The BRSCC’s North Western Centre staged its second meeting of 2025 at Oulton Park on 10th May. It was a day full of action… to say the least!
But first… time for reflection
Before racing began, there was a poignant period of reflection as an impeccably respected minute’s silence remembered motorcycle racers Owen Jenner and Shane Richardson who lost their lives in an accident at Oulton Park on Bank Holiday Monday. Also, in everyone’s mind was Lauren O’Brien, a young woman who competed in Autograss in Ireland. She had a fatal crash the previous weekend.
Once underway, the track action consisted of 3 categories enjoying a double helping of sprint races and a 4 hour Fun Cup contest.
Nankang Tyres CityCar Cup Championship
The opening laps of the first Nankang Tyres CityCar Cup Championship encounter – which had a capacity entry – were frantic as the field stacked up behind Brady Pollock. Eventually, Stuart Bliss made a successful pass at Druids with Richard Jepp following him through into second. On the next lap at Shell, Ben Spencer pushed Pollock down to fourth.
As Bliss sped away to take the win, Spencer overtook Jepp at Old Hall, getting very sideways in the process, but managing to avoid spinning.
Their second outing was the final event of the day and, after twice being stopped due to accidents on the exit of the first corner, it was cancelled because the 6:30 curfew was rapidly approaching.
Nankang Tyres BMW SuperCup
Millie Hart was overjoyed to take her debut victory in a racing car the first time the Nankang Tyres BMW SuperCup runners took to the tarmac. Thorburn Astin filled her mirrors throughout as Aydan Hassan came in third.
In the BMW Compact class, 5 cars had an amazing battle for second with Gareth Clayton holding on to the position. His defensive driving allowed Connor Grady to pull away and win this section of the contest.
Later in the day, Grady was less fortunate as his car was damaged at the start of race 2 which was stopped on lap 1 following an incident on The Avenue. Grady headed for the paddock leaving the way clear for Joe Doble to lead home the Compacts after the restart.
In the SuperCup, Hart had made a good getaway and appeared to be on the way to her second victory of the day until the red flags came out. Things didn’t go so well for her when the contest began again and she was in fourth place at the end of lap 1 behind Astin, Simon Waterfall and Hassan. There were no changes of order amongst this quartet.
AIRTEC Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship
Gary Miller twice took the laurels in the AIRTEC Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship. Race 1 was halted after Simon Horrobin went off backwards at the first corner when the battle for second attempted to go in 3 abreast.
John Cooper opened out a healthy lead after the restart when Alastair Kellett’s car briefly hesitated at Shell holding up the rest of the field.
As the laps unfolded, Miller and George Foxlow closed in on Cooper until the leader had to take a tight defensive approach to Cascades. This allowed Miller to get a run on Cooper down the Lakeside Straight. Cooper moved over to defend the inside line into Island but the front of Miller’s car clipped his rear bumper. This turned Cooper’s car sideways and launched it into a barrel roll which caused the race to be red flagged.
As Cooper’s car was not running when the contest was halted, Miller was declared the winner.
A great start to the second encounter by Kellett meant he found himself in second place behind Miller when Foxlow ran wide exiting the first corner.
After a Safety Car interlude to recover a car that had blown its engine at Old Hall, Kellett had a big sideways moment on the oil that had gone down. This enabled Zak Lucas to pass him but, almost immediately, Kellett was back into second around the outside at Island.
On the last lap, Lucas ran wide at Shell promoting Connor Blackburn to third as Miller held off Kellett to take the win.
Fun Cup
When the 4 hour Fun Cup got underway, the 2 Morpheus Motorsport cars – FNS and 2Rent – were the early leaders but a lightning first stop by UVio/Hofmann put them out in front. When they filled their tank to the brim at the second round of stops it coincided with the appearance of a Safety Car which bunched the field up. Full of fuel, and with their ontrack advantage negated, UVio/Hofmann were pushed down to third by the Morpheus cars.
After starting from the back of the grid as a “penalty” for winning the opening race of the season at Brands Hatch, Olympian GRD worked their way up the order and had joined the lead battle with 90 minutes of the race remaining.
The fourth round of stops took place during another Safety Car period and, once again, UVio/Hofmann took on the maximum amount of fuel. This put them third behind Morpheus 2Rent and Olympian GRD but Morpheus 2Rent had incurred the wrath of the stewards and had to serve a stop-go penalty.
There was then a thrilling battle for the lead as UVio/Hofmann and Olympian GRD were joined by Morpheus FNS and Sheradise UK.
Olympian GRD had the fastest final stop as UVio/Hofmann’s driver appeared to get in a tangle with his helmet’s radio cable when exiting the car. The stop for Morpheus FNS was even longer and dropped them to sixth.
In third place was Sheradise UK. They were 12 secs behind the leader with 12 minutes on the clock but their driver, Teddy Wilson, was 2 seconds a lap faster than those ahead of him. He passed UVio/Hofmann for second but Riley Phillips in the Olympian GRD car picked his pace up in the last few laps to win by 1.8 seconds.
Thank you!
The BRSCC would like to thank all the marshals and officials for managing the many dramas that unfolded during the meeting so professionally. These included no less than 7 red flags!
Dave Williams