One Mistake at Turn 3 Changes Everything
Oulton Park International has a reputation for punishing mistakes. The layout is relatively narrow, with several tight corners and challenging chicanes, and many expected Round 4 of the REMO British GT3 2026 Championship to be full of incidents...
That is not how the evening played out. The race produced the lowest combined incident points of the season so far, and the field showed good control and restraint throughout. Whether the circuit encouraged extra caution through the tight sections is hard to say, but it was a notably tidy race.
It was still far from uneventful. Ethan Turner led 34 of the 39 laps, only to lose control at Turn 3 with five laps remaining and send his Aston Martin through the gravel. Preben Hagen inherited the lead and held it to the flag, turning a tight championship into an even tighter one.
Practice: Finding the Rhythm
Round 4 ran on Monday 28 September in dry, average conditions, with 20 drivers from 29 registered taking part. The 45-minute practice session was a working one rather than a dramatic one. Drivers used it to understand the conditions, gauge tyre degradation over a long stint, put in some hot laps and find their rhythm with an almost full grid of cars on track.
The timesheet gave a hint of how close the evening would be. Karstein Havdal was quickest with a 1:31.461, with Jon Larssen second on 1:31.502 and Turner third on 1:31.519. Barely a tenth of a second covered the top three.
Qualifying: Turner on Pole
Qualifying was relatively clean, and Turner converted his practice pace into pole position. Brad Pickett lined up second in his Mercedes-AMG, with championship leader Havdal third in his Ferrari 296. Preben's Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO started fourth, with Mikey Storey's McLaren fifth.
Behind them, Ross Young qualified sixth with a 1:31.944 and Larssen seventh with a 1:32.000, just 0.056 seconds apart. Nico Balderrama was twelfth on the grid after a 1:32.628. Two of those three drivers would be among the evening's biggest movers.
Lap One: Havdal Tagged at Turn 3
Havdal's race was in trouble almost before it began. On the opening lap, Storey made an ambitious move into Turn 3 and tagged the Ferrari, dropping Havdal to the back of the field. For a driver arriving at Oulton Park as championship leader, it was a costly start.
The incident was initially deemed no further action in-race. Havdal and other competitors raised concerns about that decision, and clear evidence was provided that had gone unseen during the race. The matter was reviewed extensively by Connor Deasey and Jacob Reid. After careful consideration centring on a key regulation that was provided to drivers during the briefing. The outcome was a 20-second post-race penalty for Storey for causing a collision. It did not change his result. Storey had crossed the line fourth, around 27 seconds ahead of fifth-placed Larssen, so even with the penalty applied he kept his position.
Turner in Control
While Havdal fought his way up from the back, Turner controlled the front. Starting from pole, he led for the vast majority of the race, and with his Aston Martin out in front he looked the driver to beat. Turner and the running P2 of Brad Pickett presented an epic multi lap battle with most of their first stint less than a second between the pair. Pickett lost almost 3 seconds during the pit stop giving Turner a little breathing room with Preben Hagen quickly closing down.
Preben, meanwhile, was the man in the best position to benefit. The Lamborghini had started fourth and stayed in touch with the leaders.
The Turn 3 Moment
With five laps remaining, and around ten minutes of the session still to run, Turner lost control at Turn 3 and ran through the gravel. That handed the lead to Preben Hagan who managed to build a comfortable lap through Turners misfortune. Turner re-joined the track roughly five seconds behind him, a margin that decided the race.
Preben was never headed again, and the gap at the flag was 6.030 seconds.
Turner had led for all but five laps, yet that single moment decided the outcome.
Preben also set the fastest lap of the race, a 1:31.638, which earned him the extra bonus championship point. That lap was a little slower than the 1:31.461 Havdal set in practice, but it was the quickest of the race itself. Pickett took third, finishing 1.8 seconds behind Turner. In all, the podium covered roughly 7.8 seconds from the winner to third place.
Charlie Okane's Fine Defence, Undone Late On
One of the best stories of the race belonged to Charlie O'kane. He got a great start and moved from eighth on the grid up to fifth. From there he ran a fantastic defence against championship contender Ross Young, holding the McLaren behind him under sustained pressure.
It ended cruelly. With only two laps to go, O'kane hit a tyre barrier and suffered damage, losing four places before the flag. He finished ninth, while Young came home sixth.
Ross Young's Close Call
Young had his own scare earlier in the race. He dipped a wheel onto the grass and the car became incredibly loose, missing the tyre barriers on both entry and exit at the first chicane by a few millimetres. Had the contact come, his evening could have looked very different. It was a clear reminder of how much respect this circuit demands.
Havdal's Recovery: Driver of the Day
From the back of the field after the Turn 3 contact, Karstein Havdal fought his way through the pack to finish seventh. The recovery earned him Driver of the Day. His finishing position alone was worth 21 points, and the award lifted his Round 4 total to 22.
Havdal entered Oulton Park as championship leader and could have lost far more ground after lap one. He leaves just three points behind the new leader, in a fight that remains wide open as he shares 115 points with Ethan Turner
Drivers on the Move
Havdal was not the only driver to gain places. Larssen climbed from seventh on the grid to fifth, while Balderrama went from twelfth to eighth in his BMW M4 GT3 EVO. Mark Bowskill, Isaac Boys and Simon Quinn all finished in the top 12 to pick up points.
Baird Disqualified After the Flag
Sam Baird's evening ended in disappointment. He took the chequered flag in tenth, but was subsequently disqualified, leaving a points-scoring finish worth nothing.
The cause was his behaviour after crossing the line. Baird sent his car over the grass verge with unknown intentions, but the race behind him was still going on. Three drivers had yet to cross the line, one of them at the next corner where Baird took his car across the circuit.
Three drivers ahead of him were on a parade lap, as directed by race control, to return to the start line for the post-race podium photograph.
Fortunately, Baird made no contact with anyone. Even so, the stewards ruled it a clear violation and a failure of respect for the league and the other drivers, which turned a tenth-place finish into a disqualification and zero points for the round. It was a costly miscalculation.
A Difficult Night for Race n Roam
Three drivers failed to finish, and two of them were the Vess family of Race n Roam. Dom Vess hit a tyre barrier and retired with damage. Dean Wragg was involved in a racing incident that also took out Ben Vess, who tried to avoid the trouble on the start-finish straight but was collected and retired from the race. It was not a great weekend for Race n Roam, with both family drivers out of the points.
Championship: Three Drivers, Three Points
The championship picture has changed significantly. Based on the round-by-round scores, Preben began the night 16 points behind Havdal. A win with the fastest-lap bonus point, combined with Havdal's and Turner's results, has turned that deficit into a lead.
After four rounds the standings at the top read:
Preben Hagen: 118 points
Ethan Turner: 115 points
Karstein Havdal: 115 points
Ross Young: 103 points
The top three are separated by just three points, with Young 12 points behind Havdal and Turner and 15 behind Preben. The season has shown how quickly things can swing. Preben scored 6 points in Round 2, then took 40 in Round 3 and 41 here. Turner scored 40 and 41 in the first two rounds, then nothing in Round 3, before returning with 34 at Oulton Park. Havdal has scored in the 20s and 30s in every round proving that consistency and dominance at the front pays off!
What Comes Next
Only two rounds remain in the six-round championship. Round 5 heads to Silverstone Monday 5th October at 8pm UK time, before the season concludes at Spa-Francorchamps the following Monday.
Oulton Park International did not produce the carnage many expected, but it still delivered drama where it mattered, from a lap-one controversy to a Turn 3 mistake that changed a race. With three drivers split by three points, and Young still within reach, nothing is settled.
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