Another trophy-laden Oulton Park weekend helped Barwell Motorsport catapult itself back to the sharp end of the British GT Championship, as the team scored victories across each class it competed in.
Rob Collard and Hugo Cook continued their strong form at the Cheshire circuit by winning the opening race outright aboard the #63 Dama Fortuna Premium Tequila/Collard Group/J&S Accessories-backed Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo 2. They then backed up their title-fighting credentials with a healthy points score in the finale, despite having to carry the maximum pit stop success penalty.
Alex Martin and Jarrod Waberski made it a clean sweep of Silver-Am podiums, securing their breakthrough class victory in a tough second race aboard the #78 car, which is supported by DexNET Lighting Controls, D.A.W, T4 Intelligent Infrastructure and Dama Fortuna.
Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin kept up their 100% record of scoring in every race so far this season, recovering from a difficult qualifying in the #55 Hensmill/Lady Luck Irish Whiskey entry to fight their way into the top 10 on both outings.
With Barwell’s Lamborghinis enjoying a formidable record at Oulton, the cars were given a smaller air restrictor which, allied to the high air temperatures, sapped some power from the 5.2-litre V10s. That made qualifying a bit of a battle, but Collard managed to secure second on the grid for the opener, with Martin right behind in fourth and Cameron 11th.
Collard may have missed out on pole, but wasted little time in making amends, blasting away when the lights went out to run around the outside of Andrew Howard’s Beechdean Aston Martin at Old Hall to lead. Once ahead, Collard set a string of fastest laps to pull a gap of nine seconds before handing to Cook, who duly rejoined out front after a swift service from the Barwell crew.
Cook immediately lit up the timing screens with a rapid out lap, extending his gap over the Aston, now in the hands of AMR factory driver Ross Gunn. The win seemed assured until a GT4 crash approaching Druids summoned a safety car and undid all the hard work.
Racing resumed with just 12 minutes remaining, with Cook under heavy pressure from Gunn across the final laps. Despite track temperatures nudging 38 degrees, Cook didn’t lose his cool. Even when he was baulked by a backmarker approaching Lodge for the final time, Cook held the inside line and used the Huracan’s traction to haul himself to the line just 0.2s ahead to secure another Oulton victory. It marked Collard’s third win in as many years at the track, and Cook’s second at his home circuit with Barwell.
The team’s podium tally was doubled by a fine performance also from Martin and Waberski, who secured second in Silver-Am. Martin started fourth and held station at the start, repeatedly attacking Marc Warren’s Optimum McLaren for third but the tight confines of the circuit never really presented him a clear passing opportunity. With an extra five seconds to serve on their pit stop after finishing third of the points-scoring cars at Silverstone last time out, Martin boxed for Waberski at the earliest opportunity. The extra time meant the South African rejoined in fifth, with the Paddock Motorsport McLaren of Martin Plowman right ahead. Despite attacking as much as he could, fifth and a second class podium of the campaign was the limit, landing them a solid haul of points.
Cameron and Griffin made it three Barwell cars inside the points after making progress across the race. Cameron rose from 11th to eighth across the early laps, ably fending off repeated attacks from multiple race-winner Kevin Tse’s 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG. Cameron handed to Griffin for the second half, the Irishman battling hard to ninth at the flag.
The mercury rose even higher for the finale, with track temperatures nearing 40 degrees as the field formed up with Cook third, Waberski sixth and Griffin 12th. The safety car start following a delay in track activity limited overtaking opportunities early on, which meant all three cars largely held position across a static first half.
Cook boxed for Collard from third, knowing their 10 seconds of compensation time and lack of a safety car would hurt. Collard rejoined seventh, right behind Martin, who had relayed with Waberski from sixth, and that sparked a great intra-team duel.
Waberksi had held off huge pressure from his class rival Charles Clark, but that same BMW would prove a hindrance during the pit stops. With the M4 in the neighbouring pit bay and both cars stopping together, the BMW was released too soon from its box in an attempt to gain track position over the #78. Clark’s team-mate Jonathon Beeson then had to slow down considerably in the fast lane of the pit lane – which isn’t allowed under British GT rules – to try and hit the car's minimum pit time, delaying Martin from rejoining the race and earning the BMW a drive-through penalty.
The delay for Martin allowed Collard to close in, and he eventually slipped past on the run toward Hislop’s to annex fifth. With the rival BMW penalised, Martin knew he didn’t have to fight Collard too hard with a breakthrough Silver-Am win on the line, so settled for sixth and the class glory. A result that elevates he and Waberski into the Silver-Am Championship lead. Things got even better when the Orange Racing McLaren ahead was penalised post-race, elevating Collard and Cook to fourth, and Martin and Waberski to fifth.
Griffin was up against it in the dirty air of the pack, but managed to pull a neat pass on Jack Brown in the Optimum McLaren before handing to Cameron, who picked his way through some second-half chaos to finish the weekend in 10th, continuing the pair’s record of scoring in every race so far this season.
The results mean Martin and Waberski run fourth in the GT3 Drivers’ Championship and sit top in Silver-Am. Collard and Cook are right behind in fifth after finishing the weekend as the top-scoring pairing. Barwell Motorsport now leads the GT3 Teams’ Championship by 12pts. Waberski also sits atop the SRO GT Academy standings as he bids to win a funded seat in next year’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa.
“I’m really pleased with how this weekend worked out. We struggled a bit in the heat, and I think our qualifying was a bit scrappy as we perhaps could have had pole, but the Aston was so fast this weekend and, to be fair, I feel we maximised the races. Rob did a brilliant job in his stint and gave me the car in a great position and we were well on the way to a comfortable win before the safety car. It was a bit too close for comfort in the end, but it’s so hard to pass around here that I always felt I had it under control. With the maximum compensation time solid points were the only aim for race two, and we got those too. It wasn’t quite a perfect weekend championship-wise, but it’s certainly close to it.”
“To leave the weekend with two pots and a championship lead is never a bad thing, even though there were a few frustrations on our side. This was always going to be the most difficult round for us as Jarrod had never raced here in a GT car and the heat really saps you in the car. I was a bit off it this weekend, and you have to be razor sharp in a field this tight. We didn’t quite make the most of qualifying and that made the races hard work, especially when I was held up by the BMW in the pits. But we came through it with some great results and some very useful points.”
“It’s great to come to Oulton Park and I love this event but it’s just so hard to overtake here, the cars are so fast and the track is so tight, so if you don’t maximise qualifying it sets you up for a really tough weekend and that was the case for us. We had a small issue in qualifying with the diff losing some preload and I was probably guilty of over-driving too as we’re still learning the Lamborghini. But on the plus side we scored points across both races and came away with no damage, so we’ll refocus for the next one.”
“I’m very proud with how the team came through this weekend, and to finish with two wins, a second place and a bagful of points across all three cars is great. We have a very strong record at Oulton, but one slip-up can cost you dearly. We executed both races superbly, with zero penalties, clear of track limits, no damage and with some well-timed pit work. That combination will always set you up for a successful weekend. If Silverstone was a mixed one for us, we were well and truly back on song for this one, and we need to continue this momentum into Spa and beyond.”
