Balfe Motorsport headed to Oulton Park for rounds 11 and 12 of the GT Cup Championship at the weekend, securing its first endurance race victory and another solid points finish to propel the team, Mike Price and Callum MacLeod to second position in the GTH standings.
The compressed weekend format at the Cheshire circuit saw the teams greeted Saturday morning by heavy rain, meaning that the short practice and qualifying sessions would take place in full wet conditions. Once the team had validated the setup of the #90 McLaren 570S GT3, it was straight into qualifying with Mike behind the wheel.
With 30 cars seeking space and a clear qualifying lap around the 2.69-mile circuit in just 15 minutes, traffic management, as well as a turn of speed, was pivotal in setting the grid for the first race of the day. Mike sacrificed four of his six timed laps to ensure that on his final push, he had the track space to extract the most from himself and the McLaren package. The result was an impressive ninth overall and second in the GTH class.
The team and drivers headed into the 40-minute race confident that they could show great pace, but with the rain having now stopped, possibilities of a drying circuit, plus the extra ten seconds success penalty carried over from Snetterton, made for areas of uncertainty.
The opening lap saw Mike lose two positions in the damp and tricky conditions to drop to fourth in class, 11th on track overall and then found himself in an intense squabble for position behind the #66 Mercedes of Morgan Tillbrook. On lap seven, Mike was able to make the pass for position and over the next five laps, pulled an advantage from those behind ahead of the mandatory pitstop and driver change.
Callum took slick Pirellis and exited the pits fourth in class and with some of his rivals yet to pit and this became soon became the class lead. Despite the ten-second success penalty, excellent work in pit lane by the Balfe Motorsport crew had upset the status quo and given Callum a battling third place. A few short laps later, that became the lead as he maximised his and the car's pace to take the chequered flag, securing their sixth successive podium and the first endurance win of the season.
The second race of the day saw the team subject to a 20-second success penalty this time, and with an early safety car closing up the field ahead of the crucial pitstop, any chance of continuing the podium streak was lost. It was still however a great performance from Mike and Callum to finish in fifth position, securing more valuable points in the championship.
Indeed, with 12 rounds of the GT Cup Championship completed, their 100 per cent finishing rate, seven podiums – including two victories – has helped the pairing to second in the GTH standings with 168 points, now just 32 shy of the series leader heading to Silverstone. |
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MIKE PRICE, #90 McLaren 570S GT4
“Overall, it been an extremely good day in terms of the points haul with the race win and fifth position and its now second in the GTH class. Friday testing was useful to me and with Callum’s coaching, he helped me find a good strong pace, albeit it in dry conditions and Saturday morning was of course wet – very wet. The short practice session we had gave us great confidence in the car and its wet setup. In qualifying, there was still plenty of standing water and it was difficult to find the space required for clear laps and the spray from cars ahead made it tough to manage the track position. Several laps were therefore compromised by slower cars, and it came down to the final lap to put in that qualifying lap that gave us P2 on the grid.
“The opening race proved tricky with the track conditions. It had stopped raining and it was clear that a move to slick tyres would later be required, or the wets would just overheat on the drying circuit. With cars out of position following the wet qualifying, it was difficult to manage the traffic around me; There were lots of incidents and a number of cars took hits but thankfully we managed to bring the car into the pitstop in P3.
“The team did a superb job in the stop, changing to slicks, and that enabled Callum to get back on track in clear air and with the warm slicks on he was able to make progress and to run at the front of the field. It was a fantastic outcome in very difficult conditions.
“The second race was dry and now with 20-seconds penalty we started a little down the field in P6 and it was a frustrating stint as I was caught in slower traffic, which by the time I had cleared, meant I had lost tough to those class cars ahead, but nonetheless I pitted in P5 and after another good stop Callum was out in P7 – a testament to the pit team again with the time penalty – and he showed great pace and worked his way up to P6 and after one of our rivals was disqualified from the event, that elevated us to P5. We now look forward to racing at Silverstone next month.” |
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CALLUM MACLEOD, #90 McLaren 570S GT4 “On balance, to get our first endurance win, with the ten second success penalty, was a testament to what a brilliant job the team did in the pitstop. That enabled me to go out, pick off second and then first place and casually bring the car home. It was a really well-executed race.
“Then in race two, the safety car just before the pitstops, makes it nearly impossible when you have a 20-second success penalty to serve, you just come out in no-mans land… I think we showed good pace and Mike has again driven faultlessly with incredible qualifying to secure P2 in the wet – with no testing in the wet – so many positives to take from the weekend and we now look forward to the next one.”
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