Blake Angliss produced encouraging pace through a solid debut in the British GT Championship at Oulton Park this past weekend (30 March-01 April).
Angliss made the trip to Cheshire for the traditional Easter weekend season opener in high spirits as he prepared to make his maiden appearance in one of the world’s leading domestic GT championships with established team Paddock Motorsport.
Sharing a McLaren Artura GT4 with fellow young talent Alex Walker, the Coventry-based racer followed up a productive pre-season test at Oulton Park last month with another day of crucial running at the circuit on Friday.
Starting to feel at home in the Artura, Angliss made further steps forward through free practice the next day ahead of qualifying. He and Walker would tackle a ten-minute session each, setting the grid positions for the two one-hour races on Monday
Angliss was out first and whilst he unfortunately missed out on maximising the peak of the tyres in his run, a strong lap put him ninth on the timesheets in his session. Walker followed and put in a competitive showing too, finishing 11th in the GT4 ranks.
Utilising the day off from track action on Sunday to look through the data and see where improvements could be made for race day, he returned eager to get his debut races underway. There was to be an added challenge though, as heavy rain fell in Cheshire.
Starting behind the wheel for the opening encounter, Angliss quickly got to grips with the challenging conditions and settled into a good rhythm in the Artura. Enjoying some close wheel-to-wheel racing in the competitive GT4 class, he maintained a top ten berth heading into the mid-race pitstop.
Walker continued their challenge in the closing stages and brought the McLaren home ninth overall in GT4 and fifth in the class dedicated for Silver-ranked driver pairings. With some good points banked from the opener, they hoped for another strong showing in race two later in the day.
Walker kicked off proceedings in that one and battled around the bottom of the top ten throughout his stint. With the track drying throughout, a fresh set of slicks was bolted onto the McLaren in the pitstop as Angliss took over control.
Unfortunately, he never got to enjoy the best conditions of the day though, as a number of incidents led to a full course yellow period covering the final 25 minutes of the race. A frustrated Angliss eventually took the chequered flag with a second consecutive top five Silver class finish.
Blake Angliss: “Overall it’s been a decent, if unspectacular, weekend to start my time in the British GT Championship. The key aim was to gain as much knowledge and experience from this weekend as possible, and its mission accomplished in that respect with good running in wet and dry conditions.
“We’d have liked to have been challenging a little higher up the order, but that will come with time. It’s good to start with a couple of strong finishes and whilst many hit trouble, we had a drama-free run. We have a good platform to build on next time at Silverstone.”
The 2024 British GT Championship continues later this month (27-28 April) with the prestigious Silverstone 500 race; a three-hour spectacle on the world-famous Grand Prix circuit.
Angliss has some great commercial opportunities available for prospective partners to join him for his British GT campaign this year. Interested parties can get in touch with him via email, blake@anglissmotorsport.com.
Image from British GT / Jakob Ebrey Photography.