GB4 set for record entry as testing continues at Oulton Park

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

GB4’s 2023 champion Tom Mills was quickest for his family’s team KMR Sport in GB4’s two-day pre-season test at Oulton Park.

Mills was only in action on Tuesday as he helped KMR get to grips with the new Tatuus MSV GB4-025 car, and his best lap of 1m34.276s went unbeaten on Wednesday when conditions were less favourable.

Elite Motorsport’s Alex Kattoulas was fastest of the confirmed drivers for the upcoming season, which is set to feature a record grid of at least 20 cars. The number of official entries has risen to 16, as Isaac Phelps has completed Elite’s three-car line-up following his testing appearance at Snetterton last week, and GB4 has confirmed there are four more yet-to-be announced drivers.

Phelps spent last year racing for Elite in Ginetta Junior after graduating from karting. The 15-year-old scored a double-victory on his debut weekend at Oulton Park, added one more win at the Brands Hatch season finale and came fifth in the standings. He then won Ginetta Junior’s one-round Winter Series after taking two victories from three races at Silverstone.

Elite’s Aryaman Bansal set the early session one pace at Oulton Park on Tuesday with a 1m41.392s, but eventually Douglas Motorsport’s Luke Hilton beat that effort by 2.4 secsonss. Hilton was demoted from first place seconds later by Mills, who set a 1m38.764s to top the session by 0.2s, with Arden’s Leon Wilson 1.6s further adrift in third.

Bansal lowered the pace to a 1m38.110s approaching the halfway stage of session two, and he then improved by one second on his next lap. He remained ahead for the next 15 minutes, with Mills then going quickest by 0.2s. After exchanging top spot over the next few minutes with Mills, Kattoulas set a 1m35.496s to end up fastest by 0.3s from Bansal. He edged Mills to second by 0.021s.

Mills slightly lowered the benchmark to a 1m45.419s in the early stages of session three before Bansal pipped him once more by 0.006s. Despite reclaiming the advantage again by 0.4s, Mills was denied with 20 minutes remaining by Graham Brunton Racing’s Mayer Deonarine, whose 1m35.003s left the Canadian quickest at the session’s completion by 0.01s.

The final session was far more one-sided, as Mills posted a 1m34.974s at the halfway mark, and then set three quicker laps to finish the day over 0.7s clear of Deonarine and Kattoulas.

The only improvements on Wednesday came in session seven, where Kattoulas set a 1m34.541s to rise to second in the test’s overall classification, 0.462s ahead of Deonarine who did not better his day one pace. Bansal was quickest by over 1.5s in both sessions five and eight with 1m36.352s and 1m47.923s laps respectively, while there were no lap times recorded in session six.

Bansal and Phelps also set personal bests in session seven to be just behind Deonarine in fourth and fifth in the overall testing classification while Fortec Motorsports’ Jack Taylor was 1.1s shy of the outright pace in sixth, having not improved on day two. Just 0.071s separated Douglas duo Luke Hilton and Dayton Coulthard, KMR’s Megan Bruce and Arden’s Leon Wilson for the remaining positions in the top 10.

Testing results