After a frantic three-hour opening test, the British GT Championship gets down to sprint competition this weekend at Oulton Park with two one-hour races sure to test a field slightly smaller than that seen at Silverstone but still packed with talent.

BRITISH GT OULTON PARK: SILVERSTONE EXTENDED REPORT | SILVERSTONE GALLERY | OULTON TEST REPORT

As has become tradition with Oulton Park, the race is split over the three-day weekend in the UK with practice and qualifying on Saturday 23 May and the two races on Monday 25 May. We take you through all the field, with our preview below.

GT3

After removing the one-off entries at the opening round, which included victors Yasser Shahin and Garnett Patterson and third-place finishers Darren Leung and Dan Harper, the state of the drivers’ championship heading to the North West of England makes for intriguing reading. 

Thanks to their fighting second-place, it’s Century Motorsport’s Charles Clark and Jonathan Beeson who lead the way on 37.5 points in their BMW M4 GT3 Evo, but the competition is close and proving quick already. That’s because nipping at their heels is the Orange Racing with JMH pair of Simon Orange and Marcus Clutton, with the latter already demonstrating his mastery of the Oulton circuit in their McLaren 720S GT3 Evo as he topped one of British GT’s test sessions just a few weeks ago. 

They might be 10.5 points behind the BMW leaders but with a maximum of 50 points available across the two races, the standings could be very different come the end of Race 2. 

Especially when you throw in who else makes up the top five in the standings. Alex Martin and Jarrod Waberski made a strong start to their partnership in a Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 at Silverstone and with the team’s experience of taking Oulton Park victories, they could well be strong contenders. 

Speaking of experience, Ross Gunn and Andrew Howard had a successful reunion in their Beechdean AMR Aston Martin Vantage as the pair took sixth on the road but the points for fourth to put them firmly in the early-season mix. No one needs reminding of Gunn’s ability to set the timing screens ablaze, and combine that with Howard’s years of experience within British GT and they’ll feel that podiums should be an expectation at the minimum this weekend. 

That said, fifth in the standings is Morgan Tillbrook and Ben Barnicoat. The Optimum Motorsport pair were denied what was surely a podium at the 500 by an unluckily mistimed pitstop, having rolled the dice but being blindsided by a unfortunately timed safety car, and then being given a stop/go penalty for not meeting the minimum stop time. Barnicoat was on another level at Silverstone as he smashed the lap-record during the middle hour of the race. If they can channel that frustration into positive on-track performance, the silverware that slipped through their fingers last time out could be within reach this time. 

With the one-offs dropping out, the grid is down slightly to 13 in GT3, but with no drop-off in quality as any one of the entries could be standing atop the podium. That said, there are a few changes to the entry that could shake things up. 

The biggest news for this round is the return of 2022 champion Ian Loggie. Despite saying he’d retired, it was clear that the Scot has caught the bug again as he joined Phil Keen in a Paradine Competition BMW for the 2026 British GT opener. Now, it’s been confirmed that he’ll join Aaron Walker in a 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo for the remainder of the season. Back in a car he knows very well, and at a track he won at – alongside Jules Gounon – in 2022 and 2023, expect Loggie to be back at the sharp-end in no time at all.

Also changing is Mahiki Racing, as Ed McDermott is forced to miss this round through the same thumb injury that caused him to withdraw from the season-opener. His place alongside Luke Garlick in the McLaren will be British GT’s very own super-sub Matt Topham. 

The team’s other car, which featured Josh Rowledge and Steven Lake, has withdrawn from the weekend entirely with the reason being described on the team’s social media as: “ongoing commercial matters relating to Josh Rowledge”. 

GT4

Compared to GT3, the drivers’ standings in GT4 are much more simple. Having taken a fantastic debut win last time out, Innovation Racing’s Thomas Holland and Hadley Simpson sit atop the points table and looking in ominous form for this pair of 60-minute sprints.

The Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo crew fought off MK Racing’s Jessica Hawkins and Will Orton throughout the race, despite the Aston Martin racers putting the pressure on the duo throughout. Now that battle recommences around a circuit that is arguably the completely different end of the spectrum from Silverstone as the wide, flat, circuit is replaced by tight, twisty, undulating asphalt but don’t expect anything different in the races. Hawkins and Orton will be keen to unseat the Innovation pair, but Simpson and Holland do have an added boost thanks to their team’s trophy-laden GT Cup trip to Snetterton just last weekend, demonstrating just how on-form both crew and team are at the moment.

Indeed, the whole of the GT4 class seems very delicately poised at the moment. Innovation won by just under 1.3sec after three hours of racing, and MK Racing only took second by 1.8sec as Optimum’s Luca Hopkinson and Josh Stanton applied late pressure in their McLaren Artura. Throw in the fact that Century Motorsport’s Jack Collins and Branden Templeton only missed out on an overall podium by half a second and there’s set to be a lot of pairings looking to better their results this weekend.

Elsewhere, the top four might have been locked out by the Silver Cup entries but there’s a decent battle forming in the Pro-Am competition. Luke Shaw and Jack Mitchell took the honours (and fifth overall) for Toro Verde GT in the Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo but were under pressure from GBR Stratton Motorsport’s John Hartshorne and Ronan Pearson throughout.

Throw in the WSR Flexifly BMW of Ernie Graham and Colin Turkington, the latter having had plenty of success at this track in the British Touring Car Championship, and that’s another battle to watch out for during the weekend.

The race action, on Monday for this weekend only, gets underway at 11.05am for Race One, with the second race getting going at 3.45pm.