REIGNING British GT champion and Northwich racer Ian Loggie began his title defence as the Championship returned to Oulton Park for Round 1 of the 2023 campaign.

Alongside Europe's hottest GT driver Joules Gounon, the duo would be looking to get a flier and with plenty of testing and free practice sessions across Friday and Saturday they certainly did that.

The No1 2 Seas Motorsport AMG GT3 Mercedes sat right in the mix for fastest times across the two days, and then come qualifying, they really showed their pace.

Although Loggie might have been disappointed with a second-row start for Race 1, qualifying for Race 2 was something else as Gounon broke his own lap record lowering his benchmark by over 0.5 seconds to take an incredible pole position.

After a morning of showers, there was some doubt over how the track would be for the first one-hour race, but it was wet tyres for everyone.

Loggie started the race and was soon up to second, which he would hold for quite a few laps, but as the rain was on and off, he soon found himself under pressure.

As the race progressed he lost more ground and was down in fifth.

After the pit stops arrived it was Gounon's turn but it took time to make any ground as the pace was fierce.

As the rain fell harder in the last five minutes Gounon was flying, making up ground fast. He made it to fourth, but time was running out and as he was on the tail of 3rd place, out came the last lap flag and unfortunately didn't have the drive to get past the Enduro Motorsport McLaren of Marcus Clutton and missed out on the podium by inches or 0.029 seconds.

Race 2 was a completely different story, the No1 Mercedes was starting on pole and this time Gounon was in the car.

After a great start, the 2 Seas Motorsport AMG Mercedes was in a class of its own streaking away to take a brilliant win on home soil for Loggie by nearly 30 seconds.