SD Team racing drivers Nick Jones and Sven Müller face a fast-paced Bank Holiday with the British GT Championship holding its first sprint event of the season at Oulton Park this weekend.
Traditionally reserved for Easter weekend, British GT’s trip to the Cheshire parkland track instead moves further back in the schedule for this year, allowing teams and drivers additional mileage before taking on one of the most demanding events of the campaign.
With two one-hour races taking place on Bank Holiday Monday, Oulton’s fast sweeps and multiple pinch points mean the margin for error is zero for crews hunting the big points-paying finishes.
Jones and Müller have started the British GT season brightly, even if that has yet to be reflected in the championship table. The pair were on for a top-six finish in the season opener at Donington Park before an unlucky accident took them out of contention. Then at Silverstone a cocktail of bad luck led to a time penalty that again cost them the chance to fight for a strong result, even if Müller showed the #66 car’s potential by setting the second-fastest lap of the entire race.
Now the Team Parker Racing-run Porsche 911 GT3 R takes on a new kind of challenge with the sprint race format. With each driver getting their own qualifying session to set the grid for each race, it allows double the opportunity for success.
Nick Jones says: “I cannot wait to get back in the car, it feels like ages since Silverstone, so we’re ready and raring to go! Oulton Park is a great circuit, it’s really old school and very different to places like Silverstone and Donington, without much runoff or margin for error. I like the sprint race format, but it can also carry a high chance of safety cars, which can work for you or against you in such a short time space, so it can be a lottery. So much will come down to qualifying as Oulton is a tight track and just managing the GT4 traffic is tough enough, let alone passing another GT3. Still, the car and the team are in a good place so we’ll go give it our best shot.”
Sven Müller says: “I’m really looking forward to the third round of British GT, and my first race weekend at Oulton Park. In truth I don’t think the first two rounds have gone as we had expected, with just a lot of bad luck and small things that have held us back, so the key thing for this weekend is to be able to start a bit further up the grid because overall our race pace has been very good. Oulton Park is quite a tight track, quite small compared to Donington and Silverstone but it’s really fun to drive. We had a good test there at the start of the year so I know the layout and overtaking could be tough so qualifying well will be a big part of success. I’m excited to get going.”
British GT Championship action at Oulton Park gets underway with testing on Friday, before the event begins proper with twin practice sessions on Saturday morning and Qualifying in the afternoon. There will be no running on Sunday, with both one-hour races scheduled for Monday. All sessions will feature live timing, and both Qualifying and the races will be shown live on Sky Sports F1 and streamed via the GT World YouTube channel.
