The 2024 British GT Championship season got off to a winning start for Garage 59 today when the drivers of the #59 Duckhams-liveried McLaren 720S GT3 Evo took maximum points by taking class pole position and class victory in each of the two, one-hour races at a wet Oulton Park. These results mean that Shaun Balfe and Adam Smalley head into the next round at Silverstone leading the Silver-Am Championship.
The sister #77 McLaren of Morgan Tillbrook and Marcus Clutton finished Race 1 in a creditable seventh place overall, which was sixth in the Pro-Am class. Unfortunately, they were forced to retire from Race 2 when the car overheated under the Safety Car. The team will investigate the cause of this once back at base.
SHAUN BALFE
“It’s the perfect start to have two pole positions and two wins. If you look at Race 2, we finished fourth overall and just look at the quality of the field. We have no penalty to carry through to Silverstone, or as Adam (Smalley) calls it, “the big one” so I think we’re in a good place.”
ADAM SMALLEY
“That was a weekend to remember and I want to say a massive thank you to the team. I messed up on Friday by going off but hopefully I’ve redeemed myself for that one! This weekend was all about finding my feet in the championship so to come away with two trophies and narrowly missing out on the overall podium gives us real momentum going into Silverstone.”