Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Elite Motorsport’s Fred Green narrowly extended his points lead during the latest GB4 round at Oulton Park despite facing strong competition from Alex O’Grady.
There was little to separate the pair all weekend, with both taking a victory in scorching temperatures.
Having set the pre-event testing pace, KMR Sport’s O’Grady continued his improved form into qualifying to lead the way with a 1m36.936s lap.
Luke Hilton, Thomas Ingram Hill and Green all lowered the pace before O’Grady responded with a 1m34.393s to reclaim the advantage with 10 minutes remaining. O’Grady’s new benchmark remained unbeaten until Green produced a 1m34.350s with just seconds remaining of the session to snatch race one pole by 0.043s, while Enzo Hallman edged Hilton and Ingram Hill to third.
Green led into Old Hall corner at the start, but a better exit helped O’Grady draw alongside on the run down to Cascades. The latter slightly edged ahead, and the pair continued to run wheel-to-wheel all the way to Island bend, where Green prevailed on the inside.
O’Grady continued to apply pressure on Green during the early laps, and the duo’s pace enabled them to pull over 2s clear of Hilspeed’s Hallman. Green eventually built himself some small breathing space by edging out a 0.8s gap to his pursuer, and he maintained that advantage over the remaining laps to clinch his third win of the season.
Hallman came home 3.3s behind O’Grady in third, while Ingram Hill ran fourth throughout. Pace Performance’s Torrin Byrne gained two places at the start to record his best finish in fifth, and Elite’s Matan Archituv edged Connor Willis and Franciszek Cegielski to sixth.
Carrying a five-place grid penalty from the previous event, Hilton ran ninth until late technical issues forced him to retire.
The race two grid was decided by drivers’ second-best qualifying times, and while Green and O’Grady again shared the front row, it was the latter that started from pole. He made a good start to lead into turn one, while Hallman initially drew alongside Green but then instead had to fend off Ingram Hill for third.
The safety car was deployed when Douglas Motorsport’s Dayton Coulthard locked up and collected Josh McLean into Cascades, with racing resuming on lap four. O’Grady quickly built a 1s lead, maintained that gap for the next few laps, and eventually pulled further clear to win by 2.6s. It was his first triumph since GB4’s last visit to Oulton Park 12 months ago.
Hallman repeated his race one result, having closed in on Green late on, with Ingram Hill again fourth. Hilton bounced back with fifth ahead of Archituv, Byrne and Cegielski.
Coulthard lined-up from reversed-grid pole for the final contest, but he was beaten off the line by McLean who claimed an early lead.
The race was soon red-flagged for barrier repairs after John O’Donnell and Charlie Myers tangled at Hilltop. O’Donnell’s car flipped after striking the tyre barriers and then landed the right way up, and he appeared shaken up despite walking away.
Racing resumed with a rolling-restart, and McLean continued to lead from Coulthard, while Hilton climbed to fourth behind Elite’s Emilio Valentino del Grosso. The latter’s determined defence of the final podium spot bunched up the field behind him, with Hilton slipping to sixth behind Connor Willis and Ingram Hill in the process.
Del Grosso eventually picked up the pace and caught Coulthard, whose lead challenge had faded. Having pulled out a 1s advantage, McLean secured a maiden win at the chequered flag, while Coulthard led home a 10-car train for second.
Del Grosso maintained third ahead of Willis and Ingram Hill, while Hilton was further demoted to seventh by Hallman. Byrne, Cegielski and O’Grady completed the top 10. Green finished just behind his closest rival in 11th – and only 4.5s adrift of the winner – to end the weekend with a 13-point cushion.
Results round-up
Race 1 (13 laps)
1 Fred Green Elite Motorsport 20m43.821s
2 Alex O’Grady KMR Sport +0.785s
3 Enzo Hallman Hillspeed +4.120s
4 Thomas Ingram Hill Fortec Motorsports +6.885s
5 Torrin Byrne Pace Performance +8.899s
6 Matan Achituv Elite Motorsport +15.321s
7 Connor Willis Hillspeed +15.943s
8 Franciszek Cegielski Fortec Motorsport +16.344s
9 Emilio Valentino del Grosso Elite Motorsport +18.688s
10 Archie Davies Scorpio Racing +21.932s
Pole: Green, 1m34.350s
Fastest lap: O’Grady, 1m34.827s
Race 2 (11 laps)
1 O’Grady 21m09.682s
2 Green +2.612s
3 Hallman +3.034s
4 Ingram Hill +4.541s
5 Luke Hilton Nitrous Competitions ADM Racing +5.610s
6 Achituv +9.137s
7 Byrne +11.879s
8 Cegielski +12.364s
9 Willis +13.553s
10 Jordyn Martin Fortec Motorsports + 15.285s
P: O’Grady, 1m34.400s
FL: O’Grady, 1m35.472s
Race 3 (10 laps)
1 Josh McLean Pace Performance 16m27.850s
2 Dayton Coulthard Douglas Motorsport + 1.368s
3 Del Grosso +1.626s
4 Willis + 1.879s
5 Ingram Hill +2.362s
6 Hallman +2.680s
7 Hilton +3.096s
8 Byrne +3.561s
9 Cegielski +4.033s
10 O’Grady +4.566s
FL: Del Grosso, 1m37.050s
Championship standings
1 Green 140 2 O’Grady 3 Hallman 122 4 Ingram Hill 98 5 Jason Smyth 81 6 Achituv 76 7 Coulthard 72 8 Willis 72 9 Del Gross 66 10 Byrne 65