Harry Gamble from Epperstone has a superb Bank Holiday weekend at Oulton Park in the Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT Championship
Epperstone race ace Harry Gamble encountered another phenomenal Bank Holiday weekend at Oulton Park in the Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT Championship.
Gamble's pace in the last two rounds at Donington and Silverstone were matched at the Cheshire circuit with excellent performance that saw the Hooch and NCV Sales sponsored Elite Motorsport team driver take two podiums over the weekend.
He took Pro Am Category honours in both races that saw him finish second in race one and take top spot in race two, writes Paul Horton.
Thursday and Fridays five tests saw Gamble stay in the top five in all the sessions and taking around 10 fastest laps during the two days of the 2.69-mile Cheshire tarmac, topping more than 100mph.
Qualifying on Saturday saw Harry rapid from the word 'go'.
During the 20-minute test he was topping speeds of around 120mph on parts of the circuit to take seventh place but only 0.613 seconds off the leading driver, just showing how such a close championship this is turning out to be.
Saturday’s race one later in the day saw the lights go out and, from seventh on the grid, Gamble was in fifth place before the end of lap one, only hampered by the safety car coming out, before racing commenced again by lap three.
Two laps later Gamble bounced back into action and into third.
On the final lap (lap 10), he put the pressure on Jack Collins and in a spectacular pass he was in second place overall and top spot in Pro Am to take the chequered flag. He took five fastest laps of the circuit as well.
Monday’s second race of the weekend saw a wet start with lots of water on the circuit.
Gamble started on the third row in sixth spot in the new format second race of the weekend that would see a mandatory pit stop for all the drivers in a longer race.
Gamble was like lightning off the line and straight into fourth and a lap later into third.
By lap five, Gamble had laid the rubber on the tarmac and was into second spot with another 13 laps to go and a pit stop to add into the mix.
A lap later, there was no stopping him straight into commanding the race and leaving the pack behind.
On lap nine, the safety car was deployed, taking advantage of this the pit stop window opened and Gamble pitted the Ginetta G56 GTP8 car.
He was flying after 20 minutes of bumper-to-bumper action, out of the pits in fourth spot hoping to take advantage of the other cars starting to pit and racing starting as the safety cars lights went out on lap 12.
Shortly afterwards Gamble was in command again, keeping the momentum going he remained in front to take the flag and a massive 6.3 second gap between him and second place Archie Clark. He took three fastest laps during the race as well
Harry said: "What an amazing weekend, a double Pro-Am victory as well as a second and first overall leading the pack in tricky conditions. I
"I can't thank the Elite Motorsport team enough for an awesome job setting the car up in both dry and wet conditions and a big thank you to my sponsors for being there for me."
