A lights to flag victory for Optimum Motorsport at British GT's season opener

Start as they mean to go on as they say, and reigning GT4 champion Jack Brown and new co-driver Marc Warren did exactly that at last weekend’s season opener at Donington Park by claiming the top spot on the podium after a lights to flag victory at the two-hour enduro.

In an unusually dry British GT weekend, Optimum’s quartet of McLarens looked strong in Thursday’s testing, with Kirchhöfer setting the pace in the #77 GT3 EVO in the first official practice of the year come Friday morning.

Qualifying rounded up Saturday’s action, and a provisional result saw the Wakefield-based outfit’s duo of Artura GT4’s split by just 0.001s - the closest-ever margin in any combined qualifying in the series’ history. A post-qualifying review later saw the pole winning Louts Emira disqualified, promoting Jack and Marc to pole, with the #17 Artura of Harry George and Luca Hopkinson next to them on the gird in second. An Optimum front row lock out.

Tillbrook sat on the second row in fourth for the start of the race, with the sister #3 GT3 further back in P11 when lights went out Sunday afternoon. A fairly uneventful race followed for Optimum’s GT3s, although the same can’t be said for the other side of the garage with the GT4s.

It was a near perfect lights to flag victory for Jack Brown and Marc Warren, the only threat came from the #84 Lotus - that had previously been disqualified from the previous days qualifying, when Neate passed Marc before the pit window opened.

In true Jack Brown style, once he had the lead, it was his until the chequered flag seeing Brown celebrate his ninth win, whilst Marc Warren claimed his first! Both Optimum’s GT3s finished inside the top-10, looking to claim their first taste of champagne at Silverstone.

#17 made it one lap before pitting and retiring from the race with gearbox issues. Although leaving the opening round scoring no points, Harry and Luca head to the blue-riband event with no additional compensation time to be served in their final stop, unlike the sister #90 GT4 which will carry the most at 20 seconds following their success.

British GT resumes in just over two weeks’ time at the Home of British Motorsport, the Silverstone 500 on April 26 - 27.