The opening British GT Championship spherical will transfer from Oulton Park to Donington Park subsequent 12 months in a bid to keep away from the chaos that marred this 12 months’s Easter Monday curtain-raiser.
The Donington occasion, a two-hour race, will happen on 6 April, two weeks forward of Easter, with the Oulton fixture run to the 60-minute double-header format transferring again to 26 Might, the late Spring Financial institution Vacation.
Other than the pandemic-disrupted 2021 season, Oulton has hosted the opening British GT spherical annually since 2017.
Sequence boss Stephane Ratel defined the calendar reshuffle has been pushed by an try and keep away from the unhealthy climate that brought about issues this 12 months and a want to not host the season-opener on what he described as “probably the most difficult circuit on the calendar”.
“Oulton Park was very troublesome this 12 months,” he mentioned. “We had push-back from the groups and, due to our good collaboration with Jonathan Palmer [whose MotorSport Vision operation runs both tracks], we’ll begin with a circuit that will likely be simpler for the primary race.
“In fact, it would rain in Might for Oulton however, if it does, a minimum of it is not going to be the primary race of the season for everybody. The drivers will likely be extra used to their automobiles.”
The shift round within the calendar has been welcomed by the groups. Chris Needell, industrial director of the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini squad that gained each Oulton races this 12 months, mentioned: “Oulton was carnage and the groups wished to keep away from that sooner or later.
#31 Crew Parker Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 : Charles Dawson, Seb Morris
Picture by: JEP / Motorsport Images
“All of us love Oulton and wish to return there, however there was a request from the groups to attempt to discover a answer.
“We talked about perhaps separating out the GT3 and GT4 automobiles, however going again there when the climate needs to be higher and a minimum of a bit hotter, which can assist tyre temperatures, is Positive.”
Tim Mullen, sporting supervisor of Greystone GT, supplied an identical opinion.
“Everybody thinks this can be a Positive transfer,” he defined. “Our suggestions after Oulton this 12 months was that it will make sense to maneuver the race again a bit within the calendar.”
Each of the hour-long races at Oulton in April have been interrupted by prolonged full course yellow digital security automobiles, which have been launched into British GT for the primary time this 12 months.
There have been simply 23 minutes of green-flag operating within the second encounter, which completed beneath warning.
In addition to turning into the opening spherical – which can characteristic a two-hour length somewhat than three hours – Donington can even return to its conventional place because the venue of the season finale after its second occasion and Manufacturers Hatch swapped locations for this 12 months.
The seven-weekend marketing campaign will once more soak up Spa on the week forward of the Spa 24 Hours spherical of the GT World Problem Europe run by Ratel’s eponymous organisation.