British GT: Cottingham/Adam and Moore/Nicoll-Jones secure opening win of the season
10th April 20232 Sea’s partnership of James Cottingham/Jonny Adam and Academy Motorsport’s Will Moore/Matt Nicoll-Jones secured the opening win of the British GT season in mixed conditions at Oulton Park.
How the race unfolded…
It was a good launch as the race went green as Cottingham maintained the lead of the race ahead of the defending British GT champion, 2 Sea’s Ian Loggie while Richard Neary moved up to third. The McLaren of Kevin Tse, which started the race in second place, dropped down to fourth place as he tip-toed through the opening corners.
However, the race was neutralised due as Simon Orange, Orange Racing, beached his McLaren in the gravel with 54 minutes remaining. Orange was one of two GT3 cars that were equipped with slick tyres which proved the conditions were not ready. The safety car was quickly brought out.
With 48 minutes left, Cottingham led the pack back to green-flag conditions ahead of both Loggie and Neary. Eight minutes later, Cottingham extended his race lead to four seconds over Loggie who had to contend with both the Aston Martin of Howard and Tse.
While Cottingham continued on his way, both Loggie and Neary pitted for their mandatory stop which saw Jules Gounon and Ross Gunn jump in respectively.
Due to Cottingham’s lead when the GT3 race leader pitted, his replacement driver Jonny Adam peeled back onto the circuit in the net-race lead, behind GT4 Ford Mustangs of Moore and Cowley who inherited the race lead.
However, Adam quickly blasted his way up to the rear of the Mustangs and quickly dispatched the two drivers to regain the race lead.
After 30 minutes, Team Abba Racing’s Sam Neary attempted to overtake a number of GT4 cars around the outside of turn 14. However, the Briton failed to make the move stick as his Mercedes slipped over a wet patch. Neary quickly skidded across the grass verge and across the circuit before he spun out, and beached himself into the gravel trap of turn 15.
The safety car was quickly redeployed to allow the marshals to extract Neary’s Mercedes.
During the safety car period, car’s: 68 ,56,78 and 83 were under investigation for pit stop infringements.
With 19 minutes left on the clock, Adam got the race back underway as he bolted away at the penultimate corner. However, slightly further back, Gunn was hindered by a GT4 car which meant by the time the overtake was completed – after the timing line – Adams had established a two-second gap over Gunn.
Despite the increasingly wet conditions, Adam maintained the lead of the race and secures the opening win of the season ahead of Gunn and Enduro Motorsport’s Marcus Clutton, in third.
Podium (GT3)
- Jonny Adam/James Cottingham, 2 Seas
- Ross Gunn/Andrew Howard, Beechdean AMR
- Marcus Clutton/Morgan Tillbrook, Enduro Motorsport
Podium (GT4)
- Will Moore/Matt Nicoll-Jones, Academy Motorsport
- Matt Cowley/Erik Evans, Academy Motorsport
- Michael Crees/Thomas Holland, Raceway Motorsport
That’s it for the article: British GT: Cottingham/Adam and Moore/Nicholl-Jones secure opening win of the season!
What do you think of the first race of the season? Let us know in the comments!
Read more British GT here!
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- Lotus becomes official safety car of British GT
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
