Zac Meakin enjoyed a successful start to his British GT Championship season, as he scored a pair of podium finishes at Oulton Park over the Easter weekend (March 30-April 1).
This season the teenager remains behind the wheel of a McLaren Artura GT4 – the car he finished the 2023 season in – and has joined forces with Jack Brown at Optimum Motorsport in the Silver Cup class.
He came into the British GT campaign with plenty of miles under his belt, having taken part in the newly launched GT4 Winter Series in Iberia, scoring an impressive five wins, and adding a further seven podiums across the six event series.
On the pace back on home soil, the pair topped the times in free practice and finished third in pre-qualifying, with Jack taking second place in his qualifying session, before Zac topped the times with a lap just 0.073s from overall GT4 pole.
After a day off for Easter Sunday, weather conditions changed drastically on Monday, with race one starting behind the Safety Car due to the wet track and spray from the cars reducing visibility. Jack did well in the opening stint, despite a Full Course Yellow neutralising the field, before Zac took over for the second half of the one-hour contest, enjoying a clean run to second place in the Silver Cup.
The youngster started race two, on a wet but rapidly drying track, doing well to manage his tyres after an early Safety Car period. Defending well from a car behind, he handed over to Jack, who took the McLaren Artura GT4 to another second position, as a FCY neutralised the field through to the chequered flag.
The strong start to Zac’s season means he has already surpassed his 2023 points total, while his 14 visits to the podium so far in 2024 show his performances are no fluke. He will be back in British GT Championship action over the weekend of April 27/28, as he tackles the three-hour Silverstone 500, at the home of the British Grand Prix.
Zac Meakin commented, “It’s been a good start to the season. It’s my first proper weekend with Optimum, everything’s been good, and we’ve had no problems. So far, it’s been a million times better than the start of the year that we had before. Qualifying went well though I made a few mistakes which meant I missed out on P1.
“In race one Jack did a mega job keeping the car where it was. I then got in and managed to keep it in P3 overall and second in the Silver Cup. Race two I had a good start but unfortunately, that incident happened behind me, so despite having a decent gap, the Safety Car closed it up. From there I defended my heart out from the Ginetta to keep it away, but we had a decent race. Sadly, for Jack’s stint he had a Full Course Yellow and a Safety Car till the chequered flag.
“I can’t wait for Silverstone. The team is good, the car is good, so let’s keep getting more results like this as consistency is key in British GT.”
