AFTER a hectic winter period of competing in a number of different European and Asian race series, Northwich’s Ian Loggie was back at his home circuit of Oulton Park for the first round of the British GT Championship.
Ian remains at 2 Seas Motorsport but this year has a new co-driver in the very fast Phil Keen and they will certainly have a great shot at the title.
The car – the D2 sponsored AMG GT3 Mercedes – retains its stunning colour scheme and is still one of the best-looking cars on the grid.
Friday’s test day gave all the drivers three one-hour sessions throughout the day to try and get the cars dialled in, but the weather wasn't playing its part and certainly provided testing conditions as the track was never fully dry.
As Saturday arrived, so did the weather and with beautiful conditions, the track was perfect.
As on Friday, the teams would have two one-hour free practice sessions but then followed by a combined qualifying.
During the two practice sessions, Loggie and Keen were really showing their pace and for what some might of thought would be a dominant season for the much favoured BMW M4 GT3's, it wasn't the case as it was the Mercedes and Lamborghinis that were fastest.
In qualifying, both drivers had a 15-minute session each to get their times in and both times would give them their grid positions for Monday’s two races.
Although the first session had a fairly lengthy red flag period, the team managed to secure second place on the grid for Monday’s first race and fourth place for the second race.
After two decent days of track time, the Easter weekend weather curse struck for Monday’s race as the rain came and didn't leave till late afternoon.
Race One got underway and Loggie, driving first, maintained his second place from the rolling start behind the Barwell Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of father and son duo Rob and Ricky Collard and behind him was the sister Barwell Lamborghini, who immediately pushed for his spot.
Loggie, though, knowing the Oulton Park Circuit like the back of his hand, wouldn't relent as he maintained the gap.
As the race progressed, Loggie wasn't making any ground on the leader and with conditions still challenging, maybe a change in fortunes during the mandatory pit stops could change things but unfortunately this wasn't to be.
At the stop, the 2 Seas Motorsport Team were rapid, changing tyres and getting Keen in the car, but they were matched by the leaders and stayed second and this wouldn't change till the chequered flag.
Race 2 would see Keen take the first stint and unbelievably, the rain had stopped and the sun was out but the track was still wet.
At the start, Keen made up one place into the first corner but had a rapid McLaren 720S Evo and even quicker Lamborghini, this time the other Barwell car.
As the race started to settle down, the track started to dry so it was decision time as the pit stops neared, but the race was twice interrupted by full course yellow sessions, which really neutralised the race with cars not being able to bunch up like in a normal safety car situation.
When the pit stops did arrive, in jumped Loggie and on went slicks and an exciting end to the race loomed, but then an incident with one car impacting the barriers meant that out would come the full course yellow again and unfortunately due to the time it took to car out the repairs there would be no more racing as time for the hour-long race ran out.
Still, it was another podium for the team under disappointing circumstances.
That being said, the Mercedes was great in both wet and dry conditions so the team can head to Silverstone at the end of the month full of confidence.
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