Adam Carroll: "It wasn't going to be that easy to pass me!"

Balfe Motorsport’s Adam Carroll said he loved the decisive battle for the lead in the opening Intelligent Money British GT Championship race of the weekend at Oulton Park with RAM Racing’s Jules Gounon.

The first race of the 2022 season hinged on the key battle between Carroll and Gounon, with the latter throwing everything he could to try and get past the Audi racer – even running side-by-side through a number of corners before eventually conceding defeat and settling for second in his Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Speaking to GT REPORT, Carroll said he thought he would be able to hold the position: “I could see him coming, and that’s kind of just the pace we had. The rear tyres were cooked so just couldn’t push any more. I knew once he got to me, he had to find a way to pass us.

“I had to keep it on the line, but it’s easier said than done because it’s such a fine line round here and one time it’s wrong and you’re wide or you’re off especially when you throw the GT4s into it. You just don’t know what to do, or where to go, and you’re fully committed to it so you’re just hoping ‘please don’t turn’.

“That’s just all we could do, and we properly had a wheel-to-wheel moment with a GT4 coming across me going onto the straight and Jules was able to get alongside. It wasn’t going to be that easy to pass me!”

For Gounon, he couldn’t quite take a debut British GT victory, but was equally effusive in his praise for what was a thrilling battle for the win which took in the final quarter of the 60-minute race.

He added: “I saw him on the inside, so I knew the only chance I had got was to go on the outside and try something that he didn’t expect and not show myself too much on the outside before this. We touched a bit, but at the end it was fair and I didn’t want to squeeze him to the wall too much on the right also because he gave me space. This is how we like racing! As I told you, these are the tracks that I like, and these are the fights that I like!

“We started P10 and we knew we wanted to go back through the order to try and grab some good points – I’m here to help Ian to finally get this title and it’s a good way to start with this. I gave 110% and unfortunately we came short in P2 but a very good fight with Adam and a lot of respect between us. It was very good, very emotional, and now we’re going to try and score some good points in race two.”

Race Two starts at 4.10pm UK (5.10pm CEST) and you can watch it live on GT REPORT here.