Turning up the heat on winning bank holiday weekend

Darren Turner returned to winning ways in spectacular style in the British GT Championship [BGT] last weekend, following a brilliant performance for the Grange Racing by FSR team that culminated in a thrilling overall GT4 class win at Oulton Park. 

The British multiple sportscar champion, who is returning to BGT after recording back-to-back class titles in 2021 and ’22 and whose record at the Cheshire track has always been outstanding, helped his team and teammate Dan Lavery to a maiden podium and victory. 

It was only their second meeting as a team in the UK’s premier endurance racing series. 

“This is only Round 2 & 3 and we’ve already been on the podium twice and one of those times on the top step!” said Turner, who celebrated his fifth British GT class victory in the second of the two hour-long double-header races. “It’s an amazing start for us as a team, and you couldn’t really ask for more!”

In blazing sunshine, that bordered on the oppressive in the cockpit throughout the glorious Bank Holiday Monday, the omens certainly looked positive all day. 

Even when a technical glitch prevented Lavery from taking his fifth place on the GT4 grid (second in the GT4 Pro-Am class) for the opening race, his barnstorming charge back from the pitlane suggested things might be going Grange Racing’s way. 

“Dan drove brilliantly in his opening stint,” explained Turner. “He stayed calm, put in some exceptional laps and overtook several cars to prove he has the talent and composure to belong at this level. I couldn’t have been prouder of him.” 

From stone last out of the pits, Lavery raced up through the field to second place in the GT4 Pro-Am division and fourth overall in GT4 before pitting to hand over to Turner on lap 18.

Turner’s stint was interrupted by a Safety Car period for much of the time that he was in the car. But when the race did go back to green, while the two-time British GT4 Pro-Am champion set the fastest lap of any Aston Martin Vantage GT4 driver, he could do nothing to catch the faster Ginetta that ultimately finished first in the Pro-Am class. 

“We’ve still got some aspects of the car that we need to get on top of, but we’re a new team, with a new car and we’re learning all the time,” said Turner. “Once we figure out how to unlock those aspects of the car, like maintaining pace in traffic, I think we can be a very strong force to reckon with.

” Having secured his 17^th visit to the podium in British GT in the opening race with second place in GT4 Pro-Am (fourth overall in class), Turner and Lavery delivered a performance of a whole other magnitude in the second race. 

Turner took the start this time and ran fourth throughout his stint. Try as he might, he simply couldn’t get past the rival Ginetta directly in front of him, not that he ever stopped pressing throughout his 35-minute stint. And he needed to push on as he resisted considerable pressure from four-time British Touring Car Champion Colin Turkington behind him in fifth.

Handing over to Lavery on lap 21, the team put together a strong pitstop to push the Vantage into the lead of Pro-Am and second in GT4. That became the lead of the class overall when the front-running Ginetta retired with 10 minutes left to go. 

Lavery, within sight of his first British GT win, came under late pressure from Aston Martin Formula 1 driver ambassador Jessica Hawkins. Into the final lap and the pair were nose-to-tail, and when the Grange Racing car kicked up dust on the exit of Knickerbrook it looked as though Hawkins had the advantage. Then she too put a wheel on the dirt, and in the end, less than half a second separated the two Aston Martin Vantages as they raced across the line. 

“I thought Dan had it under control until that last run through Knickerbrook,” said Turner. “He went a bit wide there on the grass and I thought ‘oh no, he’s lost that momentum’, but he kept it together! 

“I’m just so happy for Dan, the team and everyone at Grange Racing. It’s a great result. Dan drove two exceptional stints, so I am super-super happy.”

“I’ve been racing in Aston Martins for 21 years now. It’s amazing to have been a part of the brand for that many years and to still be winning in these cars, whether its GT3s or GT4s, is just fabulous. Now we are on a new adventure with Grange Racing with FSR this year, and we’ve already set such a high bar. I’m excited to see what we can achieve as the season progresses. What a lovely weekend!” 

The results mean that Turner and Lavery top the GT4 Pro-Am standings and sit fourth in the GT4 overall points table. 

The win marked Turner’s fifth overall GT4 victory and his 11th in the Pro-Am class. The second race podium visit was also his 18th in the series, and his fifth at Oulton Park, where he has recorded an overall GT4 class win in each of his three visits to the double-header race weekend. He also finished second on his British GT Championship debut there in 2018, while racing Beechdean AMR’s Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3. 

Turner’s next race outing comes at Spa-Francorchamps, in Round 4 of the British GT Championship, on 20/21 June.