GB4: Female drivers star in changeable conditions at Oulton Park

All five female drivers achieved career best finishes in the latest round of the GB4 Championship as they rose to the challenge posed by changeable conditions at Oulton Park. Megan Bruce starred as she narrowly missed out on a podium finish in fourth; Ava Dobson, Holly Miall and Lily Watkins all secured top-10 finishes in race 1, while Caitlyn McDaniel also secured a career best result with a P14, completing three clean races.

Megan Bruce / Photo credits: throughthelensmedia

All five female drivers achieved career best finishes in the latest round of the GB4 Championship as they rose to the challenge posed by changeable conditions at Oulton Park. In the first race of the weekend, the quintet gained a total of 58 positions as their decision to fit the wet weather tyres paid off. 

Megan Bruce starred as the KMR Sport driver narrowly missed out on a podium finish as she finished in fourth, before securing her second top-10 finish of the weekend in a dramatic race three. Ava Dobson, Holly Miall and Lily Watkins all secured top-10 finishes in race one, while Miall finished 11th in race three after a fantastic tyre strategy call. Caitlyn McDaniel also secured a career best result with a 14th place finish in race one as she completed three clean races at a challenging circuit. 

The GB4 Championship has provided close action throughout the field as the drivers adapt to the new Tatuus MSV GB4-025 car. After the first two rounds of the season, Ava Dobson was the highest placed female driver with the American racer sitting in 18th position in the overall championship standings. Dobson secured a top-10 finish in the season opener at Donington Park and has finished inside the top-15 on four separate occasions.

Megan Bruce was her nearest challenger with the KMR Sport driver looking to utilise her past experience of Oulton Park to close in on Dobson. Bruce secured a pair of top-10 finishes at the Cheshire circuit last season, including a best result of seventh and pushing towards the top-10 would be her goal in 2025.

Another driver looking to lean on her experience of the circuit was Holly Miall. Having twice competed at Oulton Park in the Ginetta Junior Championship, the Fox Motorsport driver entered the weekend aiming to improve on her best GB4 Championship result of 17th.

Both Caitlyn McDaniel and Lily Watkins arrived as Oulton Park debutants and therefore they were targeting consistent progress as they got to grips with one of the most demanding circuits on the calendar. With two top-20 finishes each and a 3-3 head-to-head record entering the weekend, McDaniel and Watkins were looking to push each other forward as they resumed their duel. 

All five drivers were keen to begin the weekend on the front foot as testing began on Thursday. Dobson ended the day as the fastest female driver in 15th position, while the American completed the most laps of the five drivers with 43. Bruce ended Thursday in 20th position, with Miall less than half a second behind in 21st spot. Watkins completed the day in 22nd position after clocking her fastest time on the final lap of the day, while McDaniel set the 23rd quickest time. 

On Friday, two further test sessions were held and this was the final opportunity for drivers to work on car setup ahead of qualifying. Once again, Dobson led the way among the female drivers as she found a quarter of a second from Thursday to end Friday’s running in 17th position. 

Ava Dobson / Photo credits: JEP

Bruce and Miall improved by a whole second as they set the 22nd and 23rd fastest times respectively. McDaniel was the biggest improver as the American driver’s quickest time of a 1:39.264 was one and a quarter seconds quicker than she managed on Thursday. Watkins missed the final day’s running and was therefore looking ahead to getting back behind the wheel for Saturday morning’s qualifying session.

Conditions remained dry for qualifying which was set to be an all-important session with overtaking notoriously challenging at Oulton Park. The fifteen-minute session ran uninterrupted and the majority of the drivers set their fastest times at the very end of the session. Dobson’s penultimate lap of a 1:35.911 was her quickest as she qualified in 16th with the Arden Motorsport driver just over a second away from pole position.

Bruce set her fastest time on the final lap of the session as she qualified in 20th position. Fox Motorsport driver Miall qualified in 22nd with Watkins setting the 23rd quickest lap and McDaniel completed qualifying at Oulton Park in 24th position. 

Race one of the weekend took place on Saturday afternoon and the grid positions were altered by penalties carried over from Silverstone. As a result, Dobson started from 16th position and Bruce lined up in 19th. Miall began race one from 21st spot while Watkins and McDaniel started from 23rd and 24th position respectively. 

Light rain began falling just prior to the cars leaving the assembly area and therefore the drivers and teams faced a difficult decision over tyre choice. The majority of the front half of the field remained on slick tyres, while the drivers towards the rear of the field fitted the grooved rubber. All five female drivers made the decision to start on the wet weather tyres and this appeared to be the correct call as the rain intensified during the two formation laps. 

Lily Watkins / Photo credits: throughthelensmedia

As the lights went out, the traction from the grooved tyres proved beneficial with all of the female drivers gaining positions. Bruce used her experience in both the GB4 Championship and Caterham competition to gain a phenomenal 15 positions on lap one to move into fourth. Dobson moved up five positions to climb to 11th with Miall overtaking seven cars to move into 14th spot.

Both Watkins and McDaniel also took full use of their wet weather tyres to gain a combined 11 positions. Watkins was now into 18th while McDaniel held a points-scoring position in 20th spot. All five drivers made up further places on lap two with Bruce now into a provisional podium position after passing Stefan Bostandjiev. Dobson was now inside the top-10, while Watkins gained the most positions of any driver on lap two as the KMR Sport driver was up to 14th.

The safety car was then deployed on lap three as a trio of slick-shod cars skated off the road. With Dayton Coulthard, Leandro Juncos and Jack Taylor all requiring recovery, the race was neutralised. Under the safety car, Bruce ran in third position, while Dobson held eighth. Miall was now into 11th with Watkins in 13th and McDaniel running in 19th position.

Following good work form the marshals, the race resumed with four minutes left on the clock. Bruce defended superbly from Bostandjiev to hold the podium spot, while Miall continued her superb race by moving inside the top-10. Watkins was now directly behind in 11th and McDaniel was making some great moves to end lap six in the overall top-15. 

After Bostandjiev was unable to complete the pass on Bruce, Douglas Motorsport driver Enzo Hallman overtook the Bulgarian racer and he was now applying pressure to the KMR Sport driver. As the drivers began the final lap, Hallman got a good run out of the final turn and completed the pass on Bruce into Old Hall corner. Bruce remained in contention with Hallman right to the chequered flag and claimed a career best result in fourth.

Dobson applied significant pressure to teammate Leon Wilson on the final lap but was unable to gain any further positions. Nonetheless, the Arden Motorsport driver also secured a career best finish as she crossed the line in eighth. Miall gained 12 positions from her grid spot to finish in a brillaint ninth after a late-race overtake on Alex Kattoulas.

Watkins made it four female drivers inside the top-10 as she finished in tenth position with an excellent drive. McDaniel crossed the line in 14th as the Fox Motorsport driver banked a solid haul of championship points while gaining valuable experience as she moved up from her grid position of 24th. 

Megan Bruce / Photo credits: throughthelensmedia

After a break in on-track action on Sunday, the GB4 Championship drivers returned on Monday for two further races. The first of which took place early in the afternoon with the grid positions based on the second fastest laps set in qualifying. Therefore, Dobson lined up from 19th, Bruce in 20th, Miall in 22nd, Watkins in 23rd and McDaniel in 24th.

The track was fully dry as the drivers took their positions in the assembly area, before light rain began to fall. In contrast to the race on Saturday, all drivers remained on the slick tyres. The conditions proved too treacherous for Joshua McLean however, as he spun and hit the barriers on the way to the grid. This led to a revised race distance of 16-minutes with the track remaining predominantly dry while the cleanup took place.

As the lights went out, all five female drivers made a good start with Dobson and Bruce holding their positions, while Miall, Watkins and McDaniel moved up a spot following McClean’s retirement. On lap two, Mayer Deonarine was caught out by conditions as he went off at the Shell Oils hairpin and the recovery of his car required the safety car to be deployed. 

Following Deonarine’s retirement, all five drivers were promoted a further position and the race resumed with a little over five minutes remaining. Light rain continued to fall, however this made the track surface slippery rather than fully wet. As the drivers got back up to speed, Jack Taylor lighted impacted the barriers at the Shell Oils hairpin with this part of the track proving particularly challenging. 

The race remained under green flag conditions following this incident with Dobson now up to 17th and she had Bruce directly behind and applying pressure. Miall was now in 19th position with Watkins also holding a spot inside the top-20. McDaniel was doing a nice job to remain error-free as she ran in 21st position and was targeting a second points scoring finish in as many races.

On lap six, Dobson and Bruce were the two fastest drivers on track as they displayed their skill in the treacherous conditions. Overtaking still proved challenging, however Dobson and Bruce were applying significant pressure to the drivers ahead. The following lap saw Watkins set a top-5 lap time as she also got to grips with slippery surface in her KMR Sport machine. 

On the final lap of the race, contact was made between Dobson and Bruce as the KMR Sport driver attempted to pass the Arden Motorsport machine. Both cars were stranded with damage at Hislops chicane with less than half a lap of the race remaining. This promoted Miall to finish in a solid 17th position, with Watkins right behind in 18th. Watkins also set the fastest lap time out of all the female drivers for the first time this season to underline her progress. McDaniel completed a clean race in 19th position to bank further championship points in her rookie season of car racing. 

Post-race, Leandro Juncos was disqualified for a yellow flag infringement and as a result, this improved the final classification for the three female drivers who saw the chequered flag. Miall therefore finished race two in 16th, with Watkins in 17th and McDaniel earned three points for finishing in 18th spot. 

Caitlyn McDaniel / Photo credits: JEP

For the final race of the weekend on Monday afternoon, the teams once again faced a dilemma over their choice of tyres. The track was predominantly dry as the teams arrived in the assembly area and therefore only five drivers initially fitted the grooved rubber. Among them were the Fox Motorsport duo of Miall and McDaniel, while Dobson, Bruce and Watkins were on the slick tyres.

As the drivers made their way to the grid, the rain intensified and Watkins went off the circuit and into the barriers. This brought an end to a promising weekend for the young KMR Sport driver. The start was therefore delayed and while on the grid, the rain continued to fall. As a result, all of the drivers who were on the slick tyres were wheeled into pit lane for a tyre change. Some teams made this decision earlier than others and therefore Jack Taylor and Daniel Guinchard were the first drivers who were waiting at the end of the pit lane.

As the formation lap began, only five drivers, including Miall and McDaniel, left the grid while the remaining drivers waited in the pit lane in the order in which the teams were able to change their tyres. Both Bruce and Dobson were in the middle of the queue and were therefore looking to make progress after leaving the pit lane further up the order than their original grid position had facilitated. 

When the lights went out, the five drivers raced towards Old Hall corner with the Douglas Motorsport cars of Enzo Hallman and Dayton Coulthard challenging Thomas Ingram Hill for the race lead. Miall was close behind and she was followed by McDaniel in fifth, with the remainder of the drivers than released from the pit lane. Callum Baxter, meanwhile, had switched back onto the slick tyres and although he was now detached from the wet-shod runners, his pace was immediately strong.

At the end of lap one, Miall was running in a fantastic fourth position with McDaniel in seventh after she had just been caught by those who started from the pit lane. Among the frontrunners of this second group was Bruce, whose KMR Sport machine was working well in the opening stages as she was already into the top-10 in ninth position. Dobson ran in 15th and the Arden Motorsport driver was in the thick of a superb midfield battle.

On lap two, some of the more experienced drivers were making their way through the field and this dropped the Fox Motorsport machines of Miall and McDaniel to sixth and 13th position respectively. Bruce was now up to seventh and was now in third position of those who had started the race from the pit lane. Dobson was finding the changeable conditions challenging and she was now down to 21st position.

Holly Miall / Photo credits: JEP

After an excellent start, McDaniel ran wide coming through Cascades on lap three and following a trip across the grass, the young American driver was now in 23rd spot. This incident enabled Dobson to reclaim a spot inside the top-20, while Bruce was showing excellent pace as she built up a gap behind.

On lap four, Bruce was able to pass Miall for sixth position with both drivers showing their strength inside the top-10. As McDaniel became more comfortable in the tricky conditions, her pace improved and she was now matching those battling for positions inside the top-15. Dobson was enjoying a good battle with teammate Leon Wilson and after the British racer moved ahead on lap five, Ava was in 20th position.

At the same time, Baxter was making some excellent moves on his slick tyres and both Bruce and Miall were powerless to stop the Graham Brunton Racing driver from coming through. Miall was now in tenth position and fighting hard to remain inside the top-10 after the Fox Motorsport driver began the race from 22nd on the grid.

McDaniel’s resurgence continued into the closing stages as she overtook former race-winner Alex Kattoulas for a position inside the top-20. The American racer fended off the Elite Motorsport driver’s challenge on the final lap to take the chequered flag in 20th position in a race where she gained significant experience in changeable conditions.

Dobson crossed the line in 19th position as she gained a spot following a late pit stop for Luca Magnussen after he required a new front wing. Miall came up one lap short from securing her second top-10 finish of the weekend as Ary Bansal passed the Fox Motorsport driver on the final lap with Holly classified in 11th position.

Bruce gained 11 positions from her starting spot of 20th to finish in ninth position to round-off an excellent weekend at Oulton Park after she battled back from a difficult qualifying session. Between Bruce, Miall and McDaniel, the trio gained 26 positions between them in a thrilling race three which saw conflicting strategies and non-stop action.

All five female drivers displayed their skill and racecraft at Oulton Park as they achieved career best finishes in changeable conditions. With five top-10 finishes and over 80 positions gained between them, it was a weekend to remember for the young drivers who will now look to take what they have learnt into the second half of the season.

The next round of GB4 Championship will take place at Snetterton on the weekend of the 12th/13th July. 

Holly Miall / Photo credits: JEP