On a lush bank holiday Monday Rob Collard and Hugo Cook dominated the first of two British GT races in their #63 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini after surviving a last-lap challenge from Ross Gunn’s #7 Beachdean AMR Aston Martin Vantage to take overall honours.

The two cars had run 1-2 all throughout the hour, with Rob Collard launching it round the outside of Andrew Howard through Old Hall corner on the opening lap, and never looked back from thereon in despite a late safety car that destroyed the gap he and Cook had built up.

Optimum Motorsport had an eventuful race to say the least, with an overall podium and Silver-Am class win secured by the #90 crew of Jack Brown and Marc Warren as further back the sister #77 car survived both a spin in the first corner and contact with the #13 Rodin Motorsport Ferrari at Druids. Thanks to an audacious overcut strategy and a touch of Ben Barnicoat’s skill late on they climbed back to finish where they qualified, in eighth place overall.

In GT4 compensation time proved a key aid to the winning efforts of Century Motorsport. Their #24 BMW M4 GT4 Evo of Jack Collins and Branden Templeton took the class victory after Hadley Simpson’s 28 second time compensation in the pit stop dropped them to third having led comfortably in the first 30 minutes, and from there they’d fail to make further progress. Jess Hawkins and Will Orton took the runner-up spot in class with their MK Racing #21 machine.

At the start a great launch from 2 time series champion Rob Collard’s #63 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini swooped round the outside of pole-sitter Andrew Howard’s #7 Beechdean AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, while behind the #77 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720s GT3 Evo of Morgan Tillbrook spun after contact the Paddock Motorsport’s #9 McLaren of Mark Smith. By the end of the first lap Collard had already gained a second’s cushion over the field and set an early fastest lap as Marc Warren held third in his #90 Optimum McLaren.

Tillbrook soon climbed back up the order, taking 8 seconds out of the rear of the field over the next three laps and eventually passed Ian Loggie’s #2 Seas Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo before an botched move on Cameron Campbell’s #13 Rodin Motorsport Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo led to the Australian driver spinning round at Druids and subsequently falling off the lead lap.

Heading into the pit stops Collard led Howard’s Aston Martin by 5 seconds, and was the first of the GT3 runners to pit alongside the majority of the field, with Tillbrook looking to gain time as the sole runner attempting an overcut by staying out 5 laps longer and emerging in tenth having handed the car over to Ben Barnicoat.

The #9 Paddock Motorsport of Martin Plowman moved up to fourth on the road owing to compensation times for other cars, the biggest loser being the #44 BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Century Motorsport, with Charles Clark being installed to make up the lost time.

Meanwhile with 25 minutes to go drama hit, as an oil spill at Druids caught out the #67 Optimum McLaren of Marcus Clutton, the culprit being contact between the GT4 cars of Toro Verde’s Ginetta and the #59 Mahiki Racing GT4-class McLaren of Josh Stanton which dropped coolant liquid on the racing surface, with the latter suffering enough damage to forcibly end their race.

That Full Course Yellow was upgraded to a full Safety Car with 18 minutes to go, with the order being the #63 Barwell Lamborghini of Hugo Cook, ahead of Ross Gunn’s Beachdean AMR Aston Martin with Optimum Motorsport’s #90 of Jack Brown, who also led the Silver-Am subclass.

On the restart it was Cook’s Lamborghini that pulled away from Gunn’s Aston Martin with Clutton running between them in the #67, albiet a lap down and running twelfth, and eventually despite Gunn having a go into Druids on the final lap Cook held on to secure the team’s first win of 2026 by just two tenths of a second.

In GT4, Hadley Simpson led the field away in the #74 Innovation Racing Ginetta G56 GT4 Evo held onto his lead through the opening stages ahead of MK Racing’s #21 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo of Jess Hawkins who soon fell into the clutches of Century Motorsport’s #24 BMW M4 GT4 Evo of Jack Collins, the two contesting second on the road until the pit window.

Further back the #40 Townsend Racing of James Townsend pitted early to remove some grass that had got lodged in the air intake, but would have to pit again for the mandatory change and wound up two laps down and dead last in class come race end owing to

The Full Course Yellow couldn’t prevent Simpson’s #74 Ginetta from losing the lead, as once the GT4 class had all pitted under the neutralised conditions it was the Branden Templeton #24 that led the class ahead of Will Orton’s #21 Aston Martin. Promoted to third was the remaining Mahiki machine, the #84 McLaren of Luca Hopkinson. The #42 of Jack Mitchell led the GT4 Pro-Am subclass from fifth.

The Full Course Yellow as upgraded to a safety car with 18 minutes remaining and when the race went back to green Templeton immediately was on the defensive from Orton, while Tom Holland climbed his #74 to third in spite of the substantial time compensation and joined the top two in battling for the lead, but Templeton showed great defensive prowess in holding off both compeititors behind in the closing stages.

The second race of the day will commence at 4pm local time.

image credit: BrokenGearbox, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons