JHR’s Matthew Rees tops GB3 pre-season test at Oulton Park

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Matthew Rees set the fastest lap in GB3’s two-day pre-season test at Oulton Park.

The JHR Developments driver broke the circuit’s GB3 record to end up 0.099 seconds clear of McKenzy Cresswell, who topped last week’s Silverstone test.

Rees’ team-mate Joseph Loake led at the end of first of seven hours of track action on Tuesday with a 1m37.848s lap, before times tumbled significantly on an improving track.

An effort of 1m32.667s moved Rees to the top, and he chipped away further to remain ahead at the end of the second hour with a 1m30.325s. Hitech GP’s Souta Arao improved the benchmark by a small margin, the Red Bull junior then finding a further 0.7s to record a 1m29.535s.

But it wasn’t long until Rees reclaimed the advantage, edging Arao by 0.030s towards the end of the third hour, and then made several more improvements to leave himself 0.462s clear of Hitech’s Alex Dunne at the end of the morning session.

James Hedley, who was again testing for Chris Dittmann Racing, traded top spot with Rees during the early stages of the afternoon session, their times some way off the morning pace. Fortec Motorsports’ Jarrod Waberski then moved ahead of the pair with a 1m29.186s lap before Hedley eclipsed him by 0.1s. Rees then dipped into the 1m28s bracket, but Waberski improved to go fastest again by just 0.004s.

Rees bettered his time from the morning with 90 minutes remaining, his effort of 1m28.491s putting him in front at the end of the day. Of the 20 drivers who took part on Tuesday,  Alex Dunne, Callum Voisin and Arthur Rogeon were the only three to not improve in the afternoon, while David Morales only took part in the morning.

Conditions were colder on Wednesday, with Morales the only driver to improve on his day one time before snow arrived in the afternoon. That left Rees at the top ahead of Elite Motorsport duo Cressell and Oliver Stewart, the latter again testing for the team to evaluate a move into GB3.

Loake ended the test in fourth ahead of Max Esterson (Fortec) and Arao. Rodin Carlin made its first testing appearance of the year, with John Bennett the quickest of its drivers in 10th, half a second off Rees.

Douglas Motorsport only ran on Wednesday, with Tymek Kucharczyk setting the fastest overall time of the day, his lap of 1m28.770s recorded in the opening session leaving him 0.275s clear of Rees, with Voisin third. The Polish driver’s effort was also good enough for seventh overall in the classification. 

Nico Christodoulou (Arden) and Zak Taylor (CDR) also only drove on day two.

GB4 held its own separate test sessions at Oulton on Wednesday. Fortec’s Colin Queen was the quickest of the seven drivers present, lapping 0.541s faster than Fox Motorsport’s Liam McNeilly in the morning before snowfall prevented any improvements in the afternoon.

Test results

*laps recorded with a transponder