On 25th October, the BRSCC’s North Western Centre paid their final visit of 2025 to Oulton Park with a terrific day of racing, though ultimately curtailed at the end due to the fading light!
As usual, Fun Cup was the headline event for our last meeting of the year at Oulton Park. It featured a Double Header with a 1 hour “Sprint” in the morning followed by a 3 hour ”Enduro” in the afternoon. We also had a trio of support races in between.
Fun Cup
A showery morning had left the circuit very wet when the Fun Cup Sprint got underway in bright sunshine. An impressive 30 teams had taken part in qualifying but this number was reduced on the exit of the first corner when the Renom Racing entry, which had started from pole, spun and triggered a chain-reaction.
There were 7 cars which failed to take the restart while Axiametrics, who had an outside chance of the 2025 title, joined from the pit lane.
With 8 minutes on the clock, VapeClub – EDF with Ted Bradbury behind the wheel was already in the lead and charging away. A Safety Car just after Bradbury had handed over to Vlad Vassilev negated their advantage and, when the race went back to green, Vassilev was shuffled down to fifth.
With this just being a 60 minute encounter, it was soon time for the second round of pit stops which enabled Bradbury to get back behind the wheel. Once everyone was back on track, Bradbury was in third and gaining on the leaders, Olympian-GRD and UVio/Hofmanns however travelling even faster was the Team FFS car which was soon right with Bradbury.
At this stage, Lewis Thompson was driving for Team FFS, his dad Barry Thompson and Nicholas Highton were his teammates. After he and Bradbury passed UVio/Hofmanns, Thompson passed Bradbury. The pair worked in tandem to catch Riley Phillips in the Olympian-GRD car. Thompson took the lead from Phillips at the start of the last lap to claim the first Fun Cup victory for Team FFS.
Phillips tried everything he knew to keep Bradbury behind him but had to yield as they approached Lodge for the final time.
In the first few corners of the 3 hour finale, it was good to see the Demon Tweeks car leading the way with Jason Minshaw at the wheel but he soon had to yield to a trio of championship contenders – Axiametrics, VapeClub – EDF and UVio/Hofmanns. The fourth team who had a chance of taking the title, Olympian-GRD, were right at the back following a spin at Island Bend.
It looked like a tall order for Olympian-GRD with their drivers – Chris Dowell, Riley Phillips and Simon Rudd – to get back to the front but, thanks to slick pit work by their team, they were leading when overcast skies and the darkness of the Autumnal early evening resulted in bad light stopping play with 11 minutes remaining.
Their victory meant Olympian-GRD sealed the Fun Cup Championship for the third year in succession.
Hickford Construction MG Metro Cup & Ricci Concept Classic VW Cup
The Hickford Construction MG Metro Cup and Ricci Concept Classic VW Cup ran together with the Metros setting off 20 seconds after the German cars.
Due to rain prior to their opening race, some parts of the grid were drier than others and this saw Donald Dewar get enough traction on the second row to launch his little Mk1 Golf GTi into the lead.
The same thing happened with the Metros with Matthew Simpson getting the jump on serial winner Jack Ashton.
Pole sitter, Tim Evans, had got his Audi TT in the lead by the time he reached Shell. It took Ashton a little longer to move ahead, out-dragging Simpson up Clay Hill. Both went on to take comfortable victories.
Their second encounter was halted on the opening lap due to Luke Shaw’s Scirocco rolling and coming to rest against the barriers on its side after an incident that also involved Dewar.
Evans won the restart while, to make life interesting, Ashton started from the pit lane to see if he could win from there. He nearly did it, finishing second to Simpson.
SW Motorsport Clubsport Trophy
There was an eclectic mix of 31 cars taking the rolling start in the SW Motorsport Clubsport Trophy 45 minute enduro. Reflective of this was the front row which comprised of the Audi TT of Chris Coomer and the Morgan Plus 4 driven by Shane Kelly. When the red lights went out, the Morgan briefly cut out causing Kelly to lose a number of places. He recovered to finish third despite a spin at Druids.
So Coomer set off in the lead but Yan Whittaker was rapidly gaining on him. Whittaker’s Porsche Cayman had been sixth fastest in a wet qualifying session but he found the drier conditions that the race started in more to his liking. However, his charge soon ended when his engine let go and he coasted to a halt at Clay Hill.
Coomer then took the win when the race was halted a few minutes early as a car had hit the fence on the exit of Cascades which protects marshals at motorcycle meetings. Phiroze Bilimoria was second in his VW Scirocco. Misted up windows meant Bilimoria was only tenth in qualifying.
Thank you!
Thanks to all the volunteer marshals and crews who withstood all of the seasons at some point today, and to the drivers for delivering superb on track action!
Dave Williams