This Easter weekend saw Oulton Park in Cheshire play host to a massive weekend of racing with the British F3 and the opening weekend of the British GT. This was the GT racers first chance to score points towards the Sunoco Daytona Challenge and of course it has meant all change to the standings. However no one could beat Felipe Nasr who amazingly at the weekend managed to increase his average point score to 108.75.

Qualifying saw it really come down to the wire with Foresti qualifying on pole for race 1 and Nasr claiming pole for race 3 – both of which scored 20 points towards the Sunoco Daytona Challenge.

The first race saw Foresti lead all the way from pole to the chequered flag and broke the circuit lap record which has been held by Nick Tandy for the last 2 years.

Foresti nailed it right from the start of the race pulling 2.2s clear of his pursuers on the opening lap. Menasheh Idafar was initially in second place after making an excellent getaway from third on the grid to overhaul Nasr away from the line. He ran strongly in second all the way to the eighth lap and was on course for 75 points towards the challenge when he un-expectantly went off at Old Hall. As a result Foresti found his lead doubled from 4s to 8.4s.

Now in second place was Nasr however he could not catch Foresti who was increasing his lead over Felipe lap after lap. He eventually cleared the chequered flag 18.4s ahead of Nasr claiming first place with 100 points towards the Challenge.

Jazeman Jaafar took third place: Carlin driver Carlos Huertas finished fourth gaining 40 points towards the challenge, Pietro Fantin fifth gaining 30 points; Harry Tincknell sixth with 25 points, Riki Christodoulou seventh with 20 points, eighth saw Kevin Magnussen scoring 15 points, Scott Pye came in ninth with 10 points; and tenth place and five points went to Rupert Svendson-Cook.

The last race of the day saw Nasr back to race winning. He claimed his third win of the season leaving him comfortably clear in the championship stakes and still on top in the overall Sunoco Daytona Challenge standings after scoring another 100 points for a race win and 20 for pole position.

Foresti however still put up a good fight but could not catch Nasr who ended up crossing the finish line 3.4s clear of Lucas. Foresti was still very pleased with his drive and had every right to be after finishing a massive 20s ahead of third place finisher Menasheh Idafar.

Rupert Svendson-Cook put in a good performance and finished fourth scoring him 40 points towards the challenge. William Buller finished fifth, followed by Jazeman Jaafar, Harry Tincknell, Scott Pye, Pietro Fantin and Carlos Huertas.

Foresti’s impressive driving and two podium finishes saw him awarded the Sunoco Driver of The Weekend prize.

The weekend also saw the opening round of the British GT and registered racers first chance to score points towards the challenge.

The massive grid played host to an array of super cars including Ferrari 458’s, Porsche 911 G3RS, Audi R8 LMS and Aston Martins. For the Sunoco Daytona Challenge we combine the two 15 minute qualifying sessions into one and are looking for the two fastest laps. As Richard Westbrook is not eligible, due to already racing a Daytona Prototype, no pole points for the fastest lap in qualifying were awarded. However Allan Simonsen placed the second fastest lap and therefore scored 20 pole position points towards the challenge. In GT4 pole points went to Marcus Clutton in his KTM X Bow and to David Mcdonald in the Ginetta G50.

Round 1 saw the pole sitting Scuderia Vittoria Ferrari 458 of Michael Lyons lead ahead of David Ashburns Porche 997 GT3 R as the top two were able to break away from the chasing pack who were headed by the Preci-Spark Mercedes of David Jones. Lyons pulled a lead of over 6s over Ashburn before the two drivers pitted for the mandatory driver change – where the grid all changed.

Having climbed into the Ferrari Charles Bateman stalled three times as he tried to pull away from the pitbox which allowed Westbrook to rejoin in the lead whilst Bateman dropped back to sixth place.

Westbrooks closest challenger was Matt Bell in the United Autosports Audi R8 after he had taken over from Michael Guasch. A series of quick laps saw Westbrook hold a lead of just under seven seconds before Bell responded with a series of quick laps of his own, with the Audi seemingly getting stronger as the race wore on.

Despite Bell’s best efforts the Trackspeed Porche went on to win the first round and give David Ashburn 100 points towards the Sunoco Daytona Challenge with Bell and Guasch gaining 75 for second place. Third place points went to the Beechdean duo of Andrew Howard and Jonathan Adam, fourth place and 40 points to Rosso Verde drivers Hector Lester and Allan Simonsen and fifth place and 30 points to Preci Sparks Jones and Jones. In GT4 Scuderia Vittoria went on to take the win.

The second round of the afternoon was quickly re-started under a safety car period to allow marshals’ to retrieve the GT4 KTM X BOW of Marcus Clutton from the outside of the circuit at Old Hall after an incident at the start.

On the restart Westbrook set about building a lead breaking the lap record in the process. However before being able to build up significant advantage the safety car was back out after the Ginettas of David Mcdonald and Stefan Hodgetts clashed at Druids bend.

On the following lap the majority of the field pitted with Lyons in the Scuderia Vittoria Ferrari 458 emerging near the head of the field. The United Autosports Audi driven by Guasch and Bell took a gamble on not pitting at the first opportunity when the second safety car was deployed which saw the #23 car dropping from third place to outside the top 10.

However Michael Guasch stormed his way through the field with a series of quick laps and he took the chequered flag in third place with 55 points towards the challenge and a performance earning him the Sunoco Driver of the Weekend award. Finishing in first place was the Scuderia Vitoria Ferrari 458 closely followed by the Preci Spark Mercedes AMG SLS GT3 in third place and 55 points.

The next point scoring round will be the Britcar MSA British Endurance Championship at Donington on the 6th/7th and 8th of May.

Current Standings:

Standings/Driver Name/ Team/ Series/ Average Points Per Round1 Felipe Nasr Carlin F3 108.752 Javier Morcilo Azteca Britcar Class 1 & 2      105.00 3 Keith Robinson MJC Britcar Class 1 & 2         87.50 4 Jay Shepherd Hawthorns Britcar class 3 82.755 Lucas Foresti Fortec Motorsport F3 806 David Ashburn Trackspeed British GT3         70.00 7 Matt Bell United Autosports British GT3         65.00 8 Michael Guasch United Autosports British GT3         65.00 9 Manuel Cintrano Azteca Britcar Class 1 & 2         65.00 10 Jan Persson Hawthorns Britcar class 3 63.75