Why British GT has now solved its Oulton Park dilemma

If there is one word that describes the sporting year thus far, it’s ‘iconoclasm’. The idea of ‘breaking image’, going against tradition and embracing what’s new; something that’s occurring in abundance in 2025.

Everton Football Club, for example, left Goodison Park, its home of 133 years, for a modern stadium across the city of Liverpool; line judges will be no more at Wimbledon this summer; the FIFA Club World Cup will debut a new format.

It’s a year of change. And the same applies to British GT, with the series’ campaign not starting at Oulton Park for only the third time since 2006, Donington Park receiving the honour of hosting the opening race meeting in April.

This came after a contentious Easter weekend last year, when constant rain presented drivers with the ultimate challenge of negotiating the very unforgiving Oulton layout unscathed. It came as no surprise that this proved tricky for many, and various incidents led to just 23 minutes of green-flag running in that weekend’s second one-hour race. It’s almost generous to even call it a ‘race’, with more wheel-to-wheel action undertaken by your local boy racers down the high street on a Sunday afternoon.

Something needed to be done. British GT therefore pushed its Oulton visit to the final May Bank Holiday weekend, round three of the season, in the hope of better weather with drivers – particularly rookies – tackling the circuit better acquainted with their machinery.

And the overriding feeling leaving Cheshire was that the move was a very successful one. “At the start of the year everybody’s still a little bit rusty, everybody’s super-keen to get out and show themselves,” says reigning champion Rob Collard. “It’s proved, the two times I’ve done British GT in the past at Oulton Park [2020 and 2024], there’s been safety cars. Predominantly, the race has always been wet.

“To be quick at Oulton Park, you’ve really got to put it out there and the margin of error is so narrow. I just think sometimes certain drivers drive above their limit and here really shows, if you do that, you get caught out and Oulton Park is not forgiving.”

Poor weather has disrupted the Oulton Park round in recent years, so it was moved closer to summer in 2025

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Collard speaks for all drivers when he talks of Oulton being unforgiving. It’s arguably the hardest track in Britain, with its very tight and twisty layout, meaning just one small error could put a car in the wall. It therefore doesn’t do much for the spectacle if drivers are thrown straight into the deep end in Cheshire. “You need some confidence and some races to be really quick,” says Maximilian Gotz of the track he likes to call the ‘Mini Nurburgring’.

Some drivers need to ease their way into the season; starting with Donington and Silverstone in 2025 was perfect for that. A dry Donington contest meant there were few interruptions while Silverstone… well, the Silverstone 500 was still as hectic as ever.

Nevertheless, it meant teams arrived at Oulton with at least some data to go off, which is especially important for rookies placing trust in their car. “I’m glad you’ve asked that,” responds rookie Luke Garlick after finishing third in race two at Oulton, having scored just 1.5 points until then. “We’ve come to Oulton Park with some data to drive the car, rather than just come in first round and be blind. I think it helps at this track, just having some confidence in myself and the car. I think that’s a massive reason why we’ve done so well this weekend.”

“We’ve come to Oulton Park with some data to drive the car, rather than just come in first round and be blind. I think it helps at this track, just having some confidence in myself and the car" Luke Garlick

The improvement compared to last year was stark. The event being held closer to summer led to better conditions and a dry opening race can be attributed to there not being multiple disruptions. Obviously, it’s still Oulton Park and its location in the northern countryside surrounded by hills means rain is always a possibility. Sure enough, race two was held in mixed conditions, but drivers were better prepared to deal with that, leading to around double the amount of green-flag running compared to last year.

“It was a welcome change on the calendar,” agrees Optimum Motorsport boss Shaun Goff. “It’s quite daunting and it’s not very forgiving, this place, so I’ll be in favour of keeping this round as round three, or later in the year.”

That is a popular opinion throughout the paddock. Marc Warren, one of Goff’s GT4 drivers, thinks “the organisers have done a really good job”, while 2020 overall champion Sandy Mitchell reckons “they’ll keep it going forward”. Considering the success of this year’s Oulton weekend, the championship must. The track has found its perfect spot on the calendar and any reversion would be a disaster.

Sometimes what’s new isn’t always better, but on this occasion it is. Now let’s stop the talk of dropping Oulton from the calendar altogether, because what a beautiful circuit it is…

This article is one of many in the upcoming monthly issue of Autosport magazine, due for release on Thursday 5 June 2025 - subscribe today

Where does Oulton Park now sit within the British GT calendar moving forward?

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images