An excellent fight back from Ollie Chadwick allowed the Protyre Ginetta GT5 Challenge championship leader to retake the lead and win the opening round of the weekend at Oulton Park.
The start proved to be strong for the Hadfields as Jonathan took the lead, with Chadwick bogging down before the first turn. Meanwhile, Ryan Hadfield worked his way up to third, but was soon under pressure as he struggled to keep up with the leaders.
Soon a queue formed behind R Hadfield as he found himself under pressure. He only made it worse for himself as he ran wide, just holding onto the position.
Back at the front, Chadwick retook the lead, with J Hadfield unable to hold on after two laps. He wasn’t about to drop away though, as the top two broke away from the pack, taking their battle throughout the race.
Chapman, who was now in fourth, got a wheel on the grass losing him time, before quickly catching up with R Hadfield, proving the speed he had over the R&J Motorsport machine.
A strong start from Glen Broster saw him become the top Am driver with one car between him and Ian Robinson. This continued for a number of laps with Broster eventually hanging on to win the Am class by 5 seconds.
Matt Palmer, in fifth, caught up after initially falling back, as Chapman takes third place after diving to the inside of turn one. This allowed Jack Minshaw and Alex Toth-Jones to join in, creating a five car battle for third created the most exciting racing on track.
Back at the front, Chadwick’s extended lead allowed him to take the victory and build his championship lead. Behind him, J Hadfield and Chapman took comfortable podium places as Chapman had broken the tow from R Hadfield.
The battle for fifth saw Minshaw come out on top with Palmer recovering to take sixth ahead of Toth-Jones and Matt Flowers.
