Orange Racing by JMH looked set to add more crucial points to their 2026 British GT Championship campaign over the bank holiday weekend (23-25 May), but were denied a top-four finish at Oulton Park’s double header event.

Simon Orange and Marcus Clutton started their season in fine style with second place in Pro-Am at Silverstone for the McLaren 720S GT3 crew, and headed to Cheshire in a summer heatwave looking for more of the same in the latest pair of shorter, one-hour contests.

The #67 car, backed by Sale Sharks, William Hare, CorpAcq, BOL Foods, Parkway England, Smith Bros. and Shoppertainment, kicked off preparation in the best possible fashion by topping the exclusive test in the build-up to the weekend’s important action.

It continued when the key action kicked off on Saturday morning, as Clutton’s best effort was enough to put the McLaren team fastest of all after the initial hour of on-track running. An experimental Pre-Qualifying gave the pair the chance to test driver changes and pitstops, leading into the two 10-minute Qualifying sessions to decide the grids for Monday’s races.

Orange was first up, and bagged a top-five position on the grid for the opening race in a competitive timed battle. Clutton followed up in an equally determined mood, upping the pace to a best lap of 1m32.683s – just 0.4s from pole position – which was enough for fifth in the pro driver times also.

After a Sunday off, Monday reignited the action with two key races to fight over the spoils. Simon was the starter for the first race, and he pushed the #67 hard during a hot opening stint after evading trouble at Old Hall corner for the first time.

He brought the car back to the pits for its mandatory stop still inside the top five, gifting Clutton the chance to make inroads this time as he pursued the leading candidates. Sadly, the team would not get its rewards as fluids left at Druids from a crashed GT4 car caught out some, including the #67 McLaren, leaving Clutton powerless as he slid slowly into the tyre barrier. He escaped, albeit a lap down, to bring the car home for P7 in class and crucial Pro-Am points.

A chance for redemption arrived quickly however, and Marcus started the car from fifth once the safety car left the circuit to begin the second race of the day. He kept the pressure on Ben Green’s Mercedes-AMG during a rapid opening stint, and the car returned from its mandatory stop in fourth position thanks to slick pit work from the Orange Racing by JMH crew.

Simon took control for the final chase to the chequered flag, and he almost found a podium position open up in front of him as he hunted down Kevin Tse and Andrew Howard in a tense finish to the race. Ultimately, lapped traffic went against him in the fight for position, still coming home a strong fourth place overall and in Pro-Am on the road. Unfortunately, a 30-second penalty was applied for a yellow flag infringement, dropping the car to ninth overall and just one place lower in class to fifth.

Jason Hughes, Team Manager: “A mixed weekend for us, ending on a sour note with the results but a high note in terms of our pace. The team has done a mega job in these sweltering conditions, and we were really unlucky in race one not to get a better result which was nothing to do with us or the drivers at all. We made up for it later in the day on the road, and we’ll keep fighting at Spa.”

Simon Orange: “A weekend of ups and downs I suppose, but I thought we had good pace throughout and we could have had a podium at the end of it. I pushed as hard as I could, but the traffic didn’t quite help us out in the end. Looking forward to Spa next, and we’ll keep pushing.”

Marcus Clutton: “A day of frustration at times, as there wasn’t much I could do in the first race. We don’t know what the final result there could have been, but it was important to fight back in the second race and we both gave it everything trying to get that podium finish. It’s tough to pass around here when the pace is quite close, and then gutting to get the penalty, but the positives are that we weren’t far from even winning it and there’s a lot of pace in the car for the summer rounds.”

Next up for the Orange Racing by JMH squad is the famous ‘away day’ event at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium over the weekend of 20/21 June.