Joseph Loake says “it’s such a dream weekend for me” after he took a superb victory in Race 1 at the opening round of the GB3 season at Oulton Park .

The British driver led home his team mate Matthew Rees in a JHR Developments one-two finish at the Cheshire circuit.

Loake is stepping up to GB3 after a mixed British F4 campaign last season which saw him finish fifth in the championship.

The 17-year-old said to gb-3.net: “Ecstatic is the best word I can think of, if that even does it any justice! I can’t believe it, it’s such a dream weekend for me. 

“Obviously last season didn’t start the way I would’ve wanted and this season has gone exactly how I did want it. 

“I’m so so happy to have such quick pace at the moment. It’s not easy beating some of the guys on this grid, I’m really proud of myself and the team.”

The Maxonian also broke the lap record at Oulton Park with a 1:28.619 to round off a superb day for Loake.

The JHR driver successfully pushed for the fastest lap in Race 1 of the weekend as he held a slim lead over Rees.

“I was just maintaining the gap to start off with, then when the tyres were there I wanted to see if I could get a fastest lap, I don’t know if I did or not but wanted to see what I could do in terms of laptime and then just cooled it off before the end. 

The race was red flagged and stopped early due to a multi-car collision at Lodge.

Loake said: “And then the chaos of whatever happened behind me, I have no idea, obviously a shame it was cut short, I wanted to go across the line to take my first win but still really happy and it’s the exact start to the season we could have wanted.”

The JHR driver will start on pole position for Race 2 on Monday ahead of Rodin Carlin’s Callum Voisin and Red Bull junior Souta Arao.