The BRSCC’s North Western Centre staged its first meeting of 2025 at Oulton Park on 19th April. It felt like the start of a new era with 3 categories, the Fix-A-Wheel Production Cup, Silverlake DS3 Cup and the Pro-Sports Sprint, racing in Cheshire for the first time. Meanwhile, a long-time Oulton favourite, the MG Cockshoot Cup, came under the remit of the BRSCC.
Fix-A-Wheel Production Cup
The inaugural Fix-A-Wheel Production Cup race had a dramatic start! Oliver Barsby (Civic Type R Fk2) beat pole-sitter and Ben Sharpe Racing team mate, Chris Coomer (Civic EG), to the first corner. When the field then reached Cascades, it was the defining moment of the race as Coomer tried to put Barsby under pressure by showing his nose to his outside but this put him on the wrong line on cold tyres!
He caught the resulting slide however this put his trajectory even wider. When he reached the exit of the corner, his right rear tyre went on to the grass which sent the car sideways. Coomer again brought everything under control but by the time he had accomplished this, he was on a collision course with Paul Hoggins’ Audi TT. The resulting contact put Hoggins out on the spot as Coomer continued with a very damaged car until a tyre blew.
Barsby motored away from the chaos in his mirrors and built up a lead of more than 11 secs as second place was fought over by a trio of Renault Clios driven by Matthew Hollier, David Mycock and Colin Dunn. The latter dropped out of the battle with a few laps to go with an overheating engine due to a split radiator hose.
Shortly afterwards, the gap to the leader began to reduce dramatically as he only had second and third gears available to him. He held on to take the win but did not start race 2 due to the issues with his ‘box.
With Barsby absent, Hollier secured the top step of the podium later in the day with Mycock second having lapped Oulton 3 secs faster than he had ever done before. Andrew Stephens was third in his Civic Type R while, after his earlier retirement, Dunn started nineteenth but amazingly was sixth at the end of lap 1 and finished fifth.
In both races, former CityCar Cup frontrunner, Elliot Lettis, was the first Citroen driver to see the chequered flag in the Silverlake DS3 Cup class.
Demon Tweeks Audi TT Cup Championship
The track was damp for the first Demon Tweeks Audi TT Cup Championship encounter and, while pole-sitter Sam Heading, led the opening laps it was Jordan Stilp who appeared to have the best set up for conditions. He homed in on the leader having started from third on the grid. He put Heading under enormous pressure until he made a successful pass to take the win. Due to running wide onto the grass when the positions changed, Heading dropped down the order and was classified fifth. Mike Luff and William Stacey finished second and third after quite a battle.
The tarmac was dry for the second Audi race which favoured Heading. With the grid decided by the results earlier in the day, Heading battled through from fifth to take the laurels after a well-judged manoeuvre to push Stilp down to runner-up at Cascades on the last circuit. Luff was third on this occasion.
PBS Brakes SuperSport Endurance Cup Championship
The PBS Brakes SuperSport Endurance Cup Championship had a 2 hour encounter in which Harry Barton believed he was on course to win until his BMW M3 broke its prop-shaft when he was leaving the pits.
Earlier in the contest, the Audi TT of Rory Pickles had lost a wheel. When Julian McBride, who had started from fourth on the grid, saw the stricken Audi he immediately brought his BMW M3 in for the first of two compulsory pit-stops in anticipation of the Safety Car being scrambled. His reading of the situation proved to be accurate and, having got his stop out of the way, he gained plenty of time on his rivals as they queued up behind the Safety Car.
This ace piece of strategy put McBride into a race-winning lead when Barton retired. He was joined on the podium by Martin Gadsby and Ian Jones who shared yet another BMW while, in third, Lee Collins had been cheered on by many as he mixed it with the German heavyweights in his little Caterham 310R.
MG Cockshoot Cup
For decades, the MG Cockshoot Cup has been a staple of the Oulton Park calendar. In the first 2 rounds of the 2025 season, MG Midgets finished first and second in both with Keith Egar and David Morrison respectively behind the wheel.
Karl Green had qualified third in his MG ZS but a poor start in race 1 gave him plenty of work to do to keep Paul Wignall in another ZS off the final step of the podium. Green just missed out by 0.2 secs. Next time out, Green managed to be classified third despite another slow getaway and a 5 secs track limits penalty.
Pro-Sports Sprint
Both Oulton Park rounds of the Pro-Sports Sprint series were won by Luke Woodhouse in his VW Golf. David May looked to be on his way to take second in race 1 in his Ginetta but dropped down the order in the closing stages promoting David Lawrence’s SEAT Leon CUPRA and David Jefferson’s BMW.
May had no issues in the second encounter and finished runner-up ahead of Lawrence.
The BRSCC would like to send heartfelt thanks to all marshals and officials for helping to get the season off to a brilliant start. Sorry we had some rain to start the day but at least it dried up. We hope you enjoyed the racing.
Dave Williams