Rodin’s Louis Sharp wins on GB3 debut

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Rodin Motorsport’s Louis Sharp took a lights-to-flag win on his GB3 debut in the opening race of the season at Oulton Park.

Sharp led away from pole, but he was challenged around the outside at Old Hall bend by fellow front-row starter John Bennett, who eventually conceded before Cascades.

Hitech GP’s Gerrard Xie moved ahead of Rodin’s Ugo Ugochuwku into third but ran wide at Cascades which allowed the American to reclaim the place, with Xie holding on to fourth from Elite Motorsport’s McKenzy Cresswell despite running wide again at the next turn.

At the rear of the field Hillspeed’s Aditya Kulkarni retired in the Shell Oils gravel trap with front-right suspension damage following a collision with VRD by Arden’s James Hedley, who was forced to pit at the end of the lap to change his front wing.

The safety car was deployed to retrieve Kulkarni’s car, with racing resuming on lap five. Sharp immediately pulled out a 0.7-second advantage and continued to break away by 0.2s per lap. He eventually took the chequered flag 1.433s clear of JHR Development’s Bennett in a contest that was reduced from 14 to 11 laps due to the race’s time limit expiring.

Ugochukwu came home a further two seconds adrift in third to make the podium on his debut, with Xie, Cresswell and Hitech’s Tymek Kucharczyk close behind.

Arthur Rogeon was a lonely seventh for Rodin, while Fortec’s Colin Queen made an opening-corner pass around the outside of Hitech’s Will Macintyre and Elite Motorsport’s Jarrod Waberski and then remained ahead of the pair to finish eighth.

Race result (11 laps)