Elite Motorsport’s Fred Green continued his impressive GB4 start with a third win in four races despite being put slightly in the shade by a resurgent Alex O’Grady at a scorching Oulton Park last weekend.
Ginetta Junior runner-up Green prevailed in an opening-lap dice with the KMR Sport driver to lead from pole in race one, and he resisted further early pressure from his pursuer before eventually triumphing by 0.8 seconds, while Enzo Hallman (Hillspeed) took third ahead of Thomas Ingram Hill (Fortec).
Green and O’Grady shared the front row again in the sequel, but this time it was O’Grady who started from pole, and he made good use of it to take a lights-to-flag win by 2.6s after pulling clear late on – his first triumph in 12 months. Hallman and Ingram Hill were again the best of the rest. “I got into more of a rhythm at the end, I didn’t know what the grip would be like so I took it easy at the start,” said O’Grady. “The pace was really good, and I could manage it quite easily.”
O’Grady edged Green once more to finish 10th in a tight reversed-grid finale, the duo coming home at the rear of an 11-car lead train. Pace Performance’s Josh McLean took a maiden victory after beating Dayton Coulthard off the line, while Emilio Valentino Del Grosso produced a valiant defence of third place.
“I made a wrong decision on lap one which cost me a place,” Green revealed. “After that, I’m in a good position in the championship and didn’t want to risk that, especially after not finishing the reversed-grid race at Silverstone. It’s been a positive weekend.”
Watts was flying high after maiden Ginetta Junior victory in the opener
Photo by: JEP
Penalties decided the first two Ginetta Junior contests, while points leader Lewis Goff produced scintillating recovery drives from the back row of the grid after having all three of his lap times deleted in qualifying for exceeding track limits.
Riley Cranham and Harrison Mackie battled for the lead in race one, but it was Josh Watts and Performance One who inherited their first win after Cranham suffered late damage and Mackie was demoted to seventh for causing a collision.
After dicing with Cranham again in race two, Elite Motorsport driver Mackie was handed a redemptive victory when his rival was penalised for multiple track-limits violations, while Watts spun out of third two corners from home.
Having stormed to two top-five finishes, R Racing’s Goff then climbed from fifth to score his sixth win ahead of Mackie and Red Bull junior Melvin Kalousdian in race three.
William Antrobus dominated the first Ginetta GT Championship encounter, his task made easier by a controversial clash between Harry Gamble and James Nicholas that resulted in Gamble initially being excluded from the meeting. Having had his punishment reduced to disqualification from race one, the Elite driver went on to win the other two contests.
Luis Beilicke took two more Ginetta GT Academy victories, but his unbeaten run was ended by driveshaft failure in race three.
Two former GB4 drivers shared the spoils in United Formula Ford, though only after a terrifying lead collision between Rory Smith and Morgan Quinn in the opener, with Smith unharmed after his Medina was sent skating upside down across the Tarmac. Alex Walker profited to win ahead of points leader Anthony Amato and Maris Schulte, and another Van Diemen driver, Brandon McCaughan, dominated race two from Amato and Felix Fisher.
McCaughan was one of two former GB4 racers to triumph in United Formula Ford as it joined British GT support bill
Photo by: JEP
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– The Autosport.com Team
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