PSCGB: Lydia Walmsley claims Talent Pool Championship victory at Oulton Park
- LIAM REDFORD
- 2 hours ago
- 6 min read
Lydia Walmsley claimed her second Talent Pool Championship victory in Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain following a positive second round of the championship at Oulton Park where she finished all three races in seventh position within the RS Pro class, collecting a valuable haul of championship points.
Lydia Walmsley claimed her second Talent Pool Championship victory in Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain following a positive second round of the championship at Oulton Park. The Graves Motorsport driver finished all three races in seventh position within the RS Pro class as Walmsley collected a valuable haul of championship points.
Stepping up to the top level RS Pro class for the 2026 season, Walmsley made an encouraging start to the season at Donington Park. Claiming a Talent Pool Championship class victory in race one, Wamsley was consistently battling with her more experienced rivals. Despite an incident not of her own making leading to a race three retirement, the Clean Racing driver was keen to fight back at Oulton Park.
The Cheshire circuit had previously been kind to Walmsley and was the venue of her second Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain victory in 2025. Walmsley showed good adaptability in changeable conditions and with the forecast also looking mixed prior to the weekend, these attributes were set to play a key role throughout the weekend.
Friday’s pair of free practice sessions were held in dry conditions with Walmsley making good progress throughout the day. In the morning session, Walmsley set the tenth fastest time overall, seventh in the RS Pro class, as the times remained extremely close throughout the top-10. Improving by half a second to a 1:24.153 in the second session, the Clean Racing driver ended the day in 13th position, ninth in the RS Pro class, but just three-quarters of a second away from fourth.
Saturday morning’s qualifying session brought a change of conditions at Oulton Park with all drivers initially fitting the wet tyres. Despite extremely limited experience driving this car in the wet, Walmsley did a nice job to improve her times and at the halfway stage, the Clean Racing driver was sitting in 13th position overall, ninth within the RS Pro class.
As track conditions improved, some drivers fitted the slick tyres and this looked to be a smart call as a drying line began to emerge. Walmsley remained on the wet tyres and therefore it was a challenging end to the session. Nonetheless, Lydia avoided damage in the tricky conditions and qualified in 13th position, ninth in the RS Pro class, with a quickest lap of a 1:30.756.
The first race of the weekend took place on Saturday afternoon and with the track now fully dry, all drivers fitted the slick tyres. Courtesy of her result from qualifying, Walmsley lined up from 13th position on the grid, ninth in the RS Pro class. As the lights went out, Walmsley lost one position to Dan Zelos as she ended the first lap in 14th position overall, tenth in the RS Pro class.
As the race settled into a rhythm, the gaps remained extremely close with less than half a second separating the majority of the drivers within the top-15. As the drivers looked to force one another into a mistake, Ethan Hammerton went off the circuit on lap four and this promoted Walmsley into 13th position overall, ninth in the RS Pro class. The following lap saw fellow Talent Pool driver Max Watt run wide out of Cascades and with Walmsley’s teammate falling to the rear of the field, Lydia was now up to 12th overall, eighth in class.
Due to Hammerton’s stricken car, the safety car was deployed with the race resuming on lap nine. As the drivers pushed hard to gain ground in the second half of the race, a number of track limit penalties were assessed. Both Chris Bingham and James Seale were awarded five-second penalties and therefore Walmsley was targeting fast and consistent lap times to pass her fellow Talent Pool drivers in the final results.
A strong end to the race saw Walmsley take the chequered flag in 12th position overall, eighth in the RS Pro class, prior to the penalties being applied. Finishing in front of Bingham by less than a tenth of a second in the final classification, while also jumping ahead of Seale, Walmsley claimed her second Talent Pool victory of the season as Lydia finished in ninth position overall, seventh within the RS Pro class, following a third penalty applied to Dean Burden.
The second race of the weekend took place on Sunday afternoon and with the grid positions based upon the second fastest time from qualifying, Walmsley lined up from 11th on the overall grid, eighth in the RS Pro class. It was a clean start throughout the field and Walmsley ended lap one in 12th position overall, while she retained eighth in the RS Pro class.
Walmsley was keen to pass the RS Am class drivers in the early stages and on lap two, she was a tenth of a second behind Reece Somerfield. After a small issue on the exit of Knickerbrook on lap four, Walmsley fell behind both Sam Harvey and Dean Burden. Teammate and Talent Pool rival Max Watt then picked up a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits with Walmsley aiming to remain in contention with the midfield pack.
On lap seven, Walmsley re-passed Burden and with Watt struggling for pace just ahead, Lydia was looking to make further progress. After putting a significant amount of pressure on teammate Watt, both drivers overtook Somerfield after he spun at Lodge corner. Following a superb move on Watt during the following lap, Walmsley was now back up to 11th position overall, while the Clean Racing driver climbed to eighth in the RS Pro class.
Walmsley was then assessed a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits as she pushed hard to gain further positions. However, the majority of the drivers around Walmsley had received the same penalty and as things stood with five minutes remaining, she was not set to lose any positions.
In the final laps of race Watt started to close back in, however Walmsley remained composed to take the chequered flag in 11th position overall, eighth in the RS Pro class. Following the application of multiple penalties throughout the field, Walmsley was promoted to 10th overall, while she claimed seventh position in the RS Pro class with class rival Harvey receiving a ten-second penalty. The Graves Motorsport driver also finished third in the Talent Pool Championship to bank more valuable points within this separate championship classification.
Race three of the weekend took place later on Sunday afternoon and with the grid positions based upon the results of race two, Walmsley lined up from tenth overall, seventh in the RS Pro class. Following a light rain shower, the track was damp away from the racing line with all drivers fitting the slick tyres.
As the lights went out, Walmsley raced side-by-side with Aimee Watts through the opening turns as the Clean Racing teammates enjoyed a fantastic battle. Watts was able to claim the inside line out of Cascades with Walmsley completing lap one in 12th position overall, eighth in the RS Pro class. After a fast start from Sam Harvey which saw the Xentek Motorsport driver pass Lydia on lap one, Harvey overtook Watts on lap two with the stablemates again running nose-to-tail.
On lap four, Walmsley moved up to 11th in the overall classification after Reece Somerfield encountered an issue out of Lodge corner. Now with multiple podium finisher Joshua Rogers behind, Walmsley was doing a superb job to keep the Australian racer behind her while he looked to move inside the top-10.
The safety car was deployed on lap seven after Richard Hosking’s car required recovery with Walmsley running in 11th position overall, eighth in the RS Pro class. The race resumed with four minutes left on the clock and Lydia was once again defending smartly from Rogers.
As the drivers approached the Island hairpin, contact ahead saw Harvey spin and this promoted Walmsley into the overall top-10, while she climbed to seventh in the RS Pro class. At the end of lap 12, Rogers was just one tenth of a second behind but Walmsley continued to protect her position well. A superb end to the race saw Walmsley resist the challenge of the Team Parker Racing driver to take the chequered flag in tenth position overall, seventh in the RS Pro class, while claiming another third-place result in the Talent Pool Championship.
It was a consistent weekend of progress for Walmsley who banked a valuable haul of championship points across the three races. Claiming a Talent Pool Championship victory in race one, Walmsley sits third in this separate classification following the second round of the season with the points remaining extremely close.
Walmsley will looking to continue her progress when Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain returns at Knockhill on the weekend of August 8th/9th.
