JHR Developments Joseph Loake led every lap in the first race of the year to claim a victory on his GB3 debut.
The British driver started from pole, made a perfect start and then pulled out a small advantage over teammate Matthew Rees, setting a new outright lap record for the Oulton Park circuit in the process.
A late safety car to recover the spun car of Souta Arao halted his charge, but he made a good restart, only for the race to be red flagged following an incident at Lodge corner moments before the restart.
Loake therefore claimed victory under red flag, 0.986s clear of Rees with Callum Voisin taking third for Rodin Carlin.
James Hedley delivered a punchy drive for Arden VRD, having fought closely with Arao early on and took fourth ahead of Douglas Motorsport’s Tymek Kucharczyk, while Alex Dunne salvaged sixth despite losing his front wing early on.
Max Esterson was seventh for Fortec ahead of JHR’s David Morales, while Esterson’s teammate Jarrod Waberski took ninth after pulling off some strong overtaking moves.
Hitech GP’s Michael Shin completed the race one top-10.
Macclesfield ace Loake controlled the race from start to finish, initially holding a half second margin early on over his teammate, before setting a string of fastest laps, including a 1m28.619s effort late on that clinched the outright lap record, 0.049s faster than Lucas Foresti’s benchmark from 2011.
Holding a two second lead before the safety car was deployed Loake then aced the restart and led for the rest of the encounter, to claim an emotional victory on his GB3 debut.
He now has a chance to take a double win, starting from pole position again on Monday morning.
GB3 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Oulton Park provisional race one result:
1. Joseph Loake, JHR Developments, 11 Laps
2. Matthew Rees, JHR Developments, +0.473
3. Callum Voisin, Rodin Carlin, +0.619
4. James Hedley, Arden VRD, +0.949
5. Tymek Kucharczyk, Douglas Motorsport, +1.436
6. Alex Dunne, Hitech Pulse-Eight, +2.818
7. Max Esterson, Fortec Motorsport, +2.902
8. David Morales, JHR Developments, +2.993
9. Jarrod Waberski, Fortec Motorsport, +3.161
10. Michael Shin, Hitech Pulse-Eight, +3.426
11. Nico Christodoulou, Arden VRD, +3.841
12. Noah Ping, Arden VRD, +5.526
13. Ayato Iwasaki, Elite Motorsport, +6.205
14. Oliver Stewart, Elite Motorsport, +6.710
15. Zak Taylor, Chris Dittmann Racing, +7.286
16. Edward Pearson, Fortec Motorsport, +7.880
17. Shawn Rashid, Douglas Motorsport, +10.485
18. Arthur Rogeon, Chris Dittmann Racing, +12.596
19. John Bennett, Rodin Carlin, +51.345
20. Lucas Staico, Douglas Motorsport, +1 lap
DNF. McKenzy Cresswell, Elite Motorsport, 10 laps completed
DNF. Gerrard Xie, Hillspeed, 10 laps completed
DNF. Costa Toparis, Rodin Carlin, 10 laps completed
DNF. Souta Arao, Hitech Pulse-Eight, DNF
DNF. Daniel Mavlyutov, Hillspeed, DNF