Barwell Lamborghini and Optimum McLaren claimed a win apiece at British GT’s late May Bank Holiday visit to Oulton Park as the incredibly tight 2026 campaign continued.
Rob Collard and Hugo Cook aboard the #63 Huracan won the opening one-hour contest, before victory in the second was taken by Morgan Tillbrook and Ben Barnicoat with their #77 720S.
It means the championship is still looking for a repeat winner this year after the three-hour SIlverstone opener was won by guest entrant Yasser Shahin and Garnet Patterson (Optimum McLaren).
But a Lamborghini victory at Oulton was always likely with three of the past four races in Cheshire being won by a Barwell Huracan, though the #63 made hard work of it for Monday.
That’s because Andrew Howard (Beechdean Aston Martin) surprisingly outqualified Collard by 0.058s for his first pole since the 2023 finale at Donington Park, leaving Barwell to rue a missed opportunity.
“We knew we had more pace,” reacted Collard, “because I was four tenths faster in the morning [practice], so Hugo was frustrated, I was frustrated, but P2 was still a good place to start.”
That it was because Collard instantly bounced back by overtaking Howard on the outside of Turn 1, before quickly building a plus five-second gap over his fellow two-time series champion.
The lead kept increasing heading into the 23-minute driver change and Cook enjoyed a solid start to his stint by maintaining a similar gap over Howard’s team-mate Ross Gunn.
Rob Collard/Hugo Cook, Barwell Lamborghini
Photo by: JEP
But then a 35th-minute crash at Druids in GT4 threatened to undo the dominant Huracan’s hard work, as it caused a full-course yellow turned safety car to bunch the pack back up.
What initially helped Cook’s cause though, at the 48th-minute restart, was the Orange Racing McLaren acting as traffic between him and Gunn, who therefore couldn’t instantly attack.
Once he’d lapped the McLaren, however, the Aston driver rapidly closed on the local Northwich native as Cook struggled through the slow-speed corners due to his “faded” brakes.
“I just didn’t have any confidence on the entries to push,” said the 21-year-old, “but he’d have had to do a lot to pass because it’s so hard around here.”
Those words rang true because an overtaking opportunity around the tight track never presented itself to Gunn, whose late pressure came to nothing as a calm Cook won by 0.235s.
“The perfect result,” he added, after taking his second series win with his first also coming at Oulton alongside Collard in 2025. “Not a comfortable race if I’m honest, felt alright at the start and restart, but then we just really lost the brakes.”
Reigning GT4 champions Marc Warren and Jack Brown (Optimum McLaren) took their first podium in the top class with third, while Mark Smith/Martin Plowman (Paddock McLaren) and Alex Martin/Jarrod Waberski (Barwell Lamborghini) rounded out the top five.
Although Beechdean missed the chance to end its 11-year winless streak in race one, it had another bite of the cherry in the second contest as Gunn took “the most unexpected pole” for it.
Race one podium
Photo by: JEP
The WEC Hypercar driver prevailed in a tense pole fight between him and Barnicoat – who finished seventh in race one following a Turn 1, lap one spin for Tillbrook – by just 0.019s.
But both drivers were forced to wait to take their qualifying battle into the race as a circuit power outage caused a 90-minute delay, leading to a safety car start with the 18:30 curfew looming.
“I’d run through about a hundred times in my head how I was going to overtake Ross in the first corner,” said Barnicoat, “I had the best plan I could and it’s a shame I didn’t get to have a go.”
“So I knew I just had to keep close to him,” added Barnicoat, referring to Beechdean’s seven-second pitstop success penalty for P2 in race one being his chance to overtake.
That’s exactly how it played out once the safety car had come in after five minutes, as the McLaren driver kept within a second of Gunn during a relatively static opening 30 minutes.
It therefore gave Tillbrook the lead out of the pitlane, but it wasn’t plainsailing for him as the feisty GT4 traffic caused a scrappy final stint where the McLaren quickly lost its advantage.
Within 15 minutes Howard, Kevin Tse (2 Seas Mercedes) and Simon Orange (Orange McLaren) had all closed within four seconds, setting up a potential grandstand finish.
“The first few laps I think he was probably feeling the nerves,” said Barnicoat, “he had it hard but after five laps he really found his rhythm” as Tillbrook subsequently streaked clear.
Morgan Tillbrook/Ben Barnicoat, Optimum McLaren
Photo by: JEP
So Howard was instead forced to defend with Tse and Orange trying to edge by, but the Aston remained resolute in sunny conditions to finish 3.750s behind Tillbrook.
“That was quite a lot of stress,” beamed Tillbrook, who took his first victory since 2022 while it was IMSA star Barnicoat’s first in the series, after seventh at Silverstone. “Although he gave it to me on a silver plate, when it comes on a silver plate it’s like, ‘oh my god don’t make a mistake’. I was just really pleased to bring it back in one piece.”
Tse recovered from a non-score at round one to complete the podium, whereas fourth initially went to the Orange Racing McLaren until a post-race 30s penalty for lapping a GT4 under yellows dropped it to ninth.
That consequently bumped Collard/Cook – who started race two in third but dropped down due to their 10s success penalty – to fourth, while Martin/Waberski took fifth again.
It all leaves Howard/Gunn at the top of the championship with 54 points, 6.5 clear of Jonathon Beeson/Charles Clark (Century BMW) who took at a maximum score at Silverstone before eighth and seventh at Oulton.
Third is currently occupied by Tillbrook/Barnicoat on 46 points, while Martin/Waberski (42.5 pts) and Collard/Cook (37 pts) complete the top five ahead of Spa on 20-21 June.
It’s also tight in GT4 as Thomas Holland/Hadley Simpson (Innovation Ginetta) lead on 67.5 points after winning at Silverstone before two third-placed results at Oulton.
Will Orton/Jessica Hawkins (MK Racing Aston Martin) are 4.5 points behind in second, whereas Oulton winners Jack Collins/Branden Templeton (Century BMW) plus Daniel Lavery/Darren Turner (Grange Aston Martin) occupy third and fourth.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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