Youngsters ready for new British GT season

The Avon Tyres British GT Championship gets underway this coming Saturday at Oulton Park, in Cheshire, and one of the youngest driver pairings ever seen in the series will be bidding to upset the form book.

Twenty-four-year-old Stuart Hall, recognised as one of the country’s top young track talents, and his 17-year-old team-mate Daniel Brown will crew a Mosler MT900 for the successful Rollcentre Racing team.

In a championship where it’s common to find drivers who can politely be termed experienced, and not unusual to find pairings double the age of the Hall/Brown partnership, the newcomers could be forgiven some trepidation. Not a bit of it.

“We are going to try to be as successful as we can,” says Hall. “I’d like to think that we can win a few races. Then, towards the end of the season, we can see where we are in the championship.

“If you are a quick driver, then you should be quick in anything. I’ve spent the last couple of seasons driving sports prototypes and the Mosler will be a new thing for me, but I’m looking forward to it and I’m not expecting too much trouble with it.”

But then Hall certainly does not lack for experience: he started racing a saloon at 15 and his career has seen him compete at the pinnacle of UK single-seater racing, in Formula 3, and also in major international sports car events; his team finished fourth overall in the 2007 Le Mans 24 Hours. Brown was the champion in the BRSCC’s junior saloon championship in 2007, and also has a season’s experience in Formula Palmer Audi under his belt.

Ranged against the Mosler in the top GT3 class at Oulton Park over Easter are a quartet of Ferrari 430s, two Aston Martins – one in the hands of crack Belgian duo Vincent Vosse and Eddy Renard – as well as a Dodge Viper and an Ascari KZR1.

The first of Oulton’s two one-hour races is scheduled for Saturday afternoon; the second is on Easter Monday. The 14-race championship, which in the past has featured racers such as Ayrton Senna and Jenson Button, features rounds at Donington Park, Silverstone and Brands Hatch, as well as two races at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

Reports from this weekend's races, and all the other races from this season's British GT, will appear here at independent.co.uk.