Any hot, sunny Bank Holiday weekend is always good for business with any ice cream company and that was definitely the case for the Beechdean Aston Martin Racing powered crew today as Andrew Howard and Ross Gunn swept the board in today’s British GT Championship qualifying.
With the twenty-four strong grid having made their way up the M6 to the Cheshire circuit of Oulton Park for this weekend’s second round of the season, the sun and warmer temperatures of late have certainly put many in the mood for Monday’s two one-hour sprint races.
The #7 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 crew also did have the exclusivity to good performances within the AMR camp either as the #12 MK Racing AMR Vantage GT4 crew of Will Orton and Jessica Hawkins also shone in qualifying as Orton secured a front row start for race two after his silver class position attaining lap after Hawkins a P3 start for race one earlier in the day.
The #27 Grange Racing by FSR AMR Vantage GT4 on Dan Lavery also secured a P2 start in Pro-Am ahead of race one – supported by an identical P2 start in class for Darren Turner in race two.
The #40 Townsend Motorsport AMR Vantage GT4 of James Townsend and Joe Wheeler would qualify P3 in Pro-Am for race one but would become victim to a lost lap for track limits in Q2 for Wheeler to drop down to P6 for race two whilst the #97 GBR Stratton Motorsport of John Hartshorne would end his run P6 in class (Pro-Am) whilst his co-driver Ronan Pearson would elevate their car up to sixth place overall in GT4 (P4 in class) after a stellar performance from him in the heat of Saturday.
Being a Bank Holiday weekend and Oulton Park, the drivers all get a day off tomorrow to do whatever it is drivers do on a Bank Holiday Sunday before reconvening at the circuit ahead of Monday’s two races starting at 11:05 and 15:45.
Photo credits – Jacob Ebrey / Teams / social media