JHR Developments’ Joseph Loake claimed a double pole position on his GB3 debut weekend at Oulton Park, as he headed a 1-2 in qualifying for the Derbyshire team. Matthew Rees was second fastest, while Rodin Carlin’s Callum Voisin was third. Here’s how each driver reacted afterwards.
Double pole: Joseph Loake, JHR Developments
“It’s been really tricky in pre-season as I’ve got two very quick teammates that are both in their second year, so I’ve been learning as much as I could from them. It’s been going well obviously, the pace is slowly coming, we found an issue with my car that we had in the whole of pre-season so then I turned up on Tuesday with what felt like a completely new car that I had to get used to. I think I’ve gelled with it really well and obviously coming off the back of a good second half in F4 last season its exactly how I wanted to start the season.
“My starts have always been a strong point, so I’m confident and I know I can get off the line quite well in one of these cars. I’ve managed to find a bit of consistency with them as well so the start isn’t something I’m worried about I should be able to get off the line pretty well and keep the lead hopefully.
“Matt is obviously going to try and beat me but we’re teammates so if there’s someone he wants to beat, the first one is going to be me, even if it’s for P10! It’s going to be tricky to beat him because he’s going to go all out and I’ve got to do the same.
Second: Matthew Rees, JHR Developments
“I made a mistake on my best lap and went into the last part of Knickerbrook a bit too hard and didn’t get the exit. It’s cost us quite a lot but we got a decent result in the end with P2 and a P5 so hopefully we can just move forward and race through from there.
“I’m sure Steve [Hunter] is very happy with the result, and I can’t complain. It gives us a bit of security knowing it’s each of us at the front, it’s not like we’re going to do anything stupid. We’re looking quite good and David [Morales] is up there too and performed quite well so I think we’re looking quite good for the weekend.
“I’d be stupid if I wasn’t wishing for P1 in this race but I’ll be happy with a podium and get those points moving on.”
Third: Callum Voisin, Rodin Carlin
“That’s exactly what we were hoping for to be honest. A clean qualifying, a good result, I think just bag some points in the race, it’s quite hard to overtake round here so two podiums and I’ll be very happy. Especially after the two days that we’ve had, we’ve been a bit on the backfoot so to come back and be P3 and P2 in quali, I’m over the moon.
“I think you’ve got to play the long game, get some good points in the bag to start the season and then we’ll ramp it up a bit for Silverstone. In general Oulton Park is a difficult circuit, rough kerbs, lot of bumps, you do get thrown about in the car quite a bit. It’s very easy to make a mistake, I think that will be the main factor in the race, that’s where you’ll have to capitalise on it because that opportunity may never come again. That’ll be the trickiest part, making sure you’re clean throughout the race but I’m looking forward to it.”