Oli Basey-Fisher celebrated his first GT4 Class victory on only his second weekend in the prestigious Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Rockingham on Bank Holiday Monday, 5th May, after a fantastic performance for Academy Motorsport.Reporting a marked improvement in pace compared to the season curtain-raiser, the 18-year-old thoroughly enjoyed his first ever two-hour endurance – concluding the race meeting third in the GT4 championship standings along with team-mate, and Academy principal, Matt Nicoll-Jones.“It’s a bit of a different feeling to Oulton Park this weekend”, said an elated Oli, “The car really was fantastic, 10 times better than it was in the first round even though we are still a little bit down on pace compared to the Aston Martins. We’ve made a big step forward, things are looking good for the championship.”Lining-up fourth in GT4 for the rolling start, Oli took the opening stint and enjoyed the lion’s share of the track time by running for almost 70 minutes. Maintaining fourth place and pressuring the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge of Jake Giddings early on, Oli moved into the top three on lap four and then consolidated his podium placing for several laps.By the 18th tour, Oli started to come under pressure from another of the quicker Astons, piloted by Andrew Jarman, and on the next lap he was edged back to fourth again. Shortly after a Safety Car period was required, the pit window for mandatory driver changes and refuelling opened but Oli remained on track.By the time he pitted on lap 43, following a second Safety Car, the Suffolk youngster was into second place but nobody quite knew if the longer opening stint would pay dividends. It didn’t take long to work out the strategy was spot-on as Nicoll-Jones joined the action in the Century Logistics and DCB (Kent) Ltd-supported Ginetta in third place and moved into second with half an hour to run.Just a few laps later, the GT4 leading Aston Martin of Giddings and Ross Wylie had to make an unscheduled pit-stop which paved the way for Nicoll-Jones to sweep through into first place and ultimately claim a memorable victory over 20 seconds clear.“We made quite a late pit-stop, I think by the time Matt took the car over there was only about a minute of the pit window left so it was pretty tight”, explained Oli, “The strategy was great, though, and Matt did a great job.“The car handled beautifully and I really enjoyed my stint. After looking at the grid at Oulton I really didn’t think we’d be in a position to win just two events into the season – it’s fantastic. Everything fell into place for us this weekend, the guys at Academy Motorsport did an absolutely tremendous job with the car so a big thank you to them and, of course, our sponsors.”Round four of the 2014 Avon Tyres British GT Championship, the sole three-hour race of the season, will be contested on Sunday, 1st June, at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit in Northamptonshire.Provisional 2014 Avon Tyres British GT Championship GT4 Class Standings (after Rd3):3rd Oli Basey-Fisher/Matt Nicoll-Jones, 43.5pts