Mitchell and Martin secure Barwell Motorsports second British GT win at Oulton Park

Feature Image Credit: British GT Championship

Sandy Mitchell and Alex Martin, of Barwell Motorsports, secured the win at Oulton Park as the second race was heavily impacted by a full course yellow. 

Mitchell was the pole-sitter for the second race of the Oulton Park, season-opening, round of the British GT Championship, he led alongside the McLaren 720s and Tom Gamble was at the helm for the Optimum Motorsport team. 

Unlike the earlier race which was a solely wet one, the Sun was breaking through the clouds which would put a stronger emphasis on strategy – depending if the circuit dried up in time. 

However, safety cars and full course yellows heavily impacted running at Oulton Park on the Bank Holiday Monday.

Despite the problems out on track, the Mitchell and Martin pairing were in control of the second race as they cruised to victory.

In turn, Barwell Motorsport will drive away from Oulton Park with two successive victories following Rob Collard and Ricky Collard’s win in the first race. 

How the race unfolded…

It was still mildly damp out on the circuit and Mitchell led the pack to the race start. However, the race only lasted a minute as the safety car was deployed due to a multi-car collision out on track. 

As the GT3s and GT4s raced around the opening corner, the BMW M4 of Century Motorsport – driven by Charlie Robertson – spun out on the exit of turn one. The following GT4 pack tried to avoid the spinning BMW but three cars were caught up in the melee.

These cars included the #95 McLaren of Sai Sanjay Thirugnanasambandam (Race Lab), #79 Audi R8 of Jordan Albert (Stellar Motorsport) and the #62 Ford Mustang of Matt Nicoll-Jones (Academy Motorsport). 

After 13 minutes the race resumed as Mitchell launched his Lamborghini Huracan off the penultimate corner to get the race back up to speed. 

Vaughan was the next retirement from the race with mechanical problems as he peeled into the pit lane before the pit-stop windows opened. 

At the 30-minute mark, several GT3s pulled into the pit lane to complete their mandatory stops. In addition to their driver swaps, the cars also had a change of tyres as the slick dry tyres were equipped.

Shortly after, the GT4s were in for their stop. 

With 24 minutes on the clock, the full course yellow was brought out as a car veered off their circuit and into the barrier on the exit of turn one. 

Matt Topham of Blackthorn was the car in the barrier which brought out a recovery vehicle to extract the stranded Aston Martin Vantage GT3. 

With a lengthy delay in repairing barriers and recovering the Aston Martin, the safety car was redeployed in the dying minutes. However, as the race ran out of time it meant Martin cruised to the chequered flag to take the overall victory. 

Radcliffe and Keen followed Martin to the chequered flag to take second and third respectively, overall. 

In the GT4 category, Team Parker Racing’s Charles Dawson (including Seb Morris) took victory in their Mercedes-AMG. The #47 Aston Martin Vantage of Forsetti Motorsport, piloted by Marc Warren and Willian Orton finished second. 

Forsetti Motorsport’s second Vantage, which was driven by Mikey Porter and Jamie Day – who won the first race of the season, completed the GT4 podium in third. 

That’s it for the article: Mitchell and Martin secure Barwell Motorsports second British GT win at Oulton Park!

Read more British GT here!

• Collard pairing secures first win of 2024 British GT at wet Oulton Park
• British GT confirms 36-car field ahead of 2024 championship season
• British GT and SRO part ways from Intelligent Money
• Brands Hatch set to stage British GT Finale in 2024
• British GT: Cottingham/Adam & Brown/Clark secure wins in Donington Park
• British GT: Loggie/Gounon and Gough/Wrigley win second race in Oulton Park

To keep up to date with the latest news from Apex Motorsports, follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook! You can also support us on Patreon!

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.

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.