Such was the diversity of classes competing when the BRSCC’s North Western Centre took charge at Oulton Park on 13th July that the meeting was declared “The Megamix”!
McMullan fought back immediately, taking the lead at Cascades but Rackstraw moved back ahead at Island Bend. The race settled down with Rackstraw, McMullan and Tom McArthur in another Medina Sport charging round with little between them. It all changed on lap 5 when McMullan took the lead at Cascades however Rackstraw carried lots of speed through Island Bend forcing McMullan to defend at Shell where he locked his brakes and ran wide through the gravel. This meant Rackstraw took the win although McArthur was right behind him until the finish with McMullan a further 5 seconds back.
The fourth Invitation Class runner was Nigel Dolan in a Van Diemen JL12K. This was the first time he had raced at Oulton Park for 3 years so qualifying was all about building confidence and seeing where he could push in the wet conditions. In the race, he was overtaken by Jaap Blijleven’s Super Classic Reynard FF88 at the first corner. The Dutchman was another who had been getting up to speed during qualifying as this was only his second meeting after a 2 year break from the circuits. Away from the grid Blijleven had overtaken the fastest Pre-99 car in qualifying – the Swift SC96 of Tom Hawkins – before diving down the inside of Dolan at Old Hall. Unfortunately, he carried too much speed and ran wide allowing Dolan and Hawkins back ahead of him.
Hawkins then passed Dolan at Cascades and pulled away. Dolan held off Blijleven and Paul Mason (Swift SC94) for a couple of laps but eventually had to yield to the two Super Classic podium finishers. By this time, Hawkins was too far away to be challenged for top spot in the category.
For the Invitation Class, race 2 was decided by an incident early in the race that brought out the red flags. McArthur took the lead at the start as McMullan passed Rackstraw at Old Hall to take second. It looked like we were going to have another superb battle between this trio but as they approached Lodge, McMullan moved right to defend the inside line as Rackstraw dived down his outside. Unfortunately, the South African braked so late that he collided with McArthur causing the contest to be halted.
Neither Rackstraw nor McArthur took the restart and, with Dolan also on the sidelines with a possible fuel system problem which caused his engine to keep cutting out when the field was waiting to be re-gridded, McMullan was literally in a class of his own and took the win as he pleased.
Blijleven found himself taking the restart from the outside of the front row alongside McMullan as the first Super Classic runner. He didn’t hold that position long as Richard Freye made a rocket start in his Van Diemen RF92. Freye, Blijleven and Hawkins then had a great battle – running side-by-side through Island Bend despite the slippery conditions. On the penultimate lap, Blijleven moved ahead of Freye, as did Hawkins the next time through.
This was the last BRSCC-organised Formula Ford race at Oulton Park this season and so, despite being the third Super Classic car to take the flag, Freye clinched the Champion of Oulton title.
The first Vinyl Detail Fiesta ST150 Challenge encounter saw Dan Robinson take the lead at the first corner. He then put his foot down to build a 1.5 second gap over Sam Watkins before managing his pace to remain out front to take the win without taking too many risks on a track that had greatly varying amounts of grip levels due to earlier precipitation leaving the tarmac damp but dry in places.
Behind Watkins, Thomas Ikin moved ahead of championship contender Michael Blackburn to take third. On the penultimate lap, Blackburn crashed out of the race at Dentons.
Next time out, the tarmac was very wet and Robinson made a poor start from pole position. Indeed, he was taking things very carefully as he had never raced before in such slippery conditions and had been pushed down to sixth by the time the field reached Cascades. Sam Watkins was the early leader but ended up on the grass the first time he tackled Island Bend. This meant Mark Blunt was out in front at the end of the opening lap.
Dan Wyke was running second but he dropped a few places when he took a trip down the escape road at Hislops on lap 2 where he was joined by Max Buxton who had been moving up the order until that point. So Dillon Davis was now in the runner-up position having passed Liam Browning.
Lap 3 saw Blunt fighting large amounts of oversteer at Old Hall which allowed Davis to get a run on him down The Avenue to take the lead. Meanwhile, Robinson was getting the hang of the wet conditions, passing Browning on the exit of Cascades and a fish-tailing Blunt under braking for Shell to take second place. But then a big slide at Brittens cost Robinson momentum over Hill Top allowing Browning and Buxton to push him back down to fourth.
A little later in the contest, Buxton crashed at Island while running second. As Robinson had passed Browning seconds earlier he inherited the runner-up position and began to put Davis under enormous pressure but just as they exited the final corner, the red flags appeared and the results were declared from the previous lap with Davis the winner from Browning. Robinson was classified third because Buxton was not running when the red flag was shown. Blunt took fourth.
Although it was merely damp at other parts of the circuit, the track was close to saturation point on the grid when the Hickford Construction MG Metro Cup Championship contenders came under Starters’ Orders for the first time. Pole-sitter, Jack Ashton, had a nightmare start and was down in fifth when the field reached Old Halll. Mike Williams took advantage of his misfortune to romp away out front. He had a 3 and a half second lead by the end of the first lap by which point Ashton was up to fourth having overtaken Matthew Simpson on the exit of Shell.
On lap 2, he repeated the move exiting the banked hairpin to take second place from Robbie Kenning having passed Dick Trevett around the outside at Cascades. He now set about bridging the huge gap to Williams but his task was made much easier almost immediately when the Safety Car appeared to allow a car to be recovered from the gravel at Cascades.
When the track was about to go green, Williams rounded Lodge completely sideways so, instead of breaking away from Ashton at the restart, his rival was right on his back bumper. A few laps later, Williams got into trouble going through Brittens and cut across the grass at the final apex of this chicane. This allowed Ashton to get the run on him over Hill Top and take a race-winning lead.
Ashton made a better start to the second encounter but Williams still beat him to the first corner. The pair had numerous wild slides and swapped places a few times. The contest was decided when Ashton out-braked himself and took a trip down the escape road at Hislops. This gave Williams a little breathing space and enabled him to take the victory. Ashton’s endeavours weren’t helped by a misted-up screen.
Kenning took a brace of thirds.
Robert Buckland was the man on the move in the first Evolution Trophy race. His Renault Clio was fifth fastest in qualifying but finished less than a second behind the VW Golf of winner Adam Marshall and ahead of Paul Bancroft (Audi TT). Finishing down in seventh was Paul Dunningham which meant he would start from that position when the drivers ventured out again later in the day. With the track now much wetter, the all-wheel-drive Quattro system on Dunningham’s Audi A3 enabled him to scythe up the order. He was third by the end of lap 1 although he was 6.7 secs behind Marshall who was already well ahead… but not for long as a trip down the Hislops’ escape road on lap 2 massively reduced the deficit.
Next time through, Richard Clarke passed Marshall at Lodge to put his Renault Clio Cup car in the lead. It was a couple of laps later before Dunningham was ahead of Marshall, thanks to Marshalll visiting the Hislops escape road once more. By this time, Clarke had a healthy advantage but when a 10 second Jump Start penalty was applied afterwards, this dropped him to second and handed the spoils to Dunningham.
The 2 hour PBS Brakes Supersport Endurance Cup contest wasn’t decided until the closing stages. Matt Spark timed his final pit-stop perfectly, bringing his Porsche GT3 in just as the Safety Car went out. This gave him a 7 second advantage over the BMW M3 of Peter Moulsdale when the race went back to “green”. It was a thrilling climax over the remaining 5 circuits as Moulsdale took chunks out of the gap to Spark before taking the lead on the last circuit. In third, Julian McBride in another BMW M3 would have deprived Spark of the runner-up position had the race been 1 lap longer.
The BRSCC’s North Western Centre would like to thank all marshals and officials for their assistance in weather conditions which were quite unpleasant at times.
Dave Williams