 26-year history. She’ll definitely be one to watch in 2018 together with her co-driver Jonny Adam.

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Left to Right: Bentley has a fight on its hands to retain its crown. The mighty McLaren 650S finished in 8th place just 0.5 second behind the Team Parker Racing Bentley.

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The #24 RJN Motorsport Nissan GT-R goes hard whatever the weather, unfortunately drivers Struan Moore and Devon Modell were unable to take advantage of the inclement conditions at Oulton Park finishing over 90 seconds behind the leader in 12th.

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Left to Right: The marshals were busy at Oulton Park. So were the mechanics at Barwell Motorsport – the #2 Lamborghini had an eventful race eventually finishing in 5th place.

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Left to Right: Beechdean are back and they mean business, while Nicki Thiim shows how to take the puddles Danish-style.

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Left to Right: Five of the top-11 finishers were Aston Martins, so no surprise they had a few close-calls on track. McLaren set the pace in GT4 and on the safety car laps.

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Left to Right: Balon and Barnicoat storm to the GT4 win…, closely followed by 21 highly-motivated GT4 contenders.

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Left to Right: Ricky Collard and Jack Mitchell inject pace into the GT4 battle to finish on the podium. The ##66 Team Parker Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 failed to capitalise on its pole position, finishing down in 20th place.

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Left to Right: The Invictus Games ready and primed for action. Maybe a little too ready – here they nearly have an ‘Autoglym moment’ (“it will polish out”).

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Left to Right: The Stellar Performance GT86s finished a respectable 13th and 14th, especially given the age of their drivers (16 – 22). Both Ginetta (9th) and Nissan (16th) were represented in the GT4 finishers, but they all lagged behind the dominant McLarens.

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The next round of the 2018 British GT Championship will take place at Rockingham Motor Speedway at the end of the month, from April 28-29, with tickets available from just £12 in advance.

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Images: Kevin Mc Glone(Red Square Images), Steve Hindle(The Black Stuff).